Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed legislation on Friday ensuring that seriously mentally ill inmates will no longer be kept in solitary confinement, an issue that has come under increasing scrutiny across the country amid arguments that the practice violates constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.
With the governor’s action, Colorado became the second state in the nation to take action against solitary confinement, which was raised as an issue in the 2013 murder of state prisons chief Tom Clements. Evan Ebel spent much of his eight years in prison in solitary confinement before being released and killing Clements, according to authorities.
Denise Maes, public policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, which fought for the new law, said the Clements case was one of the drivers that spurred the state to action.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-colorado-mentally-ill-isolation-20140606-story.html
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