With the level of wealth and possibilities that exist in the modern world, one is saddened by the fact that nearly 2 million Americans are incarcerated. Because crime is sadly not going away any time soon, we must ensure that our prison systems are as humane as possible. That is why over the past decade, there has been a shift to move away from inhumane treatments such as solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. President Barack Obama restricted it in federal prisons during his administration, the UN calls solitary confinement “state-sanctioned torture,” and even the State of New Jersey has passed laws curtailing it. Despite this, New Jersey state prisons still excessively use solitary confinement, and, in doing so, break state laws.
Solitary confinement is a punishment which has been used since the 1700s. It involves putting prisoners into small cells and having them spend most of their days without any human contact. Humans are social creatures, and this practice preys on that in order to inflict pain and coerce prisoners into being better behaved. Of all the draconian measures that are used in prisons, solitary confinement has been described as arbitrary and useless, and as torture.
On a global scale, much has been done to restrict solitary confinement. The UN has strongly advocated against its use, and throughout the developed world its usage trends down. However, the United States lags behind with these trends. The separation of state and federal prisons, the mass usage of private prisons, and the sheer stubbornness against prison reform make it very difficult for things to improve quickly. Even when legislation is passed limiting the usage of solitary confinement, it is often ignored, or includes sufficient loopholes to be effectively meaningless.
This is the case here in New Jersey. In 2019, Governor Phil Murphy passed a law that limited the time that a prisoner could spend in solitary confinement. Prisoners in theory can spend a maximum of 20 hours per day in confinement, 20 consecutive days and a maximum of 30 days over a 60 day period. Obviously this doesn’t fully eliminate the method from being in use, however it is most definitely a step in the right direction. At least, it would be if the bill hadn’t allowed a massive loophole through.
The Restorative Housing Unit (RHU), is an invention of the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) to get around this bill. In theory, the RHU is a middle ground between solitary confinement and regular prison. Prisoners in RHUs are separated from the general prison population, but still have limited social and outdoor opportunities. But when prisoners were sent to the RHUs they immediately realized that the differences between them and solitary confinement were next to none. Several prisoners who are put through the RHU system have reported to various news agencies that they do not receive their daily four hours outside of their cells, or opportunities to go outdoors.
Alexander Shalom, who works as an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said of that the bills outcome is “very disappointing” and that “we tried to write a bill that was tight enough not to give [NJDOC] room to implement it in a way that didn’t get to our vision of a more just prison system, but it seems that they’ve found ways to violate the law or honor it in the breach.” Armed with this new information, it is hoped that civil rights advocates will be able to pressure the New Jersey government to either follow their own laws, or create new tougher legislation for a more humane future.
