Officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are proposing a significant reduction to the use of solitary confinement in the state’s prisons.
The agency submitted a set of new “emergency regulations” to the state’s Office of Administrative Law last Wednesday. If approved, they will go into effect on Nov. 1.
Advocates with the California Mandela Campaign, who have been pushing for years to effectively end the use of solitary in the state, say the process is unnecessarily rushed and the proposed regulations don’t go far enough.
Governor Gavin Newsom ordered CDCR to begin crafting the changes last September when he vetoed a bill supported by the campaign that would have limited solitary terms to 15 days and banned them altogether for people who are young, old, pregnant or disabled.
In his veto message, Newsom said the bill was overly broad, but that “segregated confinement is ripe for reform” in California, so he’d be directing CDCR to restrict the practice.
Now CDCR has delivered their proposal. The changes would reduce the number of offenses that could lead to placement in solitary from 34 to 19, and cut the length of stays for many violations in half, limiting many terms to 15 days. The practice would be limited “to those inmates who engage in violence or have serious safety concerns.”
It would also ensure people have at least 20 hours of out-of-cell time per week, or almost three hours a day on average. Currently, segregated prisoners have at least 10 hours out of cell per week, or almost 1.5 hours a day on average.
“We are proud to announce a significant step forward in our commitment to reduce the use of restricted housing by proposing common sense changes that maintain public and institution safety, while also continuing to create an environment that focuses and pushes personal support and rehabilitation,” said CDCR Secretary Jeff Macomber in a press release.
The Nelson Mandela Rules, which the United Nations hold as the standard minimum treatment of prisoners worldwide, define solitary confinement as “the confinement of prisoners for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact.”
“What we're talking about here is very simple,” advocate Hamid Yazdan Panah said. “Human beings are social creatures. If you're on lockdown for 20 hours a day, for a week, a month, a year, it's going to have very, very harmful effects on your mind, your body, your soul.”
Despite often keeping people in their cells without meaningful contact for more than 22 hours a day, CDCR said it does not use solitary confinement. It refers to the practice as “restrictive housing” in its new proposals, and said it’s necessary for the safety of prisoners and staff.
“Restricted housing is used to manage the behavior of individuals who may pose a risk to others or to themselves, or whose behavior disrupts the safe and orderly functioning of the facility,” said Macomber in a letter to the OAL.
In a comment to CapRadio, CDCR Information Officer Tessa Outhyse said the conditions inside solitary approximate those in general population, and people are allowed to send and receive mail, have non-contact visits and make phone calls. Outhyse added many segregated prisoners have cellmates, if it's deemed safe.
Solitary has changed in the past decade
According to CDCR’s latest records, from June 2023, there were 3,167 people in segregated confinement in California.
The number is a major reduction from levels of a decade ago. According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, there were 9,870 men in solitary confinement in December 2012.
The reduction is largely due to a major settlement reached in 2015, between the state and 10 prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison. As part of that settlement, CDCR was forced to dramatically reduce the population in solitary confinement, and stop isolating people because of perceived gang affiliations.
The decision changed Michael Saavedra’s life. After 15 years in Pelican Bay State Prison’s Security Housing Unit, living in a concrete cell with no window for 22 to 24 hours a day, he was able to return to the general population. He left prison in 2017.
“I had very minimal contact with other human beings and socialization,” he said. “So all these things were damaging and continue to be damaging.”
Based on his experience, Saavedra is skeptical that CDCR will be able to deliver on the proposed changes. He said lockdowns, staff shortages, and foggy conditions often meant he and fellow prisoners couldn’t have out-of-cell time.
“If they couldn't even do 10 hours minimum a week, what makes you think they're going to be able to do 20 hours?” he said.
Saavedra also said out-of-cell time doesn’t provide any meaningful recreation or rehabilitation for people in segregated confinement, unlike in the general population.
“You're just out there with a sink and toilet and that's it,” he said. “You have no handballs, you have no basketballs, you have no gym equipment. There's nothing but to pace in a circle in a very small area.”
Emergency process shortens time for public comment
As part of the emergency rulemaking process, the public only has 10 days to comment on the pending changes, which are not linked on the website and encompass over 200 pages of documents. The deadline is Oct. 14.
The OAL’s website says “Because emergency regulations are intended to avoid serious harm and require immediate action, the emergency rulemaking process is substantially abbreviated compared to the regular rulemaking process.”
Advocates say there’s no reason they should be filed as emergency regulations, and the process doesn’t provide meaningful time for public comment.
CDCR said in a statement to the OAL that the emergency regulations were necessary, because “delay of these regulatory changes will negatively impact the inmate population and Division of Adult Institutions operations by not aligning with the evolution of refining and reforming restricted housing policies nationwide.”
The agency said they plan to propose more permanent changes later, which will be filed through the normal rulemaking process, and include a 45-day public comment period.