On The Outs: Reentry for Inmates with Disabilities – Rooted in Rights
Locked Up and Locked Down
Description: The AVID Prison Project's report, Locked Up & Locked Down, exposes the national crisis of prison inmates with mental illness in segregation.
Definitions of the terms “solitary confinement,” “isolation,” and “segregation” vary between jurisdictions and facilities. This report uses the term “segregation” to describe the general practice, described in more detail below, of isolating an inmate for 22 to 24 hours a day in a small cell. Our nation’s prison systems have been housing people in solitary confinement, or segregation, 1 for decades . 2 As inmate populations increased throughout the 1980s and 1990s, prisons turned to segregation, claiming
In discussing mental illness, this report uses the broad definition of “individual with a mental illness” from the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) Act. Under this act, an “individual with a mental illness” is an individual “who has a significant mental illness or emotional impairment, as determined by a mental health professional qualified under the laws and regulations of the State….” Courts have generally interpreted the terms “significant mental illness” and “emotio
Research suggests that segregation does not in fact decrease violence or make prisons safer. 8 Moreover, experts have found that the crushing isolation of segregation has a debilitating effect on inmates, especially inmates with mental illness. 9 Even the president of the United States has recognized that a person’s mental illness can worsen in segregation, and inmates with mental illness are more likely to commit suicide. 10 In response to these findings, advocates have argued that the imposition of such
On The Outs: Reentry for Inmates with Disabilities – Rooted in Rights
Locked Up and Locked Down