Democratic Congressman Cedric Richmond of New Orleans To Introduce Legislation On Solitary Confinement.

Democratic Congressman Cedric Richmond of New Orleans To Introduce Legislation On Solitary Confinement.

According to a recent article in Nola. Com, Democratic Congressman Cedric Richmond of New Orleans, will introduce legislation that will place limits on solitary confinement, which he says may violate the Constitution’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment.”

“Our approach to solitary confinement in this country needs immediate reform, “Richmond said.”The practices imposed on prisoners, including the seriously mentally ill and juveniles, at all levels of our penal system raise significant 8th amendment concerns and it is time we have this conversation about what kind of country we are.”

The Nola article quotes Richmond asking whether Americans “feel comfortable putting a man or woman in a dark hole for decades on end with no additional due process?” He adds: “Is this practice consistent with our values? I don’t think so. I know we are better than that.”

Under Richmond´s legislation, a “Solitary Confinement Study and Reform Commission” would be formed to study the mental, physical and economic impacts of solitary confinement and make recommendations for change.

Richmond’s legislation follows high profile congressional hearings on solitary confinement, including testimony to a Senate panel in February from Damon Thibodeaux, 39, who was exonerated and released in 2012 after 15 years in solitary confinement at Louisiana’s Angola Prisons death row when DNA records showed he couldn’t be responsible for the murder and sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl in 1996.

“I spent my years at Angola, while my lawyers fought to prove my innocence, in a cell that measured about 8 feet by 10 feet,” Thibodeaux told the Senate committee. “It had three solid walls all painted white, a cell door, a sink, a toilet, a desk and seat attached to a wall, and an iron bunk with a thin mattress. These four walls are your life. Being in that environment for 23 hours a day will slowly kill you.”

According to Nola, there’s no early indication how much support Richmond’s legislation will get. But during the Senate hearing, Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Ted Cruz, R-Tex., the chair and ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, agreed solitary confinement needs to be significantly reduced at U.S. prisons.

Cruz offered an apology to Thibodeaux for all he had to endure — for a crime that prosecutors eventually agreed he could not have committed.

Durbin said he hopes states and the federal government will curtail solitary confinement and limit to cases where inmates are a threat to prison guards and other inmates.

But Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels told the Senate panel there are times when isolation is needed to protect correction officers and fellow inmates. And that specifically applies to dangerous gang leaders, he said.

“If they see that we will lower our standards, we will not hold individuals accountable,” Samuels said. “It puts our staff at risk. It puts other prisoners at risk.”

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/05/rep_richmond_wants_to_put_limi.html