Solitary Confinement Study and Reform Act of 2019
This bill establishes the National Solitary Confinement Study and Reform Commission. The commission must study the impact of solitary confinement on governments, communities, and social institutions. It must also report findings and recommend national standards to reduce the use of solitary confinement.
The bill directs the Department of Justice to publish national standards to reduce solitary confinement in correctional facilities.
The Bureau of Prisons must comply with the national standards immediately.
A state or local government must comply with the national standards to receive a full allocation of funds under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program.
[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4488 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4488
To develop and implement national standards for the use of solitary
confinement in correctional facilities, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 25, 2019
Mr. Richmond (for himself and Mr. Walker) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To develop and implement national standards for the use of solitary
confinement in correctional facilities, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Solitary Confinement Study and
Reform Act of 2019''.
SEC. 2. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are to--
(1) develop and implement national standards for the use of
solitary confinement to ensure that it is used infrequently and
only under extreme circumstances;
(2) establish a more humane and constitutionally sound
practice of segregated detention or solitary confinement in
correctional facilities;
(3) accelerate the development of best practices and make
reforming solitary confinement a top priority in each
correctional facility at the Federal and State levels;
(4) increase the available data and information on the
incidence of solitary confinement, consequently improving the
management and administration of correctional facilities;
(5) standardize the definitions used for collecting data on
the incidence of solitary confinement;
(6) increase the accountability of correctional facility
officials who fail to design and implement humane and
constitutionally sound solitary confinement practices;
(7) protect the Eighth Amendment rights of inmates at
correctional facilities; and
(8) reduce the costs that solitary confinement imposes on
interstate commerce.
SEC. 3. NATIONAL SOLITARY CONFINEMENT STUDY AND REFORM COMMISSION.
(a) Establishment.--There is established a commission to be known
as the National Solitary Confinement Study and Reform Commission.
(b) Members.--
(1) In general.--The Commission shall be composed of 9
members, of whom--
(A) 3 shall be appointed by the President;
(B) 2 shall be appointed by the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, unless the Speaker is of the
same party as the President, in which case 1 shall be
appointed by the Speaker of the House of
Representatives and 1 shall be appointed by the
minority leader of the House of Representatives;
(C) 1 shall be appointed by the minority leader of
the House of Representatives (in addition to any
appointment made under subparagraph (B));
(D) 2 shall be appointed by the majority leader of
the Senate, unless the majority leader is of the same
party as the President, in which case 1 shall be
appointed by the majority leader of the Senate and 1
shall be appointed by the minority leader of the
Senate; and
(E) 1 shall be appointed by the minority leader of
the Senate (in addition to any appointment made under
subparagraph (D)).
(2) Persons eligible.--Each member of the Commission shall
be an individual who has knowledge or expertise in matters to
be studied by the Commission.
(3) Consultation required.--The President, the Speaker, and
the minority leader of the House of Representatives, and the
majority leader and minority leader of the Senate shall consult
with one another prior to the appointment of the members of the
Commission to achieve, to the maximum extent possible, fair and
equitable representation of various points of view with respect
to the matters to be studied by the Commission.
(4) Term.--Each member shall be appointed for the life of
the Commission.
(5) Time for initial appointments.--The appointment of the
members shall be made not later than 180 days after the date of
enactment of this Act.
(6) Vacancies.--A vacancy in the Commission shall be filled
in the manner in which the original appointment was made, and
shall be made not later than 60 days after the date on which
the vacancy occurred.
(c) Operation.--
(1) Chairperson.--Not later than 15 days after appointments
of all the members are made, the President shall appoint a
chairperson for the Commission from among its members.
(2) Meetings.--The Commission shall meet at the call of the
chairperson. The initial meeting of the Commission shall take
place not later than 30 days after the initial appointment of
the members is completed.
(3) Quorum.--A majority of the members of the Commission
shall constitute a quorum to conduct business, but the
Commission may establish a lesser quorum for conducting
hearings scheduled by the Commission.
