Giving Compass' Take:
- Bob Egelko discusses a California bill to ban solitary confinement of pregnant people and why its original backers no longer support it.
- What is the role of donors in advocating for better treatment and health care for pregnant people in prisons?
- Learn more about key issues in criminal justice and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on criminal justice in your area.
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Advocates for women in California prisons were backing legislation that would have banned solitary confinement of incarcerated pregnant people — until the author, under pressure from prison officials in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration, amended it to allow them to be held in solitary for up to five days. Now many of its former supporters have changed sides.
“This bill is not a first step in the right direction, it is a step backward — a dangerous move that could subject more vulnerable populations to forcibly endure the cruelty of solitary confinement,” said Gina Clayton-Johnson, executive director of Essie Justice Group, an advocacy organization for women with loved ones in prison that was the lead sponsor of the original bill, Assembly Bill 2527. “Solitary confinement of pregnant people belongs on the list of inhumane and immoral activities that should be banned, not limited.”
Others that have withdrawn their support include the California Public Defenders Association, Disability Rights California and the prisoners’ rights group Initiate Justice Action, said Hamid Yazdan Panah of Immigrant Defense Advocates, another opponent of the amended bill.
But the bill’s author, Assembly Member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-Orinda, said any limits on solitary confinement would be better than the unlimited lockups allowed under current law.
“As a legislator who has made protecting women a top priority every year, I refuse to leave incarcerated pregnant people without protections,” she said in a statement. “But I also understand the difficulty of the State’s budget this year and what must be done to continue to make progress on this critical issue.
“I have so much respect for those working on these issues and I see this bill as a first step in reforming solitary confinement. AB2527 simply sets a new minimum standard, where none currently exists.”
About 3,000 of California’s 92,000 prisoners are in solitary confinement, kept in windowless concrete cells for more than 22 hours a day, fed through a slot and excluded from job training and other programs. Prison officials say most inmates held in solitary have committed dangerous offenses behind bars, but some are kept there for their own security, according to the state’s reports.
Read the full article about banning solitary confinement of pregnant people by Bob Egelko at San Francisco Chronicle.