On May 10, 2022, Governor Ned Lamont signed a bill into law intended to limit the use of solitary confinement in Connecticut. Lamont had vetoed a similar bill in 2021, but included some of the same policies in this year’s bill. Under the law, a person cannot spend more than 15 days in solitary confinement and more than 30 days in a 60-day period. Although the bill may appear at first glance to be an exciting opportunity to reduce the harms of prison, its implementation has been disappointing. Even worse, the bill still serves to work within the prison system rather than addressing the structural harms of the carceral state.
The order also required the Department of Corrections to reduce the use of isolated confinement on “vulnerable populations” including those under 18 or over 65, people with mental health needs, people with a developmental disability, pregnant women, and more.
The state claims to have taken concrete steps to restructure its approach to solitary confinement. The press release notifying the public of the governor’s signing of the bill includes Department of Corrections Commissioner Angel Quiros’ praise of the bill. “I believe this bill strikes the right balance between maintaining a safe and secure environment for everyone within the Department of Corrections facilities, while also working towards the objective of minimizing the effects of long-term impact of incarceration,” Quiros said.
The state bill has not provided a clear definition of a safe environment, but it does outline the health services that those in solitary confinement are entitled to. It details that people held in solitary confinement must be physically and mentally evaluated by medical professionals within the first 24 hours of their isolation, and must be regularly monitored by guards, doctors, and therapists to ensure they are remaining safe and mentally stable.
At surface level, these changes to the treatment of those in solitary confinement suggests that the DOC cares about creating “a safe and secure environment for everyone.” “At the end of the day, we all have the same goal – the successful reintegration of those in our care,” Quiros said. Quiros suggested that the DOC has always been committed to the same goals as advocacy organizations like Stop Solitary CT, a campaign that aims “to end the use of solitary confinement in jails, detention centers and prisons across Connecticut, replacing it with humane, safe, and effective alternatives.” But it took years of protests, lobbying, and research for Stop Solitary CT to get the DOC to provide these services to those in solitary confinement.
The new law took effect in June 2022 and resulted in the creation of a nine-member advisory panel, called the Correction Advisory Committee, to oversee the state’s use of solitary confinement. It also establishes an ombuds position within the Connecticut Office of Governmental Accountability to investigate complaints regarding the Department of Correction. The advisory board will be led by an attorney and is supposed to represent a community of experts to advise prison officials on how incarceration affects the health and social development of those behind bars. Stop Solitary CT is in the process of finalizing this ombuds position and advocating for their preferred members of the nine-member committee. Independent oversight is critical for preventing the DOC from violating the new solitary confinement rules put in place, and Stop Solitary CT has spearheaded efforts to ensure that this independent oversight is truly qualified and effective.
Barbara Fair is the co-founder of Stop Solitary CT. Fair grew up in New Haven’s Hill Area and has spent most of her life there. She has been involved in community activism since the 1960s, and dons the black beret to this day. After decades of organizing, she continues to protest and push for restorative justice. The passage of the bill was an important win for her group. “We worked really hard and really quickly to get something down,” Fair said. “And we got it passed.”
Fair and other advocates worked so hard to get the bill passed because solitary confinement chronically worsens a person’s ability to form meaningful human connection inside prison and within the communities they return to. Craig Haney, a professor at the University of California Santa Cruz, found that extended solitary confinement can cause a range of issues for people in prison, from emotional breakdowns to chronic depression to suicidal tendencies. Inadequate environmental stimulation in solitary can dramatically damage people’s mental and physical wellbeing and bar them from developing crucial social skills.
The bill that Governor Lamont signed into law was an extension of the executive order he issued last year. However, the executive order was violated by prison guards across the state, particularly at Cheshire Correctional Institution. Critics fear similar failures in enforcement will doom the effectiveness of this law.
One of the main problems plaguing the executive order was the lack of independent supervision. “The executive order he put in place was worthless because it had no oversight,” said Fair. Dozens of people behind bars wrote to legislators to express their support for reducing the Department of Corrections’ use of solitary confinement in March 2022. One of them, Kezlyn Mendez, sent a letter detailing the conditions within prisons. “Individuals such as myself with mental health issue/illness are abused even worse cause we’re beaten like it’s still slavery times and hidden with no contact to family, friends, love ones, even lawyers,” Mendez wrote. “There isn’t any oversight or accountability to ensure that these types of acts of abuse don’t ever happen.”
Mendez compared his treatment in prison to “slavery times” to reveal that past forms of racial oppression evolve into current systems, such as prison, that destroy Black life. Ultimately, Stop Solitary CT and other advocacy organizations are aiming to change the culture of prison itself. “The most harm is done in the cage,” said Fair. “[People in solitary confinement] can barely stand and walk around. That is sick to me.” Even when visitors attempt to give those imprisoned the recognition they need, they are reduced to strip searches that Fair noted “leave scars on them.”
This prevalence of violence and abuse in prison has forced those behind bars to undergo excruciating periods of self-doubt and alienation from society. Luis, a student advocate in the New Haven Public School System, described the loneliness he experienced when he was in a Connecticut prison for over eight months. Luis, who was raised Catholic, converted to Islam after his release from prison because it allowed him “to make sense of the world.” He shared with me that religion has helped him to “leave the streets behind.”
Luis has endured these struggles by helping the youth recognize that they are capable of making the world a better place.When Luis sits down with children who express disruptive behavior in class, he acknowledges the social issues such as poverty causes them to act the way they do. Luis shares with students, “I’m not a police officer. I’m here because I care about you.” The work that Luis does is vital to the movement to decriminalize Black and Brown youth in New Haven by giving them the space they need to express their emotions to someone who is willing to listen.
Moving forward, Fair, Luis, and the everyday people working to stop the deleterious effects of mass incarceration hope to continue spreading awareness about the ways that prisons serve to physically and spiritually break the individual.