Chapter 3
Solitary Confinement
Chapter Overview
This chapter centers on long-term isolation, a topic of great interest and controversy in the past several decades. While further elaborating the legal principles described in the previous chapter, this chapter also includes historical and international materials and excerpts, presenting the views of correctional administrators, correctional unions, and mental health professionals.
Featured Opinions
- Crane v. Utah Dep’t of Corr., 15 F.4th 1296 (10th Cir. 2021)
- Davis v. Ayala, 576 U.S. 257 (2015)
- Gates v. Collier, 349 F. Supp. 881 (N.D. Miss. 1972), aff’d, 501 F.2d 1291 (5th Cir. 1974)
- Johnson v. Prentice, 144 S.Ct. 11 (2023) (denying cert)
- Jordan v. Fitzharris, 257 F. Supp. 674, 683 (N.D. Cal. 1966)
- In re Medley, 134 U.S. 160 (1890)
- Porter v. Clarke, 923 F.3d 348 (4th Cir. 2019), as amended
Featured, Cited, and Supplemental Litigation Documents
- Ashker v. Brown, No. 4:09–cv–05796 (N.D. Cal.)
- Ashker’s Account of Events
- Litigation summary and documents
- CCR resource page
- Complaint and Demand for Jury Trial (Dec. 9. 2009)
- Second Amended Complaint (Sept. 10, 2012)
- Expert Report of Dachner Keltner, Ph.D., on touch (Mar. 11, 2015)
- Expert Report of Matthew D. Lieberman, on social interaction (Mar. 11, 2015)
- Expert Report of Juan E. Méndez, on solitary confinement in international law (Mar. 6, 2015)
- Expert Report of Andrew Coyle, Ph.D., on international and professional standards for solitary confinement (Mar. 12, 2015)
- Settlement Agreement (Sept. 1, 2015)
- Brief of Amici Curiae California Correctional Peace Officers Association in Opposition to Settlement (Jan. 25, 2016)
- Cookhorne v. Fischer, 2012–1791 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. settled Feb. 10, 2016)
- Disability Advocates, Inc. v. N.Y. State Office of Mental Health, No. 02-cv-4002 (S.D.N.Y.)
- Litigation summary and documents
- Private Settlement Agreement (Apr. 27, 2007)
- Disability Law Center v. Mass. Dept. of Correction, 07-cv-10463 (D. Mass.)
- Litigation summary and documents
- Settlement Agreement (Dec. 12, 2011)
- H.C. v. Bradshaw, 9:18–cv–80810 (S.D. Fla.)
- Litigation summary and documents
- Settlement Agreement (Nov. 15, 2018)
- Madrid v. Gomez, No. 90–cv–3094 (N.D. Cal.)
- Litigation summary and documents
- Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Order, 889 F. Supp. 1146 (1995)
- Peoples v. Fischer, No. 11–cv–2964 (S.D.N.Y.)
- Litigation summary and documents
- Settlement Agreement (Apr. 1, 2016)
- Additional solitary confinement amicus briefs from several cases:
- Hamner v. Burls, No. 5.17-cv-79-JLH-BD (8th Cir., Oct. 23, 2019)
- Brief of Current and Former Prosecutors, Judges, and Department of Justice Officials as Amici Curiae in Support of Plaintiff-Appellant’s Petition for Rehearing
- Brief of Amici Curiae Human Rights Clinics, Law Professors, and Non-Profit Organizations in Support of Plaintiff-Appellant’s Petition for Rehearing by Panel and Rehearing En Banc
- Brief Amicus Curiae of Professor John F. Stinneford in Support of the Petition of Plaintiff-Appellant Charles Hamner for Rehearing by Panel and/or Rehearing En Banc
- Greenhill v. Clarke, No. 7:16-cv-00068 (4th Cir., Jan. 22, 2019)
- Former corrections directors: Porter v. Penn. DOC, No. 18–3505 (3d Cir., Mar. 20, 2019)
- Hamner v. Burls, No. 5.17-cv-79-JLH-BD (8th Cir., Oct. 23, 2019)
Statutes, Treaties, and Regulations
- Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment, or Punishment, adopted Dec. 10, 1984, 1456 U.N.T.S. 85.
