Solitary Confinement: Calling for Change in American Prisons

Incarceration is the primary form of criminal punishment in the US today, and approximately 80,000 American prisoners are in some form of solitary confinement. What exactly does this look like in our prison system, and what are the effects of solitary confinement on individuals? Does this type of treatment violate prisoners’ constitutional rights? In this edition of Planet Lex, host Jim Speta talks with David Shapiro and Daniel Greenfield, members of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern’s Bluhm Legal Clinic, about their research and efforts to end prolonged solitary confinement in American prisons.

David M. Shapiro is the director of the Supreme Court and Appellate Program of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center.

Daniel M. Greenfield joined the MacArthur Justice Center as the Solitary Confinement Appellate Litigation Fellow in March 2017.