California announced this week that it will vastly reduce the use of solitary confinement in its prisons as the result of a settlement between the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and a group of inmates in Security Housing Units, or SHUs.

The inmates objected to the use of SHUs to control prison gang activity. Under the settlement, nearly 2,000 inmates will be moved from solitary confinement back into the general population and inmates now will only be sent to SHUs if they commit certain offenses while in custody--such as murder, extortion or assault--not just for gang affiliation. About 4,600 prisoners will remain in isolation for shorter terms.

Research over the last 30 years has attested to the psychological harm solitary confinement can inflict on prisoners. An op-ed in today's’ Los Angeles Times suggests solitary confinement can amount to torture. But prison guards have argued through the former policy’s 30 year life that solitary confinement was a necessary tool for controlling gang violence within California’s prisons.

So by what mechanisms will prison guards now control known gang members? Who will still be placed in the SHU moving forward? And is California’s move a bellwether for solitary confinement elsewhere in the country?

Summary of Ashker v. Governor of California Settlement Terms

TODD ASHKER, et al. v. GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, et al.

Guests:

Carol Strickman, co-counsel on this week’s settlement and staff attorney at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children

Terry Thornton, Deputy Press Secretary for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

Wes McBride, Executive Director of the California Gang Investigators Association