A Solitary Proposal

I see a pattern. It seems that every new idea that lands in Illinois was first birthed in New York, California or Colorado. The latest is the elimination of solitary confinement in prisons. The idea is being pushed now in New York. It was eliminated last year in Colorado.

Look for this to come to a capitol near you….say in Springfield.

Understand, Illinois abolished the death penalty back in 2011. I’m not even going to argue that point. During his administration, Bruce Rauner tried to bring it back for mass murderers and cop killers. He could never get traction. I would have been OK with Rauner’s proposal but that train has left the station.

So, the only tool left to corrections officers to control convicts inside Menard, Stateville and Pontiac is the use of solitary confinement for inmates who really have nothing left to lose. If you are a convicted murderer in Illinois, you can get life without parole. You are not sentenced to solitary. You earn it.  

I agree that solitary confinement is inhumane. So is murder. I could see myself limiting the practice to a finite period of time----say two weeks. But eliminating it altogether seems dangerous. A prison official in New York told NPR that solitary confinement is used strategically every day to maintain order and safety. He said inmates don’t want to go there…..so they do everything they can to avoid it.

Eliminating solitary confinement takes one more tool out of the hands of the people we expect to run corrections centers in an orderly way. It is really a thankless job with many perils.

With corrections officers in mind----I can’t support the elimination of solitary confinement from Illinois prisons.