Judge OKs sweeping plan to reduce NY solitary confinement
A federal judge approved a sweeping plan to reduce solitary confinement in New York state prisons Thursday, saying she hopes the deal to end decades-old practices becomes a model for other states confronting the harmful effects of extreme isolation.
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin said the “historic settlement” will greatly reduce the frequency, duration and severity of solitary confinement for thousands of prisoners, making conditions “more humane and more just.”
She called solitary confinement a “drastic and punitive designation, one that should be used only as a last resort and for the shortest possible time to serve the penal purposes for which it is designed.”