Official calls ACLU report on Nebraska's use of juvenile solitary confinement 'groundbreaking and...

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald

By Martha Stoddard

LINCOLN — Nebraska prisons and detention facilities keep youngsters locked up alone for some of the longest periods in the nation, according to a report released Monday.

The ACLU of Nebraska report, “Growing Up Locked Down,” found that juveniles are kept in isolation for up to 90 days in some facilities, while others don’t even know how often or how long juveniles are deprived of contact with other people.

Danielle Conrad, executive director of the ACLU chapter, called the report “groundbreaking and heartbreaking.”

She said mental health experts have found that depriving young people of contact with others for more than four hours at a time can have devastating long-term impacts on their health and well-being. Effects include increased suicide rates, psychological damage and stunted development.

FULL story at link.

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/official-calls-aclu-report-on-nebraska-s-use-of-juvenile/article_62d57a52-aff5-5cc3-a5dc-4953dcd0c6bc.html

[FarPoint]

1. It's a quagmire when the juvenile is also incarcerated for murder...

Say Jail pre-trial and they can't get along with others. I have no answer to solve this issue.

[notadmblnd]

2. Here are a couple of reasons they are put in solitary

being accused or convicted of murder and not getting along with others- I didn't see listed.

— The Lancaster County juvenile detention center put youths in solitary for such reasons as “too many books in room,” “note passing” and “talking in hallway.”

[FarPoint]

12. In our county, teens that are charged with murder are not housed in Juvenile Center.

They go to the adult jail, segregated wing...Not many there for bunkie buddies.

[notadmblnd]

13. Well my point was is that these kids are not being put in solitary for murder

or for their own safety. They're being put in solitary for having too many books or talking in the hall.

[FarPoint]

14. Agreed....

Certainly this is the wrong message to send to the kids. It does not evoke change for improving behavior.

[brett_jv]

9. If all they did was separate the kids like this it wouldn't be so horrible ...

But (depending on the facility) 'solitary' also means all kinds of privileges taken away. No TV, no 'work', no talking to others AT ALL, much less recreation time, fewer allowed visitors, etc.

A lot of people are completely unaware that 'solitary' is extra-judicial and has nothing whatsoever to do with the original crime or sentence. Nobody (aside from extreme cases like terrorists) are SENTENCED to solitary, it's all up to the Warden at the prison who gets 'sent down'.

At such, it can be guaranteed that it's common for these for-profit prisons to use 'the hole' purposefully as a means to increase profits. For example, they love to use 'solitary' on the mentally-ill ... it's much cheaper to throw 'em in the hole and forget 'em than it is to give them proper medical care.

This practice should be outlawed for EVERYONE, but especially juvenile offenders, or people with mental illnesses. It screws people up, some of them very badly, when you do this to them. It's cruel and unusual punishment.

These sick prison administrators are fond of saying they use solitary mostly to 'protect' the inmates whom they put into it ... but if that were the case, every other privilege would be kept. It's a lie ... it's actually used to PUNISH almost exclusively, and it can be done for ANY reason ... guard doesn't like the way you looked at him ... boom ... down in the hole, for as long as they wanna keep you there. The practice is NOT RIGHT in a supposedly civilized country.

[jtuck004]

3. Abu Ghraib lives on in the hearts and minds of our people... n/t

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Omaha Steve.

[rhett o rick]

5. But is't this the toughness that some here are so fond of? Toughness seems to be

an important quality for a presidential candidate.

[Grins]

6. groundbreaking?

That's not how I spell harrowing!

[Stuart G]

7. k and r. nt

[HeartoftheMidwest]

8. ACLU?????????????????????????

Thanks for the report. Now please file a class action suit/individual lawsuits on behalf of those incarcerated and TORTURED kids. Hit them hard in the Nebraskan pocketbook.

[SHRED]

10. Our country our people

Cruelty seems to be the norm now.

[Mbrow]

11. k&R!