At any given time, there are more than 80,000 people in solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. Even more are held in isolation in immigration detention centers and juvenile facilities.
Long-term isolation has no rehabilitative benefit, but its destructive psychological effects are well-documented—amounting to torture under international law. Solitary confinement violates the U.N. Convention Against Torture, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the U.N. International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.
AFSC works to end the practice of solitary confinement in prisons, jails, and detention centers across the country.
