One of California’s worst human rights abuses is still taking place. It has to stop

Although California has made progress on humane and effective rehabilitation of incarcerated people, solitary confinement stands out as an abysmal failure.

I recently visited California State Prison, Sacramento, also called New Folsom, to lay my own eyes on the conditions inside its solitary confinement units.

The drive over was sunny and bright; tidy houses with wide, green lawns line Folsom’s streets. On arrival, we were greeted at the gate by the warden and a cadre of prison officials.

After we settled into a briefing room, they described the differences among “administrative segregation units,” “long-term restricted housing units,” “short-term restricted housing units,” “enhanced outpatient program units” and others. Confused at first, we soon understood that these were solitary confinement units by other names.

We visited the psychiatric services unit, where people with the most acute mental health needs are placed. They are supposed to receive 10 hours of mental health treatment weekly, but prison officials said they have generally provided only one to two hours per week since the COVID pandemic began.

On our way through the prison yard and into the unit, we encountered people begging for help and complaining of abuse by guards.

Inside the unit, I could smell the new layers of paint. The unit consists entirely of concrete and steel. The cells, no larger than a compact parking space, receive almost no natural light and provide those inside with only one view: of an armed guard.

Patients frequently spend 23 hours a day in that dark and dehumanizing housing unit. Their hour or so of reprieve from their cells takes place in a series of locked cages. Their “outdoor recreation” takes place in 10-by-10-foot, chain-link cages arranged atop a concrete pad. Some simply paced back and forth alone in their cages; others grasped the chain link to do pull-ups.

Continuing through the facility, I came across a group mental health treatment session. It was a startling sight: The participants were in locked, phone-booth-size cages arranged in a semicircle. Some were eager to talk to us and described abuse they had endured while inside. Others were withdrawn and afraid to engage. The effects of months or even years of profound isolation seemed all too apparent.

California has a history of using and abusing solitary confinement. As recently as 2015, our state had held nearly 1,600 people in solitary confinement for over a decade. The lengths of stays in solitary confinement units have fallen due to heroic hunger strikes undertaken by incarcerated people and advocates filing lawsuits. But thousands of people remain in solitary confinement in California prisons today.

Our state imposes no limit on how long a person may remain in solitary confinement. Other states, including New York and Colorado, have passed legislation to diminish the use and abuse of solitary confinement. It’s past time to pursue meaningful alternatives to the practice in California. Far from keeping people safe or providing effective rehabilitation, solitary confinement causes harm and perpetuates cycles of violence.

Assembly Bill 2632 would place clear limits on the use of solitary confinement in California and ensure that no one is kept in solitary confinement for more than 15 days. The bill would also end the use of solitary confinement for certain populations, including pregnant women and people with intellectual disabilities. It’s inspired by the solitary confinement of Nelson Mandela, whose birthday and legacy we commemorate Monday, and the U.N. standards on treatment of prisoners named in his honor.

The extreme sensory deprivation and social isolation associated with solitary confinement are psychologically tortuous and completely counterproductive. We should end this barbarous practice and expand evidence-based treatment. A life of isolation is no life at all.