New Report on the Long Term Impact of Prison Isolation

The Center for Constitutional Rights recently released a report on mental health consequences for those released from solitary confinement.  The report was issued in conjunction with Stanford University’s Human Rights in Trauma Mental Health Lab.  Nahal Zamani of the Center commented on the results of the joint study.   

“In the report, based on interviews with about 30 individuals at three maximum-security prisons, researchers found that prisoners formerly held in long-term solitary confinement in California’s Security Housing Units (SHUs) face continuing mental health consequences even after being transferred to general population. Interviews revealed a range of continued, and potentially permanent, adverse consequences, including: mood deterioration and depression, intense anxiety, emotional numbing and dysregulation, cognitive impairments, modifications in perception of time, physical health ailments, distressful relational estrangement with family and/or friends, and diminished capacity for socialization.”

To read the full report, click here.

The report is a companion to earlier research conducted by the Center and members of Yale Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic documenting the impact of near total isolation in prisons.