By Megan Schrader
The Gazette
DENVER, Colo. — A bill to limit the use of solitary confinement in state-run juvenile facilities passed the House Judiciary Committee by a 6-5 vote after hours of emotional testimony Thursday.
The testimony stretched late into the evening on the bill to limit the use of solitary confinement in state-run juvenile facilities to four hours without approval of the head of youth corrections and only more than eight hours if there’s a court order.
The mother of a juvenile put in solitary confinement in Colorado testified on the impact it had on her son, attorneys and guardians testified about their clients being able to talk about the traumatic child abuse they experienced but breaking down when talking about time in isolation, and one woman talked about the dehumanizing effect prolonged isolation and restraint had on her while in a facility in Massachusetts.
Leaders of the Division of Youth Corrections and the Colorado Department of Human Services, which oversees the agency, oppose the bill.
“We at CDHS absolutely share the belief that the use of seclusion should be limited and tightly controlled,” Nikki Hatch, deputy executive director of operations ad DHS, said. “Our policies and data reflect that belief, however, this bill would actually hurt kids and staff.”
Hatch said DHS and DYC changed their policy in October 2015 to strictly limit the use of what they call seclusion. Since then she said there have only been five instances where the use of seclusion has exceeded four hours and the longest period was for seven hours.
The bill would require DYC to document the use of solitary confinement and report it to a board created by the law to oversee the practices and make recommendations to the directors. Hatch took issue particularly with the reporting requirements which she said would be expensive and onerous and with the barriers to using seclusion for longer periods of time which she said might encourage guards to release juveniles earlier into the general population than safety would otherwise call for.
“Other states are coming to us regularly to ask us for advice. Colorado already has one of the most progressive youth seclusion policies,” Hatch said.
But Rep. Pete Lee, D-Colorado Springs, said House Bill 1328 is essential given the track record in Colorado’s 10 state-run facilities where about 600 kids are held at any time.
“The department has a long-standing, documented record of non-compliance with its own policies,” Lee said.
Lee highlighted the use of special management plans to put juveniles in seclusion as a form of long-term punishment, despite a 1999 law prohibiting the use of isolation unless it’s an emergency and less restrictive means are not going to work. That’s something The Gazette documented in a story in October called “Trouble Behind Bars.”
Antoinette Salas, the mother of a juvenile who was featured in that article because he spent 22 days in solitary confinement in 2014, drove from Pueblo to share her son’s story with lawmakers.
“He spent most of his time in 23-hour lockdown,” Salas said of her son’s time at Spring Creek Youth Corrections Facility in Colorado Springs. “His cell where he slept, he only got to sit in a narrow room with a metal frame bed with one book all day until late in the evening. This made my son change dramatically.”
Salas’ observations are backed up by research conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice, recidivism studies and studies tracking the rates of suicide in juvenile facilities.
President Barack Obama in January called for a ban on putting juveniles housed in the federal prison system in solitary confinement.
According to a study released in October by the Lowenstein Center for Public Interest, 21 states had bans on the use of punitive solitary confinement, but of those 19 states, including Colorado, continued to use solitary confinement for emergency situations. Only seven of those had a limit on the amount of time a juvenile can spend in non-punitive solitary confinement.
“DYC approved using isolation for days, weeks and months without an emergency,” Lee said. “Why did these practices go on? Ask DYC. They may say the were short-staffed or they had an emergency or safety reasons required it. But whatever the reason it’s a violation of law, policy, contrary to best practices.”
Hatch said the division stopped using special management plans in June 2014, but The Gazette reviewed more than 1,600 incident reports for 17 months beginning in January 2014 and found solitary confinement was still being used for prolonged periods of time.
DYC implemented a robust policy in October 2015, however, that Hatch said has reduced the average duration of solitary confinement from 13.8 hours in February 2014 to 1.2 hours in March 2016.
Rep. Paul Lundeen, R-Monument, was one of the five Republicans to vote against the bill.
“It is heartbreaking. It is broken. It is wrong,” Lundeen said of the reports he heard. “But there are signs of light. Things are looking better.”
Lundeen said it’s bad practice to put good policy into state statute just to make a point.
Voting against the bill were Rep. Terri Carver, R-Colorado Springs, Rep. Polly Lawrence, Rep. Yeulin Willett, R-Grand Junction, and Rep. Tim Dore, R-Elizabeth.
Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, said “it wasn’t after they got caught in a series of falsehoods” that DYC changed its policy. He said that had the policy been in place in the first place it could have prevented the abuse that took place.
Salazar, Lee, Rep. Jovan Melton, D-Aurora, Rep. Daniel Kagan, D-Cherry Hills Village and Rep. Lois Court, D-Denver, and Rep. Mike Foote, D-Lafayettte, supported the bill.
Because of the opposition of Republicans, the bill could have a battle in the Senate where Republicans hold the majority.
Denise Maes, the public policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, said in 1999 the director of DYC asked to be included in the restrictions on solitary confinement and restraints.
“DYC said then count me in,” Maes said. “Now DYC is saying count me out. That is very concerning and I find it very unfortunate. DYC should welcome the opportunity to ensure that it will never again stray off course and that is why I am seeking your support on this bill.”
Copyright 2016 The Gazette