(4) Rules.--The Commission may establish by majority vote
any other rules for the conduct of Commission business, if such
rules are not inconsistent with this Act or other applicable
law.
(d) Comprehensive Study of the Impacts of Solitary Confinement.--
(1) In general.--The Commission shall carry out a
comprehensive legal and factual study of the penological,
physical, mental, medical, social, fiscal, and economic impacts
of solitary confinement in the United States on--
(A) Federal, State, and local governments; and
(B) communities and social institutions generally,
including individuals, families, and businesses within
such communities and social institutions.
(2) Matters included.--The study under paragraph (1) shall
include--
(A) a review of existing Federal, State, and local
government policies and practices with respect to the
extent and duration of the use of solitary confinement;
(B) an assessment of the relationship between
solitary confinement and correctional facility
conditions, and existing monitoring, regulatory, and
enforcement practices;
(C) an assessment of the characteristics of
prisoners and juvenile detainees most likely to be
referred to solitary confinement and the effectiveness
of various types of treatment or programs to reduce
such likelihood;
(D) an assessment of the impacts of solitary
confinement on individuals, families, social
institutions, and the economy generally;
(E) an identification of additional scientific and
social science research needed on the prevalence of
solitary confinement in correctional facilities as well
as a full assessment of existing literature;
(F) an assessment of the general relationship
between solitary confinement and mental illness;
(G) an assessment of the relationship between
solitary confinement and levels of training,
supervision, and discipline of the staff of
correctional facilities; and
(H) an assessment of existing Federal and State
systems for collecting and reporting the number and
duration of solitary confinement incidents in
correctional facilities nationwide.
(3) Report.--
(A) Distribution.--Not later than two years after
the date of the initial meeting of the Commission, the
Commission shall submit a report on the study carried
out under this subsection to--
(i) the President;
(ii) the Congress;
(iii) the Attorney General of the United
States;
(iv) the Secretary of Health and Human
Services;
(v) the Director of the Federal Bureau of
Prisons;
(vi) the Administrator of the Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention;
(vii) the chief executive of each State;
and
(viii) the head of the department of
corrections of each State.
(B) Contents.--The report under subparagraph (A)
shall include--
(i) the findings and conclusions of the
Commission;
(ii) the recommended national standards for
reducing the use of solitary confinement
described in subsection (e); and
(iii) a summary of the materials relied on
by the Commission in the preparation of the
report.
(e) Recommendations.--
(1) In general.--As part of the report submitted under
subsection (d)(3), the Commission shall provide the Attorney
General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services with
recommended national standards for significantly reducing the
use of solitary confinement in correctional facilities.
(2) Matters included.--The information provided under
paragraph (1) shall include recommended national standards
relating to--
(A) how authorities can progress toward
significantly limiting the utilization of solitary
confinement so that a prisoner may be placed in
solitary confinement only under extreme emergency
circumstances, as a last resort, for as short a time as
possible, subject to independent review, and pursuant
to the authorization of a competent authority;
(B) methods that can be employed to ensure that the
duration of solitary confinement of a prisoner at an
institution can be limited to no more than 15
consecutive days in a 60-day period, except that if the
head of a correctional facility makes an individualized
determination that the prisoner cannot be safely
returned to the general population, the head of the
correctional facility may continue to segregate the
prisoner from the general population without the use of
solitary confinement and in accordance with the United
Nations Standard Minimum Rules on the Treatment of
Prisoners;
(C) ensuring that prior to being classified,
assigned, or subject to long-term segregation, a
prisoner shall be entitled to a meaningful hearing on
the reason for and duration of the confinement and have
access to legal counsel for such hearings;
(D) ensuring that indefinite sentencing of a
prisoner to long-term segregation will not be allowed
and that the prisoner will be afforded a meaningful
review of the segregation at least once every 30 days
that the prisoner remains in segregation and that
correctional facility officials must record and provide
a transcript of the review proceedings for the prisoner
under review to the prisoner or the prisoner's
designee;
(E) ensuring that correctional facility officials
design and implement programming that allows prisoners
subject to long-term segregation to earn placement in
