The New York City Council is expected to approve a bill to ban solitary confinement this week over the objections of Mayor Eric Adams, who may veto it.
In New York State, lawmakers in 2021 limited solitary confinement to no more than 15 consecutive days.
The bill would ban the practice beyond a four-hour “de-escalation” period during an emergency.
I don’t know enough about prisons or psychiatry to say whether 15 days is too long, but four hours seems like a rather short time. People who aren’t in prison routinely spend more time than that alone as part of a normal day.
How about being sent to in-school suspension? Cuz I definitely did plenty of time sitting in a quiet room with nothing to do and no human contact for an entire school day.
Well if I’m being disruptive in class then I’m a detriment to the education of other students; it’s not like class sizes are small enough that the teacher has time to deal with me. It’s a limitation created by understaffing, I think.
Totally agree. Our district has better ways of dealing with various needs of kids. It’s amazing how much better it was than when I was a kid. If a kid is disruptive they try to find and address the core issue. At least in elementary school (where they can have the biggest positive impact) ADHD? Treat it, give accommodations, etc. Behavioral or emotional issues? Bring in a psychiatrist (I’m not shitting, I saw this happen multiple times). And so on.
I didn’t actually get to do schoolwork, probably because no one was watching me. I was just sent to sit quietly in a room with nothing to do for the entire day, completely alone.
Lock yourself in the bathroom without a phone or any other entertainment for four hours.
Then, imagine you’re a mentally ill person who was already considering suicide as solitary is often how jails deal with inmates threatening suicide because they’re understaffed and ill equipped for mental health care.
Get back to me afterwards and let me know if four hours was enough.
The county jail that put me on suicide watch left me naked in solitary for four days because the mental health staff that could clear me only worked part time and a 48 hour hold was mandatory. Three meals a day was the only break from staring at the walls and watching the guards walk by.
I assure you after two hours I was done threatening suicide. Four would have been overkill. Four days was simply humiliation and torture. I’ll never forgive that county and still have trauma responses when I visit that town.
There’s alone and there’s alone in a small room designed to be a form of sensory deprivation when you’re in a high emotional state and lack self control.
15 days is well into brain damage long. That’s 15 days of 0 stimulation in a small box. Generally speaking you should see another human face every few days minimum
4 hours is good for the maximum and I’d hope they case by case give 1 or 2 hours. 4 hours in solitary doesn’t have to mean “after 4 hours you have to be let out” it can mean “after 4 hours someone comes by, checks on you and gauges your emotional state via conversation”.
I could also be ok with situations where they have access to positive stimulation (like books) for more than that time. But that gets into the realm of “it isn’t punishment, it’s alone time to calm you down”.
Overall our current prison system needs an overhaul led by psychologists. It isn’t giving us pro social results. It takes people who are overwhelmingly some variant of mentally ill, torturing them while sticking them with other criminals, and then plopping them back on the street with trauma, no life skills, and debt. Many of these people were never free adults when released the first time.
I don’t know enough about prisons or psychiatry to say whether 15 days is too long, but four hours seems like a rather short time. People who aren’t in prison routinely spend more time than that alone as part of a normal day.
There’s a major difference between being forced into being alone (doing nothing) and choosing to spend the evening at home watching Netflix
How about being sent to in-school suspension? Cuz I definitely did plenty of time sitting in a quiet room with nothing to do and no human contact for an entire school day.
That treatment sucks too especially for kids. What was the purpose? Retribution?
Well if I’m being disruptive in class then I’m a detriment to the education of other students; it’s not like class sizes are small enough that the teacher has time to deal with me. It’s a limitation created by understaffing, I think.
Totally agree. Our district has better ways of dealing with various needs of kids. It’s amazing how much better it was than when I was a kid. If a kid is disruptive they try to find and address the core issue. At least in elementary school (where they can have the biggest positive impact) ADHD? Treat it, give accommodations, etc. Behavioral or emotional issues? Bring in a psychiatrist (I’m not shitting, I saw this happen multiple times). And so on.
Your ISS may have been different from mime, but we still had to do our schoolwork for the day. Even that is far different than nothing
I didn’t actually get to do schoolwork, probably because no one was watching me. I was just sent to sit quietly in a room with nothing to do for the entire day, completely alone.
Lock yourself in the bathroom without a phone or any other entertainment for four hours.
Then, imagine you’re a mentally ill person who was already considering suicide as solitary is often how jails deal with inmates threatening suicide because they’re understaffed and ill equipped for mental health care.
Get back to me afterwards and let me know if four hours was enough.
The county jail that put me on suicide watch left me naked in solitary for four days because the mental health staff that could clear me only worked part time and a 48 hour hold was mandatory. Three meals a day was the only break from staring at the walls and watching the guards walk by.
I assure you after two hours I was done threatening suicide. Four would have been overkill. Four days was simply humiliation and torture. I’ll never forgive that county and still have trauma responses when I visit that town.
There’s alone and there’s alone in a small room designed to be a form of sensory deprivation when you’re in a high emotional state and lack self control.
15 days is well into brain damage long. That’s 15 days of 0 stimulation in a small box. Generally speaking you should see another human face every few days minimum
4 hours is good for the maximum and I’d hope they case by case give 1 or 2 hours. 4 hours in solitary doesn’t have to mean “after 4 hours you have to be let out” it can mean “after 4 hours someone comes by, checks on you and gauges your emotional state via conversation”.
I could also be ok with situations where they have access to positive stimulation (like books) for more than that time. But that gets into the realm of “it isn’t punishment, it’s alone time to calm you down”.
Overall our current prison system needs an overhaul led by psychologists. It isn’t giving us pro social results. It takes people who are overwhelmingly some variant of mentally ill, torturing them while sticking them with other criminals, and then plopping them back on the street with trauma, no life skills, and debt. Many of these people were never free adults when released the first time.