The Justice Department filed a statement of interest today
addressing the harmful effects of subjecting juvenile offenders to solitary
confinement. The statement of interest
was filed in V.W. et al. v. Conway et al., a class action brought by six
juveniles and their parents and natural guardians to challenge the placement of
youth in solitary confinement in the Onondaga County Justice Center in
Syracuse, New York.
The statement of interest, filed in the U.S. District Court
for the Northern District of New York, advances the United States’ position
that juveniles should not be placed in restrictive housing, including solitary
confinement, as explained in the department’s January 2016 Report and
Recommendations Concerning the Use of Solitary Confinement. That report provided that in very rare
circumstances, juveniles may be separated from others, but only as a temporary
response to behavior posing a serious and immediate risk of physical harm. This statement of interest states that
accordingly, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has ended the practice of using
restrictive housing for juveniles. The
filing also explains that, consistent with scientific consensus from many child
psychology experts and researchers that solitary confinement should be banned
for juveniles, courts have recognized the developmental vulnerability of
juvenile brains and the irreversible damage that solitary confinement can
inflict on adolescents.
In V.W. et al. v. Conway et al., the plaintiffs allege that
the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office unconstitutionally imposes solitary
confinement on juveniles in its custody at the Justice Center. Plaintiffs describe this practice as
involving at least 23 hours a day in an approximately 60 square foot cell with
minimal furnishings, inadequate mental health care and virtually no contact
with others except for adult inmates in neighboring cells who routinely harass
and intimidate them. Plaintiffs allege
that between Oct. 1, 2015 and Aug. 31, 2016, at least 86 juveniles were placed
in solitary confinement. As a result,
the juvenile plaintiffs allege they regularly experience anxiety, hopelessness,
irritability, stress, sadness, post-traumatic symptoms, agitation and suicidal
ideations.
“Both the Supreme Court and experts in the field agree that
juveniles are developmentally different from adults,” said Principal Deputy
Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights
Division. “Accordingly, they must be
treated differently and provided additional protections while in custody. This brief advances the Justice Department’s
efforts to protect juveniles from serious harm to their physical, psychological
and social development.”
In recent years, the department has taken several steps to
address the use of solitary confinement on juveniles in jails, including the
ongoing investigation of the Jefferson County Jail in Alabama and the 2016
investigation and subsequent consent decree in which the Hinds County Jail in
Mississippi agreed to eliminate solitary confinement as a disciplinary sanction
for juveniles. In 2015, the department
investigated and entered into a consent decree with the New York City
Department of Correction Jails on Rikers Island, in which the jails agreed to
ban punitive solitary confinement for juveniles. In 2014, the department investigated and
reached an agreement with the state of Ohio to reduce significantly, and
ultimately eliminate, its use of seclusion on young people in its custody.
V.W. et al. v. Conway et al. was filed in December
2015. Plaintiffs filed a motion for
class certification in September 2016, and a motion for preliminary injunction
in December 2016. The court will hold a
hearing on plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction on Jan. 27, 2017.
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