Imagine being locked in a small, minimally furnished room with little or no natural light.  There is limited human interaction, sometimes not even a book or school work to pass the time.  In some places, this can last for hours, days, or weeks, even in Wisconsin.  Local detention centers often use isolation as some version of a “time out” to control or modify behavior – to “teach a lesson”.  Juvenile Corrections is working hard to reduce the use of isolation as a tool to change behavior – knowing that the very trauma that is often at the root of behavior is made worse by isolation.  While it may be necessary for a youth to be alone for short period of time during a crisis to de-escalate the situation, prolonged isolation and solitary confinement have serious implications for youth.

The American Academy  of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the United Nations have both released formal positions opposing the use of solitary confinement for juveniles in correctional facilities because of the serious negative consequences.  Prolonged isolation can cause psychological, physical, and developmental harm that can lead to persistent mental health problems and dramatically increased risk of suicide. According to the ACLU, more than 60% of youth that committed suicide in juvenile justice facilities had a history of isolation.

Professionals from a wide range of disciplines are calling for the end of the use of solitary confinement.  From the basics of facility design – for example Ryan Schill reflects on architecture’s role in the creation of spaces for isolation and confinement and the growing movement in the profession to no longer design spaces for those purposes:
“How could those hard, sterile rooms, which are designed intentionally for sensory-deprivation, be used therapeutically, even if a young person only spent a brief time inside? I couldn’t see how any counseling that might take place in an isolation cell could result in a positive outcome—the room simply wouldn’t allow it.  Only distress and anxiety could survive in that sort of space.”
– to how behavior change programs are designed, the goal of the juvenile justice system should be about increasing public safety by rehabilitating young offenders so that they can become productive members of society.  Solitary confinement and isolation are practices that undermine these goals and place youth at risk of further harm.

At the end of the day, the use of isolation and solitary confinement have for too long resulted in more harm than good – something that we should not tolerate.

By Emily Bergman