New data gathered by state and federal corrections officials indicates that as many as 100,000 prison inmates were in solitary confinement in 2014, quadruple one recent estimate of 25,000, reports the National Law Journal. A report issued Wednesday by the Association of State Correctional Administrators in conjunction with Yale Law School also says that prison officials regard prolonged isolation of prisoners as a “grave problem,” and are moving quickly to rein in the practice.
The report on solitary confinement came a day after California agreed to a court settlement that requires it to drastically reduce the number of inmates kept in isolation. In its account, the New York Times said the call by the association, the leading organization for the nation's prison and jail administrators, to sharply limit or even end long-term isolation of inmates is “a sign of how far the nation has moved from supporting solitary confinement for inmates.”