Youths Suffer Serious Harm From Weeks, Months in ‘Lock-Down’
Embargoed for Release
Not for Publication Until:
10:01 in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, October 10, 2012
14:00 GMT, October 10, 2012
Young people are held in solitary confinement in jails and prisons across the United States, often for weeks or months at a time. The isolation of solitary confinement causes anguish, provokes serious mental and physical health problems, and works against rehabilitation for teenagers.
The 141-page report, “Growing Up Locked Down: Youth in Solitary Confinement in Jails and Prisons Across the United States,” is based on research in both US jails and prisons in five states – Colorado, Florida, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania – and correspondence with young people in 14 others.
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) estimate that in 2011, more than 95,000 young people under age 18 were held in prisons and jails. A significant number of these facilities use solitary confinement – for days, weeks, months, or even years – to punish, protect, house, or treat some of the young people held there.
Kevin DeMott, at age 13, with his mother Lois DeMott, in Battle Creek, Michigan in 2005. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 11, Kevin has struggled with mental illness both inside and outside the adult jail and prison system. He was first arrested at the age of 13 and transferred into an adult facility at the age of 15. He was held in solitary confinement for extended periods of times throughout his youth. He is now 20 years old and is serving time in prison.
Photo courtesy of Lois DeMott
Lois DeMott holds a photograph of her and her son, Kevin DeMott, in her home in Lansing, Michigan. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 11, Kevin has struggled with mental illness both inside and outside the adult jail and prison system. He was first arrested at the age of 13 and transferred into an adult facility at the age of 15. He was held in solitary confinement for extended periods of times throughout his youth. He is now 20 years old and is serving time in prison.
Lois DeMott visits her son Kevin DeMott, age 20, at the Woodland Correctional Facility two weeks after his release from a prolonged stay in solitary confinement in 2012. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 11, Kevin has struggled with mental illness both inside and outside the adult jail and prison system. He was first arrested at the age of 13 and transferred into an adult facility at the age of 15. He was held in solitary confinement for extended periods of times throughout his youth. He is now 20 years old and is serving time in prison.
Photo courtesy of Lois DeMott
Lois DeMott, mother of Kevin Demott, in her home in Lansing, Michigan. Lois advocates on behalf of mentally ill youth held in Michigan's adult prison system.
