04.16.24

Durbin Delivers Opening Statement During Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Eliminating the Abuse of Solitary Confinement

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today delivered an opening statement during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled “Legacy of Harm: Eliminating the Abuse of Solitary Confinement.” The hearing will examine the frequent abuse of solitary confinement in federal custody, including members of vulnerable populations and those suffering from mental illness.

The hearing follows the introduction of two bills—the Solitary Confinement Reform Act and the Restricting Solitary Confinement in Immigration Detention Act—by Durbin on Monday, which would limit the use of solitary confinement by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), U.S. Marshals Service, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

Key Quotes:

“In 2012, I convened the first-ever congressional hearing on solitary confinement.  I am extremely disappointed that more than a decade later, the overuse of solitary confinement remains a stain on our nation.”

“Prolonged exposure to solitary confinement can be as profound and permanent as a traumatic brain injury and can result in psychological and physical disabilities.  Research by experts and testimony from countless people who have spent time in solitary documents how it worsens preexisting medical and mental health conditions and creates conditions that didn’t previously exist.”

“I held a follow-up hearing two years after my 2012 hearing. We heard from Damon Thibodeaux [who] tragically died in 2021 from COVID-19.  He spent 15 years in solitary before he was exonerated in 2012.  He told us, ‘I do not condone what those who have killed and committed other serious offenses have done.  But I also don’t condone what we do to them when we put them in solitary for years on end and treat them as sub-human.  We are better than that.  As a civilized society, we should be better than that.’”

“After my hearings, the Obama Administration took some important steps to reduce the use of restricted housing in the federal prison system.  Unfortunately, under the Trump Administration, that progress stalled, and the rate of individuals in solitary confinement steadily increased.  BOP Director Peters told this Committee that this is one of her priorities. But unfortunately, as I have pointed out numerous times, numbers in solitary are higher today than they were two years ago.  This is deeply disappointing.”

“Individuals who violate our criminal and immigration laws must be held accountable, but they can be detained in a humane manner that does not violate their fundamental human rights.  We in Congress can’t just blame it on the Executive Branch. We must look in the mirror and acknowledge our obligation to eliminate the abuse of solitary confinement.”

“That is why I reintroduced the Solitary Confinement Reform Act with Senator Coons and the Restricting Solitary Confinement in Immigration Detention Act with Senator Schatz.  I hope my colleagues will join me in making these bills the law of the land.”

Video of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.

Audio of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.

Footage of Durbin’s opening statement is available here for TV Stations.

In the last five years alone, ICE has placed people in solitary confinement over 14,000 times, with an average duration of 27 days. In 2023, of those detained in solitary in an ICE facility, an estimated 56 percent had mental health conditions—up from 35 percent in 2019. 

The hearing continues Chair Durbin and the Senate Judiciary Committee’s work to limit solitary confinement. In 2012, Durbin held the first-ever congressional hearing on solitary confinement as Chair of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. Following that hearing, BOP took steps to reduce its use of solitary confinement. By Durbin’s second hearing on the topic in 2014, the percentage of individuals held in solitary confinement had declined from 7.7 percent to 6.4 percent of the total BOP population.

In 2016, President Obama announced he would ban the use of solitary confinement for juveniles in the federal system and accept recommendations from a comprehensive Justice Department (DOJ) report to ensure that the practice would “be used rarely, applied fairly, and subjected to reasonable constraints.” Unfortunately, the Obama-era declines in solitary confinement were reversed under the Trump Administration. Despite President Biden’s 2022 executive order that ordered the Attorney General to implement DOJ’s 2016 report and recommendations, there has been no significant decrease in BOP’s restricting housing population. The percentage of individuals held in solitary confinement is approximately eight percent of the total BOP population as of April 2024.

Earlier this month, Durbin and a group of Senate Democrats urged Department of Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas and ICE Acting Director Patrick Lechleitner to phase out the use of solitary confinement in immigration detention. The letter noted that the number of individuals in solitary confinement in ICE detention has increased in recent years, and today, an estimated 56 percent of individuals in ICE’s solitary confinement have mental health conditions—up from 35 percent in 2019.  Earlier this year, Durbin issued a sharp rebuke of BOP’s failure to eliminate the overuse of solitary confinement.

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