From the Houston Chronicle
Texas' long-standing practice of holding thousands of prison inmates in solitary confinement is a costly failure because it victimizes the mentally ill and does little to improve public safety, according to a study released Thursday by a pair of civil rights groups.
The findings by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and the Texas Civil Rights Project mirror earlier criticisms by other advocacy groups that the Lone Star State keeps too many convicts confined in small cells for too long, even after they no longer pose a threat to security. They also said the practice is dangerous because more than 1,200 prisoners have been returned to the community with no treatment after spending years in isolation.
"By overusing solitary confinement, (the Texas Department of Criminal Justice) increases crime, wastes taxpayer money, increases violence in prison and causes thousands of mentally ill people to further deteriorate before returning to Texas communities," states the 56-page report that is expected to become part of an ongoing legislative debate on how to further reduce the number of convicts in solitary, commonly referred to by TDCJ officials as "ad seg," short for "administrative segregation."
For a state that has received kudos in recent years for its innovative treatment and rehabilitation programs, the report focuses on prison operations that have remained a focus of continuing criticism, even as prison officials have reduced the numbers of inmates in solitary by a third since 2006. With just under 150,000 offenders locked in 108 state prisons and jails on Thursday, however, that number still is just over 6,100 - about 4.4 percent of the total prison population....
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