老澳门开奖结果

As we observed International Human Rights Day on Saturday, we needed look no further than New York City for a sobering reminder of how this nation too often fails to meet international human rights standards.

Sadly, we learned recently that the New York City Department of Corrections (NYCDOC) is . This development flies in the face of long-recognized evidence that . International human rights bodies, such as the and , have determined that the practice may violate international human rights law.

Rikers Island is home to 10 jails, the majority of which house pre-trial detainees 鈥� that is, individuals who have yet to be convicted of a crime. The average daily population of Rikers is 12,700 people and once the expansion of solitary confinement is complete, 990 individuals 鈥� approximately eight percent of the Rikers population 鈥� will be put in isolation, confined to a cell with no human contact for 23 hours a day.

The NYCDOC鈥檚 decision comes on the heels of a recent visit to New York by Juan Mendez, the U.N.鈥檚 special expert on torture. Standing just five miles from Rikers Island, . He recommended its use only in 鈥渧ery exceptional circumstances, for as short a time as possible.鈥� He said solitary confinement in excess of 15 days can amount to a human rights violation and should be prohibited. Notably, Mendez called on states to abolish the use of solitary confinement for pre-trial detainees, juveniles and individuals with mental disabilities 鈥� populations particularly vulnerable to the detrimental effects of prolonged isolation.

Rikers Island houses over 800 juveniles and an alarming one-third of Rikers inmates suffer from mental illness. While healthy individuals find it difficult to cope with solitary confinement, conditions of prolonged isolation ravage those suffering from pre-existing mental illness. These individuals, who typically don鈥檛 have access to adequate mental health treatment while on 23-hour-a-day lockdown, often deteriorate tragically 鈥� even to the point of suicide. Nevertheless, Rikers has dedicated two solitary confinement wings to housing individuals with mental illness.

The situation on Rikers Island is particularly perplexing given that in 2008 the New York State Legislature passed the , which requires the removal of state prisoners with serious mental illness from solitary confinement. The law drew explicitly from , as well as from extensive lobbying by 鈥� a coalition of advocates, family members of incarcerated individuals and ex-offenders. MHASC has recently focused on addressing .

While the situation at Rikers is somewhat aberrational 鈥� a growing number of states are studying the effects of solitary confinement and reducing the number of individuals held in such conditions 鈥� it is also emblematic of the routine use of solitary confinement in jails and prisons across the country. The United States holds an estimated 25,000 prisoners in solitary confinement at any given time, a number unmatched by any other democracy. In New York alone, even after passage of the SHU Exclusion Law, state correctional facilities house 鈥� a number the NYCLU and other advocates are fighting to reduce. Moreover, in many states including New York, prisoners may languish in solitary confinement for unfathomable lengths of time, sometimes for years on end.

If circumstances at Rikers prick the conscience, it is worth considering the extent to which we, as a nation, have normalized the inhumane practice of solitary confinement. Learn more about the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 work to stop solitary here.

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