California Enacts Counterproductive, Regressive Solitary Confinement Bill
Prison systems are increasingly rethinking solitary confinement due to extensive research that has found solitary results in serious detrimental effects—particularly on prisoners who are mentally ill, pregnant, or otherwise vulnerable.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) was ordered to implement reforms to its solitary confinement policies and practices as part of a settlement in the Ashker v. Governor of California litigation, as PLN reported, following a widespread prisoner hunger strike in 2013. [See: PLN, Oct. 2015, p.28.]
CDCR officials largely failed to institute those reforms, however, resulting in 2022 in introduction by California Assembly Member Chris Holden (D-Pasadena) of the Mandela Act, a bill named after South Africa leader Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison. Holden noted that “solitary confinement, if done a certain way, drift[s] into the area of torture—and these are correctional facilities, not torture camps.”
The bill limited the use of solitary in prisons, jails and detention centers, and prohibited it for certain categories of prisoners, including those who are pregnant. The legislation passed but was vetoed in 2023 by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who called it “overly broad.” The politically powerful union that represents California prison guards, the California Correctional and Peace Officers Association, opposed the law; the union also spent $1 million promoting Newsom’s 2018 election campaign and millions more to fight a recall initiative to remove him from office.
The Mandela Act was reintroduced in 2023, though the governor’s office declined to meaningfully negotiate with the bill’s supporters. The Essie Justice Center, based in Oakland and Los Angeles, helped draft separate legislation in February 2024 that focused on pregnant prisoners, sponsored by Assembly Member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda). That bill, AB 2527, sought to ban solitary confinement for pregnant women held in prisons, jails, and detention facilities statewide. This narrower version was deemed more likely to pass.
And it did—but only after it had been amended at the CDCR’s request to allow pregnant prisoners to be held in solitary for up to five days. It also applied only to state prisoners, not those held in local jails or immigration detention centers. Effectively, the amendments explicitly permit prison officials to put pregnant women in solitary and enshrine into state law the opposite of what the legislation had originally intended.
The bill’s supporters found those changes grossly unacceptable. The amendments were “something that really, truly [were] last minute and [were] unexpected,” said Essie policy associate Virrueta Ortiz. “No amount of solitary confinement of a person while they’re pregnant is ever fine,” added Gina Clayton-Johnson, the organization’s executive director.
Bauer-Kahan’s office declined to comment to Bolts Magazine on why she agreed to the amendments. More than 80 organizations objected to the legislation in a joint letter, and opponents staged a protest against the amended bill. Essie withdrew its support for AB 2527, but it was too late: The bill passed the legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Newsom on September 27, 2024.
Meanwhile, the Mandela Act—which has been reintroduced—remains pending, with its fate uncertain. “The Mandela Act has not passed because of the integrity of the people that are leading these efforts,” said Vanessa Ramos, an organizer with Disability Rights California, referring to activists’ refusal to accept a watered-down version of the bill. Ramos, a former prisoner who spent time in solitary herself, expressed optimism that meaningful solitary confinement reforms will eventually be enacted. “I don’t see the movement slowing down,” she said, but she admitted: “[W]e have a long way to go.”
Source: Bolts Magazine
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