Readers React: Solitary confinement isn’t rehabilitation

To the editor: It is encouraging that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has, as a result of a federal lawsuit, agreed to reduce the number of state prisoners in solitary confinement. Currently, there are about 6,400 prisoners in isolation in state prisons; that number will go down by 2,000. (“California agrees to move thousands of inmates out of solitary confinement,” Sept. 1)

We Americans are outraged by the ways other governments physically mistreat their own citizens. Yet we have accepted solitary confinement for thousands of prisoners even though there is clear medical evidence that this prolonged isolation causes severe, often permanent harm. Confusion, delirium, self-mutilation and suicide are often the outcomes for individuals in prolonged isolation.

Hopefully, California will eventually eliminate the use of solitary confinement and find appropriate ways to “correct and rehabilitate” its convicted felons.

Timothy Lefevre, Tarzana

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