less restrictive housing through positive behavior;
(F) ensuring that protective custody and other
custody designations designed to protect vulnerable
prisoners, regardless of the reason for vulnerability,
are not characterized by solitary confinement or other
type of isolation conditions, and that prisoners placed
in protective custody have access to programs,
privileges, education, and work opportunities
commensurate with general population prisoners to the
extent possible;
(G) ensuring that correctional facility officials
improve access to mental health treatment for prisoners
in solitary confinement;
(H) ensuring that correctional facility officials
work toward systems wherein prisoners diagnosed by a
qualified mental health professional with a serious
mental illness are not held in long-term solitary
confinement;
(I) ensuring that correctional facility officials
do all that is feasible to make certain that prisoners
are not held in solitary confinement for any duration;
(J) ensuring that correctional facility officials
develop alternative methods to manage issues with
prisoners other than solitary confinement;
(K) ensuring that correctional facility officers do
all that is feasible to make certain that prisoners
with mental health, physical, or cognitive disabilities
are not held in solitary confinement for any duration;
(L) ensuring that correctional facility officers do
all that is feasible to make certain that pregnant and
post-partum women are not held in solitary confinement
for any duration;
(M) ensuring that correctional facility officers
work towards systems that limit the circumstances and
conditions under which juveniles are placed in solitary
confinement, in compliance with section 5043 of title
18, United States Code; and
(N) such other matters as may reasonably be related
to the goal of reducing solitary confinement in
correctional facilities.
(3) Limitation.--The Commission shall not propose a
recommended standard that would impose substantial additional
costs compared to the costs presently expended by correctional
facilities, and shall seek to propose standards that reduce the
costs of incarceration at such facilities.
(f) Consultation With Accreditation Organizations.--In developing
recommended national standards for the reduction of solitary
confinement under subsection (e), the Commission shall consider any
standards that have already been developed, or are being developed
simultaneously to the deliberations of the Commission. The Commission
shall consult with accreditation organizations responsible for the
accreditation of correctional facilities that have developed or are
developing standards related to solitary confinement. The Commission
shall also consult with national associations representing the
corrections profession, the legal profession, the medical profession,
or any other pertinent professional body that has developed or is
developing standards related to solitary confinement.
(g) Hearings.--
(1) In general.--The Commission shall hold public hearings.
The Commission may hold such hearings, sit and act at such
times and places, take such testimony, and receive such
evidence as the Commission considers advisable to carry out its
duties under this section.
(2) Witness expenses.--Witnesses requested to appear before
the Commission shall be paid the same fees as are paid to
witnesses under section 1821 of title 28, United States Code.
The per diem and mileage allowances for witnesses shall be paid
from funds appropriated to the Commission.
(h) Information From Federal or State Agencies.--The Commission may
secure directly from any Federal department or agency such information
as the Commission considers necessary to carry out its duties under
this section. The Commission may request the head of any State or local
department or agency to furnish such information to the Commission.
(i) Personnel Matters.--
(1) Travel expenses.--The members of the Commission shall
be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of
subsistence, at rates authorized for employees of agencies
under subchapter I of chapter 57 of title 5, United States
Code, while away from their homes or regular places of business
in the performance of service for the Commission.
(2) Detail of federal employees.--With the affirmative vote
of \2/3\ of the Commission, any Federal Government employee,
with the approval of the head of the appropriate Federal
agency, may be detailed to the Commission without
reimbursement, and such detail shall be without interruption or
loss of civil service status, benefits, or privileges.
(3) Procurement of temporary and intermittent services.--
Upon the request of the Commission, the Attorney General shall
provide reasonable and appropriate office space, supplies, and
administrative assistance.
(j) Contracts for Research.--
(1) National institute of justice.--With a \2/3\
affirmative vote, the Commission may select nongovernmental
researchers and experts to assist the Commission in carrying
out its duties under this Act. The National Institute of
Justice shall contract with the researchers and experts
selected by the Commission to provide funding in exchange for
their services.
