ACLU of Connecticut Commends Passage of Solitary Confinement Reform Legislation

HARTFORD — The Connecticut General Assembly’s Senate this evening voted to approve H.B. 7302, a solitary confinement reform bill. Today’s unanimous, 36-0 vote follows a similarly nonpartisan, 151-0 vote to approve the measure in the House of Representatives. Following today’s passage by the Senate, the bill now awaits action from Governor Dannel Malloy. The following is a reaction from David McGuire, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut:

“Solitary confinement is an outdated, ineffective, expensive, and harmful form of imprisonment. It has no place in Connecticut, where our state has strived to lead the nation in making prisons safer, treating prisoners more humanely, and preventing people from entering the justice system in the first place. By protecting children from the harmful, dangerous effects of solitary confinement, this bill takes an important step toward justice. We welcome this bill’s passage, commend legislators from throughout the political spectrum for taking a stand to protect vulnerable people from solitary confinement, and will continue to work toward stopping solitary confinement once and for all in our state.”