Prisons abuse and overuse solitary confinement across the country, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy says.
It may be time to limit the use of long-term solitary confinement in prisons, according to Kennedy.
“Years on end of near-total isolation exacts a terrible price,” Kennedy wrote. He cited 19th century Supreme Court opinions that recognized “even for prisoners sentenced to death, solitary confinement bears ‘a further terror and a peculiar mark of infamy.’
“In a case that presented the issue, the judiciary may be required to determine whether workable alternative systems for long-term confinement exist, and, if so, whether a correctional system should be required to adopt them,” Kennedy continued.
“It’s a remarkable statement,” ACLU National Prison Project attorney Amy Fettig told the Los Angeles Times in June. She said Kennedy’s comments came as a welcome surprise. “The justice is sending a strong signal he is deeply concerned about the overuse and abuse of solitary confinement.”
In cases involving crime and punishment, Kennedy is usually conservative, but he also has expressed concern over prison policies that he deems unnecessarily harsh, such as life terms for juveniles and long mandatory prison terms for nonviolent drug crimes, The Times reported. Four years ago he condemned California’s prison overcrowding and said it resulted in unconstitutionally cruel conditions.
The case of Hector Ayala was before the court when Kennedy joined a 5-4 decision rejecting Ayala’s bid for a new trial. Ayala committed his crime 30 years ago. Ayala has been on Death Row since his conviction. California courts upheld his conviction, but the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction and death sentence. The appeals court cited the trial judge’s decision allowing removal of all Black and Latinos considered for jury. The Supreme Court reversed the appeals court decision and restored the conviction and sentence.
Kennedy was troubled to learn that Ayala had been kept in solitary confinement. Kennedy wrote, he has “been held for all or most of the past 20 years or more in a windowless cell no larger than a typical parking spot for 23 hours a day.”
Kennedy criticized the widespread use of solitary confinement, which affects at least 25,000 inmates in the United States. The court cited the 1890 Medley case, which acknowledged that solitary confinement can lead to madness and suicide. Modern studies by psychologists have noted the effects of isolation can result in anxiety, panic, withdrawal, hallucinations and self-mutilations.
“Kennedy all but urged the legal community to bring a solitary-confinement case before the Supreme Court as soon as possible,” The Atlantic Monthly reported in June.
