Statement of Keramet Reiter before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, June 15, 2012

Abstract

In this testimony, I will discuss, in turn, three aspects of solitary confinement in the United States on which I have a particular expertise: (1) the history of the practice as an administrative (rather than legislative or judicial) innovation, (2) the lack of evidence that the practice promotes safety, either in prisons or in communities; and (3) the unprecedented scale of the practice – in terms of both numbers of people confined and durations of confinement. Statement of Keramet A. Reiter, J.D., Ph.D. Before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights