Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed legislation to curtail the use of solitary confinement in California’s correctional facilities. The governor was wrong to do so. Fortunately, Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasasdena, has reintroduced the legislation, giving California another shot at doing the right thing.
Assembly Bill 280, called The California Mandela Act, limits the ability of prison and jail officials to place certain vulnerable individuals, including elderly people, people with mental or physical disabilities and women who are pregnant, in isolated confinement.
The bill also limits isolated confinement to no more than 15 days at a time, and no more than 45 days in any 180 day period.
When people are placed in isolated confinement, the bill would require regular checks to ensure their mental and physical well-being.
We don’t think this is too much to ask for. The rights of people don’t completely vanish when they enter a prison or jail.
In a nation predicated on respect for individual rights and constraints on what government can do to people, it is imperative that all people are treated with a baseline level of dignity and respect, including prisoners.
Historically, California has misused and even abused the practice of solitary confinement in its prison system.
As Holden’s office notes, “The misuse of solitary confinement in California prisons led to a legal action filed in 2012, when California prisons held nearly 10,000 incarcerated individuals in solitary confinement, including 1,557 who had been there for 10 years or more.”
Yes, California held thousands of people in solitary confinement for 10 years or more. Not Iran, not Russia — California. The Golden State. Progressive California.
While California has cut down on the use of solitary confinement in response to litigation and prisoner hunger strikes protesting the practice, the practice endures and must be constrained by legislation.
Gov. Newsom’s veto of the legislation last year complained that the bill’s restrictions on solitary confinement are overly broad. But torture is torture, wrong is wrong.
“Torture is torture no matter what facility it takes place in,” said Holden in a statement. “The community support for this bill has only grown because people are still suffering. From solitary survivors to loved ones of impacted individuals, many have reached out saying this legislation would have helped them personally.”
The bill has so far been cleared by the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee.
As we did last year, we support passage of this legislation and urge Southern California lawmakers to back this effort.
