The information on the negative impacts of solitary confinement policies in prisons is very clear and persuasive. Study after study has shown that overreliance on and excessive use of “segregated confinement” is unsafe, ineffective, inhumane and discriminatory.

State lawmakers recognized that four years ago when they passed the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, which imposed limits on the circumstances and length of time in which an inmate could be segregated from the general prison population.

The HALT Act was necessary to curb abuses.

But there’s a reason why prisons detain inmates behind high walls topped with razor wire and guarded by officers with guns.

Prisons are filled with many violent and unstable........

© The Leader Herald