I’d recommend reading the New York Times opinion piece written by the executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, Rick Raemisch, about his experience in solitary confinement (aka administrative segregation or Ad Seg) and the state’s efforts to reduce solitary, especially for individuals with mental illness. Toward the end of the piece, he talks about his predecessor, Tom Clements, who was assassinated by an inmate who had been released directly from Ad Seg. The tragic irony of a man described by Rick Raemisch as a “courageous reformer” who did so much to reign in the overuse of solitary in Colorado being murdered by this inmate is breathtaking. He concludes the essay by saying he feels “even more urgency for reform” after his time in solitary and especially knowing that 97 percent of inmates are returned to their communities.
COLORADO SPRINGS — AT 6:45 p.m. on Jan. 23, I was delivered to a Colorado state penitentiary, where I was issued an inmate uniform and a mesh bag with my toiletries and bedding. My arms were handcuffed behind my back, my legs were shackled and I was deposited in Administrative Segregation — solitary confinement.
I hadn’t committed a crime. Instead, as the new head of the state’s corrections department, I wanted to learn more about what we call Ad Seg.
Most states now agree that solitary confinement is overused, and many — like New York, which just agreed to a powerful set of reforms this week — are beginning to act. When I was appointed, Gov. John Hickenlooper charged me with three goals: limiting or eliminating the use of solitary confinement for mentally ill inmates; addressing the needs of those who have been in solitary for long periods; and reducing the number of offenders released directly from solitary back into their communities. If I was going to accomplish these, I needed a better sense of what solitary confinement was like, and what it did to the prisoners who were housed there, sometimes for years.
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