- U.N. Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners, GA Res. 45/111 (Dec. 14, 1990)
- Prison Litigation Reform Act, Pub. L. No. 104–134 (1996). See in particular: 42 U.S.C. § 1997e
- U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) GA Res. 70/175 (Dec. 17, 2015)
- U.N. interim report to the General Assembly (A/63/175, annex) of the Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (“Istanbul Statement”) (2008)
- New York State’s 2021 Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act (“HALT”)
Excerpted Sources & Supplemental Documents
- William Blake, Solitary Watch, A Sentence Worse Than Death, in Hell Is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement (2017)
- California Hunger Strikers’ Demands, Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity (June 2011)
- Riley Doyle Evans & Stefen R. Short, Administrative Nullification and the Precarity of Carceral Reform, 138 Harv. L. Rev. 182 (2025)
- Amy Fettig & Margo Schlanger, Eight Principles for Reforming Solitary Confinement, American Prospect (Oct. 6, 2015)
- Lucy Lang, Inspector General, State of New York Offices of the Inspector General, Review of the First Two Years of HALT at the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (Aug. 2024)
- Juan Mendez, Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Interim report, A/66/268 (Aug. 5, 2011)
- Margo Schlanger, Incrementalist vs. Maximalist Reform: Solitary Confinement Case Studies, 115 Nw. U. L. Rev. 273 (2020)
- Hernandez D. Stroud, Reforming Solitary Confinement Without the High Court, Brennan Ctr. for Justice (Feb. 21, 2024)
Lived Experiences
Additional Reading
History of American Solitary Confinement & General Information
- Association of State Correctional Administrators & Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale Law School, Reforming Restrictive Housing: The 2018 ASCA-Liman Nationwide Survey of Time-in-Cell (Oct. 2018)
- Gustave de Beaumont and Alexis de Tocqueville, On the Penitentiary System in the United States, and its Application in France 1 (1833)
- Amy Fettig, Are We Reaching a Tipping Point in the Campaign to End Solitary Confinement? (2020) [Begins on Page 2]
- Amy Fettig, Why I Worked on the Mandela Rules (2020)
- Jules Lobel, Mass Solitary and Mass Incarceration: Explaining the Dramatic Rise on Prolonged Solitary in America’s Prisons, 115 Nw. U. L. Rev. 159 (2020)
- Keramet Reiter, The Most Restrictive Alternative: A Litigation History of Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons, 1960-2006, 57 Studies in Law, Politics, and Soc’y 71 (2012)
- Chase Riveland, Nat’l Inst. of Corr., Supermax Prisons: Overview and General Considerations, 1 (1999)
- American Friends Service Committee, Lessons of Marion: The Failure of a Maximum Security Prison (1985)
- David Shapiro, Solitary Confinement in the Young Republic, 133 Harv. L. Rev. 542 (2019)
Contemporary Accounts
- Timeline of solitary confinement reform steps
- Todd Ashker, describing California reform campaign
- Michael Barajas, The Prison Inside Prison, Texas Observer (Jan. 21, 2020)
- Leann K. Bertsch, Reflections on North Dakota’s Sustained Solitary Confinement Reform, in Solitary Confinement: Effects, Practices, and Pathways toward Reform 325 (Jules Lobel & Peter Scharff Smith, eds, 2020)
- Alan Duke, “Forgotten” inmate gets $15.5 million settlement from N.M. county, CNN (Mar. 8, 2013)
- Barbara Gomez-Aguinaga & Brooke Abrams, Solitary Confinement in New Mexico: A Review of Policies, Practices, and Inmate Experience in Isolation (ACLU of New Mexico, 2019)
- 6×9: a virtual experience of solitary confinement – 360 video, The Guardian (Apr. 27, 2016)
- Mary Hudetz, Solitary confinement suits cost NM counties millions, Las Cruces Sun News, (Mar. 6, 2017)
- Jules Lobel & Peter Scharff Smith, eds., Solitary Confinement: Effects, Practices, and Pathways toward Reform (2020)
- Keramet Reiter, 23/7: Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement (2016)
- Rick Raemisch, Colorado Ends Prolonged, Indeterminate Solitary Confinement, in Solitary Confinement: Effects, Practices, and Pathways toward Reform 311 (Jules Lobel & Peter Scharff Smith, eds, 2020)
- Alexander A. Reinert, Solitary Troubles, 93 Notre Dame L. Rev. 927 (2018)
- John Stinneford, Is Solitary Confinement A Punishment, 115 Nw. U. L. Rev. 9 (2020)
Standards & Statements Relating to Solitary Confinement
- American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- American Bar Association
- ACLU Stop Solitary Campaign (2011)
- American Correctional Association
- American Institute of Architects
- American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) resolution
- American Psychiatric Association
- Consensus Statement from the Santa Cruz Summit on Solitary Confinement and Health
- National Commission on Correctional Health Care