W hen the UNC School of Law issues a report as clear and decisive as the one recently released regarding solitary confinement, it behooves the state to take notice.
The report, written in conjunction with UNC’s Human Rights Policy Seminar, clearly condemns the use of solitary confinement, stating that it constitutes a clear violation of basic human rights and is furthermore ineffective at accomplishing what it is purportedly used for: discipline and safety.
The authors also found the practice to be fiscally irresponsible.
Researchers combined individual interviews, legal analysis and wide-ranging data to come to their conclusions.
Solitary confinement exacerbates and causes mental illness. It is ineffectual at accomplishing its punitive raison d’etre, and it is fiscally wasteful. A strong case exists that it constitutes torture.
Yet North Carolina’s prisons employ it at an alarming rate. Almost 10 percent of North Carolina’s prisoners are held in solitary confinement at a given time.
The report also found that the practice is applied in a discriminatory manner to black inmates.
Too often, the research completed by state-funded institutions is ignored by policymakers.
