Dr. Terry Kupers, Professor Emeritus in the Wright Institute's Clinical Psychology Program, was published in the Los Angeles Daily News this week. His opinion piece, titled "The impact of solitary confinement on safety in prison and in the community," is a commentary on the detrimental psychological and physical effects of solitary confinement as a bill that would severely limit solitary confinement has passed both houses of the California legislature, but is currently under review by Governor Gavin Newsom, who vetoed a previous version of the bill.
"Governor Newsom acknowledges that solitary confinement causes immense psychological damage, but argues that its use is necessary to maintain order in the prisons. He is very wrong about that," writes Dr. Kupers. "A substantial amount of research evidences no decrease in prison violence when a significant proportion of prisoners are consigned to solitary confinement, and an impressive decrease in prison violence when the population in solitary confinement is substantially reduced."