(2) Other organizations.--Nothing in this subsection shall
be construed to limit the ability of the Commission to enter
into contracts with other entities or organizations for
research necessary to carry out the duties of the Commission
under this section.
(k) Termination.--The Commission shall terminate on the date that
is 60 days after the date on which the Commission submits the reports
required by this section.
(l) Exemption.--The Commission shall be exempt from the Federal
Advisory Committee Act.
SEC. 4. ADOPTION AND EFFECT OF NATIONAL STANDARDS.
(a) Publication of Standards.--
(1) Final rule.--Not later than two years after receiving
the report specified in section (3)(d)(3), the Attorney General
shall publish a final rule adopting national standards for the
reduction of solitary confinement in correctional facilities.
(2) Independent judgment.--The standards referred to in
paragraph (1) shall be based upon the independent judgment of
the Attorney General, after giving consideration to the
recommended national standards provided by the Commission under
section 3(e), and being informed by such data, opinions, and
proposals that the Attorney General determines to be
appropriate to consider.
(3) Limitation.--The Attorney General shall not establish a
national standard under this section that would impose
substantial additional costs compared to the costs presently
expended by Federal and State correctional systems. The
Attorney General may, however, provide a list of improvements
for consideration by correctional facilities.
(4) Transmission to states.--Not later than 90 days after
publishing the final rule under paragraph (1), the Attorney
General shall transmit the national standards adopted under
that paragraph to the chief executive of each State, the head
of the department of corrections of each State, the head of the
department of juvenile justice of each State, and to the
appropriate authorities in those units of local government who
oversee operations in one or more correctional facilities.
(b) Applicability to Federal Bureau of Prisons.--The national
standards referred to in subsection (a) shall apply to the Federal
Bureau of Prisons immediately upon adoption of the final rule under
subsection (a)(1).
(c) Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program Funding
Reduction.--Beginning in the second fiscal year that begins after the
date on which the Attorney General issues the final rule under
subsection (a)(1), in the case of a State or unit of local government
that is not in compliance with the national standards described in
subsection (a)(1), the Attorney General shall reduce by 5 percent the
amount that such State or unit of local government would otherwise
receive under subpart 1 of part E of the Omnibus Crime and Safe Streets
Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10151 et seq.).
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.
For purposes of this Act, the following definitions shall apply:
(1) Attorney general.--The term ``Attorney General'' means
the Attorney General of the United States.
(2) Commission.--The term ``Commission'' means the National
Solitary Confinement Study and Reform Commission established
under section 3 of this Act.
(3) Long-term.--The term ``long-term'' means any period
lasting more than 15 consecutive days in a 60-day period.
(4) Qualified mental health professional.--The term
``qualified mental health professional'' means a psychiatrist,
psychologist, psychiatric social worker, licensed professional
counselor, psychiatric nurse, or another individual who, by
virtue of education, credentials, and experience, is permitted
by law to evaluate and provide mental health care.
(5) Serious mental illness.--The term ``serious mental
illness'' means a substantial disorder that--
(A) significantly impairs judgment, behavior, or
capacity to recognize reality or cope with the ordinary
demands of life; and
(B) is manifested by substantial pain or
disability, the status of being actively suicidal, a
severe cognitive disorder that results in significant
functional impairment, or a severe personality disorder
that results in significant functional impairment.
(6) Solitary confinement.--The term ``solitary
confinement'' means confinement of a prisoner or juvenile
detainee in a cell or other place, alone or with other persons,
for approximately 22 hours or more per day with severely
restricted activity, movement, and social interaction, which is
separate from the general population of that correctional
facility.
(7) Segregation.--The term ``segregation'' means housing of
a prisoner separate from the general population of a
correctional facility in which movement, activity, and social
interaction may be restricted.
(8) Correctional facility.--The term ``correctional
facility'' means a Federal, State, local, or privately run
prison, jail, or juvenile detention facility.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.
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