ACLU calls on Nevada to end use of long-term solitary confinement

CARSON CITY — Corrections officials should audit the use of solitary confinement in the state’s prisons and adopt policies that end its use over extended periods and restrict it only to periods when there are security concerns, according to a study commissioned by the ACLU of Nevada.

The ACLU on Monday released a 48-page study on the use of solitary confinement in the Nevada Department of Corrections system, based in part on surveys of 281 inmates. The study also calls for improving conditions in solitary confinement and immediately removing mentally ill inmates from segregated housing.

The study comes on the heels of an admission last week that the Corrections Department routinely housed mentally ill inmates in segregation units, sometimes for as long as five years at a time.

David Tristan, deputy director of programs for department, told the Senate Health and Human Services Committee that the practices were unconstitutional and among the worst he’s seen.

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