Illinois seeks to limit use of solitary confinement
Source: Associated Press
Apr 24, 7:52 PM EDT
Illinois seeks to limit use of solitary confinement
By IVAN MORENO
Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- Brian Nelson's years in solitary confinement left him terrified of other people, and he says he can still taste the concrete dust from his cell, even though he's been free since 2010.
The 51-year-old is afraid to ride the bus, he takes five psychotropic drugs and sees a psychiatrist every week. Even when he's at a park surrounded by grass, he says everything starts turning gray and he remembers how tiny air pockets in the walls kicked up dust whenever he would clean his cell at a now-shuttered maximum security prison in Tamms, in Illinois' southern tip. There he was confined for the final 12 years of a 26-year sentence for murder and armed robbery.
"Those four walls beat me down so bad," he told members of an Illinois House committee during a recent emotional hearing on the state's solitary confinement practices.
Stories like Nelson's have led Illinois lawmakers to push prisons to restrict the use of solitary confinement, joining a national movement that has policymakers rethinking the longstanding form of punishment that critics say has a profound psychological impact on inmates.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CLOSER_LOOK_SOLITARY_CONFINEMENT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-04-24-19-52-49
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