America put more than 67,000 people in solitary confinement last year

In the fall of 2015 alone, some 67,442 state and federal prison inmates were kept in solitary confinement, defined as at least 22 hours per day locked alone in a cell. So finds a new report released this week by the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) and Yale Law School, which sought to fill longstanding data gaps on the use of solitary confinement in America today.

The study results show solitary rates vary widely by state. At the high end, Louisiana kept 14 percent of inmates in solitary for 15 days or more in the time period studied. Utah and Nebraska were the only other states to top 10 percent, while at the low end are states as geographically and demographically diverse as Mississippi and California, Connecticut and Hawaii.

The study also found race-based disparities in the solitary population, with most states seeing disproportionate representation of black men in solitary as compared to their share of the general prison population. Also noteworthy: Texas holds the dubious distinction of keeping the most inmates in solitary the longest, with more than 1,000 people isolated for a shocking six years or more.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Though solitary confinement use has declined in recent years thanks to evidence that it is inhumane and counterproductive, that 67,000 figure still provides just a partial tally. It only counts segregated inmates in state and federal prisons, excluding those in local jails as well as juvenile, military, and immigration detention centers.