Solitary confinement inside one of Washington's prisons created "insidious" "psychological pressures" for Kevin Light-Roth, he said from a video screen in the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton, Mason County.
"Every social interaction made me uncomfortable. Eye contact produced tension in me. I was continuously on edge, and I was afraid of myself," Light-Roth, 39, told state lawmakers at a hearing this week. He said he has spent 10 years in solitary over the course of his incarceration.
There are no state restrictions on the use of restrictive housing in adult facilities operated by the Department of Corrections, despite research showing that extended periods in solitary confinement, where an incarcerated person is alone for at least 20 hours per day, can lead to psychological deterioration and emotional breakdowns.
While advocates say solitary confinement can negatively affect anyone's mental health, they add that people with preexisting serious mental illnesses face disproportionate psychological impacts, worsening their mental conditions. And people with serious mental illness often are held in solitary longer because what it takes to get released — following certain rules — is sometimes not achievable due to their condition or disability.
A new bill working its way through the Legislature would restrict when prisons can use solitary confinement, but some prison staff say the use of solitary is necessary to protect their safety.
House Bill 1087, sponsored by state Rep. Strom Peterson, D-Seattle, would restrict the use of solitary confinement to emergency use, medical isolation or for people who choose to go voluntarily (for protection, for example), with requirements for each of those situations. No one could be held in solitary confinement for emergency purposes for more than 24 hours and for more than 72 hours in a 30-day period. No one could be placed in extended solitary confinement for more than 15 days and for more than 45 days during a single year. If someone was sent for medical isolation, a qualified medical provider could determine additional time is necessary.
The legislation also includes requirements for activities, living space conditions, and the ability to communicate by phone.
"Everybody agrees on the detrimental effects that solitary confinement has on not only the person that is in solitary confinement, but also the mental health effects that it has on staff" who have to manage them in that setting, Peterson said in an interview.
He said he's hoping to create a system where people who are incarcerated can get the mental health support they need, so when they return to communities, they can more easily adjust.
This action comes after years of legislative efforts that the DOC has argued against, saying the agency is regularly improving solitary conditions and already meets most demands. Still, a report released last month by Disability Rights Washington found some people had spent years in solitary confinement to their mental detriment and that the DOC has often failed to move them to a less-restrictive spot.
While the DOC said it was abolishing the use of solitary confinement for punishment in 2021, the agency still uses forms of restrictive housing for other purposes: administrative segregation, which is supposed to be a shorter-term stay to allow time to investigate an alleged infraction, and maximum custody, which is indefinite solitary confinement.
Someone may also be placed in administrative segregation after they're found guilty of breaking a rule and are waiting to be moved back into their unit or waiting for a transport van to take them somewhere else. Infractions could include a gang-related fight or for having tattoo equipment.
On an average day, more than 400 people out of roughly 12,000 people in state prisons are in administrative segregation, the DRW report said. And while the overall prison population has decreased by 27% since 2018, the DOC's use of administrative segregation has decreased by only 3% over that same period.
Some people, while not technically in maximum custody units, may still be "locked down in solitary-like conditions," the report said. For example, people who have expressed intent to harm themselves are moved to a close observation area, or suicide watch, "which is intended to help treat and move the person back to a living unit as quickly as possible," but often means people spend days or weeks in gowns specifically designed to make it difficult to injure themselves, eat meals without utensils, and have lights turned on constantly while being extremely visible to staff.
"I don't know that I can say what environment would be best for somebody who is expressing suicidal ideation," said Rachael Seevers, an attorney with Disabilities Rights Washington, in an interview, but "I can say that moving someone into a constantly lit room and a suicide smock is not likely to make them better."
Someone with mental health challenges would be better served by greater access to mental health counselors and programming, Seevers said.
After spending time in solitary, "it would take months for me to psychologically reset, to feel mentally composed again," said Light-Roth, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2004 at age 19. His case reached the state Supreme Court in an appeal centered on whether the court should have considered his youth when imposing a nearly 28-year sentence.
At the House Community Safety, Justice, & Reentry Committee hearing Tuesday, several prison staff responded in opposition to incarcerated people who testified, citing safety concerns for themselves as the primary reason to maintain solitary confinement.
Jeffrey Rude, a corrections officer, said he was assaulted by Kyle Payment — one of the incarcerated people who testified — while standing at his desk working on a case plan. He said Payment came into his office and punched him above his left eye, causing Rude to hit the wall and bounce off it.
"I suffered a severe concussion and was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury," Rude said in the hearing, arguing that the bill would create an unsafe environment for staff.
Payment, 36, who has been incarcerated for the past 23 years, testified that he has spent 21 of those years in solitary confinement. He said the DOC has refused to treat his serious mental illness and that "solitary exacerbates my condition."
Sean Murphy, the deputy secretary of correctional operations at the DOC, said the mental health units in some facilities "have a bit of a waiting list at times," adding that "there are resource strains that do cause some challenges, not insurmountable challenges."
He said the DOC is working creatively with the funding it has received to "provide mental health services, medical services and out-of-cell time within the settings they're located in."
The DOC declined to comment further on the legislation and pointed toward its website which describes making "improvements that significantly reduce the use of restrictive housing."
Brenda Wiest, the vice president of Teamsters 117, which represents prison staff, said "the rest of the bill is either already in policy and practice or completely unworkable."
New York, Connecticut and New Jersey have recently passed similar legislation to limit the use of solitary confinement.
The justice and reentry is expected to take up discussion of the bill again on Jan. 19, and would go to the House Appropriations Committee for review of financial resources needed. The state Senate is considering a related version of the legislation.
"It's not going to be easy to implement the policy," Peterson said. "But I think we, as a Legislature, need to make a statement about the policy that this is the right thing to do. This is the humane thing to do."
