October 10, 2012

ACLU, Human Rights Watch Call for Ban on Solitary and an End to Housing Adolescents with Adults Behind Bars

WASHINGTON -- Young people are held in solitary confinement in jails and prisons across the United States, often for weeks or months at a time, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The report, “Growing Up Locked Down: Youth in Solitary Confinement in Jails and Prisons Across the United States,” is based on research in both U.S. jails and prisons in five states ¬– Colorado, Florida, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania – and correspondence with young people in 14 others. The isolation of solitary confinement causes anguish, provokes serious mental and physical health problems, and works against rehabilitation for teenagers, the report found.

“Locking kids in solitary confinement with little or no contact with other people is cruel, harmful, and unnecessary,” said Ian Kysel, Aryeh Neier Fellow with the ACLU and HRW and author of the report. “Normal human interaction is essential to the healthy development and rehabilitation of young people; to cut that off helps nobody.”

The report is based on interviews and correspondence with more than 125 young people in 19 states who spent time in solitary confinement while under age 18, as well as with jail and/or prison officials in 10 states.

The report calls for a

• Ban on solitary confinement for youths under 18 because it is costly and ineffective.
• Prohibition on housing adolescents with adults in facilities designed to house only adults to reduce the chances of abuse from other prisoners and because these facilities are not equipped to manage the developmental needs of adolescents.
• Strict limit on all forms of isolation of young people and a move toward discipline that is proportional to the infraction.

The groups estimate that in 2011, more than 95,000 youths under age 18 were held in prisons and jails. A significant number of these facilities use solitary confinement – for days, weeks, months, or even years – to punish, protect, house, or treat some of the young people held there.

Because young people are still developing, traumatic experiences like solitary confinement may have a profound effect on their chance to rehabilitate and grow, the groups found. Solitary confinement can exacerbate short- and long-term mental health problems or make it more likely that such problems will develop. Young people in solitary confinement are routinely denied access to treatment, services, and programming required to meet their medical, psychological, developmental, social, and rehabilitative needs.

Young people interviewed repeatedly described how solitary confinement compounded the stress of being imprisoned. They spoke about cutting themselves with staples or razors while in solitary, having hallucinations, and losing touch with reality. Several said they had attempted suicide multiple times in solitary confinement.

“Being in isolation to me felt like I was on an island all alone, dying a slow death from the inside out,” said “Kyle B.”, from California, who spent time in solitary confinement while under age 18.

There are alternative ways to address the problems – whether disciplinary, administrative, protective, or medical – that officials typically cite to justify using solitary confinement, the report said, including specialized facilities organized to encourage positive behavior.

“No one believes that locking a teenager in a closet is an effective way to improve either their behavior or their character, much less to protect them long term,” Kysel said. “Young people have rights and needs that are different from adults; jail and prison practices should reflect those differences and promote their ability to grow and change – we should invest in youth, not banish them.”

To read more about ACLU efforts to end solitary confinement, click here.

Links to the report and to multimedia features can be found here.

First Public Settlement of Legal Challenge to Enforce Colorado’s 2008 Workplace Nursing Mothers Act

The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado and the national ACLU reached a settlement on Friday with a Jefferson County public charter school on behalf of teacher Heather Burgbacher who lost her job for exercising her right to pump breast milk at work. This is the first public settlement of a legal challenge brought under the Colorado Nursing Mothers Act, a 2008 law safeguarding a woman’s right to continue breastfeeding when returning to work after having a baby.

In the settlement, Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen (RMAE) agreed to make significant policy changes to ensure that nursing employees have the time and space to express breast milk at work. RMAE has also agreed to provide ACLU client Burgbacher monetary compensation.

“To its credit, RMAE has agreed to make significant policy changes that I feel confident will ensure that the next nursing mom working at RMAE will have the workplace support she needs to nurse her baby for as long as she wants,” said Burgbacher. “I am deeply satisfied with this settlement.”

“RMAE is to be commended for its significant strides to protect the rights of nursing mothers in the workplace,” said ACLU of Colorado staff attorney Rebecca Wallace. “By bringing Ms. Burgbacher’s story to light and enforcing the Nursing Mothers Act, the ACLU hopes to change the old-fashioned view held by some employers that a model employee is one that does not get pregnant, does not give birth, does not breast feed, and does not have child-care responsibilities. RMAE’s steps in resolving this case serves as a model to other employers.”

Burgbacher had been a highly valued teacher at the RMAE for five years when she gave birth to her second child. In violation of 2008’s Colorado Nursing Mothers Act, RMAE failed to provide a private place for her to express breast milk and to take appropriate steps to assist Burgbacher in covering her classes for the very brief periods during which she needed to pump breast milk. Burgbacher needed to pump for 20 minutes, three times each week.

Shortly after she complained about the schools’ failure to accommodate her need for time and space to express breast milk, RMAE abruptly informed her that her employment contract would not be renewed last year, despite years of extremely positive performance evaluations.

“The law does not allow employers to force a working mother like Heather Burgbacher to choose between breastfeeding her baby and returning to work,” said ACLU of Colorado Cooperating Attorney Mari Newman of Killmer, Lane and Newman, LLP. “This settlement serves as a reminder to all Colorado employers that firing a female employee simply because she asserts her legal rights has very serious consequences. RMAE deserves recognition for working cooperatively to resolve this matter in a way that meaningfully protects the rights of nursing mothers in the workplace.”

Expressing breast milk on the job is a right guaranteed by the Colorado Workplace Accommodations for Nursing Mothers Act, as well as other state and federal anti-discrimination laws. The Nursing Mothers Act mandates that employers provide time on the job in a private location for mothers to express breast milk.

“For many mothers, breastfeeding is an essential part of caring for their children that requires minor, but necessary, accommodations in the workplace – the kinds of minor workplace adjustments that employers routinely grant other workers who need them,” said ACLU Women’s Rights Project staff attorney Galen Sherwin. “A woman’s employer should have no say in the very personal decision about whether to breastfeed her baby.”

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