Children as young as 13 are
being placed in solitary confinement for months at a time in US
jails, according to a report by Human Rights Watch and the American
Civil Liberties Union.
The report, Growing Up Locked Down documents, for the first time, the widespread use of solitary confinement on youth under the age of 18 in prisons and jails across the US.
The report makes shocking reading.
It documents a 15-year-old carving the first letter of her mother’s name
into her arm, another 15-year-old boy locked in solitary for 15 days
for not making his bed, a 14 year-old who spent 60 days locked up alone
and juveniles describing their experience as being like a slow death.
Nobody knows
how many juveniles are held in solitary, as it is not documented, but it
is estimated that between 3% and 5% of US prisoners are held in
solitary and anecdotal evidence suggests that, in some systems, children
may be isolated at even higher rates than adults.
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