As more and more minors serve time in adult prisons, a growing number are placed in solitary confinement. Officials say it's to protect the minors from the adult prison population. Some of those who served time in solitary as teens and their advocates say it's a harmful practice and a dark secret of the criminal justice system. Rock Center Special Correspondent Ted Koppel reports.
By Elizabeth Chuck, NBC News, and Deirdre Cohen and Sarah Koch, Rock Center
Courtesy of the Stewart family
James Stewart, who was arrested after being charged with vehicular homicide when he was 17, is seen in an undated school photo.
James Stewart, a 17-year-old from Denver who committed suicide while in solitary confinement, had never been to jail before August of 2008. That was when, under the influence of alcohol and marijuana, Stewart had gotten into a head-on car collision, killing a 32-year-old man.
Because of the severity of his crime, Stewart was charged with vehicular homicide – and charged as an adult. His family couldn’t make bail, so Stewart was placed in the Denver County Jail while he awaited his sentence.
There was just one problem: Since he was a minor, Stewart was ordered to be put in protective custody, separate from the adult prisoners— and the best protection the jail had to offer was solitary confinement.
Weeks later, the psychological impact was too much. After a brief reprieve from solitary to be in a shared cell with another juvenile offender, Stewart was sent back to isolation after a minor argument with his cellmate. According to his older sister, Nicole Miera, Stewart took his own life after less than 10 minutes of being back in what inmates called "the hole."
"It was stated that that when he got in there, he was pretty upset," Miera told NBC's Ted Koppel, her eyes filling with tears. "He had taken a sheet and he had wrapped around his neck and just twisted until he couldn't twist anymore."
Stewart was one of many juveniles who are in adult jails and prisons across America. Not all of their stories end as tragically as his, but the increasingly blurry line between juvenile offenders and adult correctional facilities have made many wonder if better solutions are needed for this growing population.
James Stewart was 17 when he committed suicide after being placed in solitary confinement. He is part of a rising tide of juveniles who commit suicide while being locked away in solitary. Rock Center Special Correspondent Ted Koppel reports.
For each of the past five years, roughly 100,000 juveniles have been held in adult jails and prisons, according to data from the Department of Justice.
Defense attorney Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Montgomery, Ala.-based Equal Justice Initiative, told NBC these youths are getting unfairly harsh treatment for the crimes they commit.
"Ninety-one percent of the children who are serving time in adult jails and prisons are serving time in jails and prisons for crimes that are not murder, crimes that are not sex crimes," he said. "Solitary confinement is pretty horrible for anybody, but it's especially horrible for a child. It is psychological torture."
‘The dark secret of the criminal justice system’
Data on how many of those young people nationwide are held in solitary confinement isn't available, but a report published this past October by Human Rights Watch and The American Civil Liberties Union said the New York City Department of Corrections, for example, reported that in fiscal year 2012, 14 percent of all detained adolescents were held in solitary at least once.
"I spoke to kids. They talked about being in a cell alone, the size of a parking space, the size of an elevator," said Ian Kysel, who authored the HRW/ACLU report. "This is sort of the dark secret of the criminal justice system. ... Jails and prisons don't make available their data on solitary confinement."
At New York City's Riker's Island, the average length of solitary confinement for youths last year was 43 long, 23-hour days, according to Kysel's report.
The catch-22 of being prosecuted as adults but segregated from the adult prison population because they are still minors is literally making young offenders go out of their minds — and many of them have mental health issues before they are put in isolation, according to the HRW/ACLU report.
Stuart Grassian, a Boston-based psychiatrist who is an expert on solitary confinement, cites CIA research done in the 1950s, which found solitary confinement made American prisoners of war in North Korea go psychotic.
"What was produced by that was a person who was so unhinged, he was confused, disoriented, disheveled," he told NBC News, "They wouldn't sometimes know who they were. They couldn't think."
Kysel, the author of the report on adolescents in adult prisons, has called for youth solitary confinement to be banned and for other punishments — such as taking away privileges — to be instituted instead. Grassian agrees that this is necessary.
"You have these kids getting more and more out of control, more and more impulsive, more and more emotionally out of control because they're in solitary. It's very likely that's going to be a permanent impairment in their lives," he said. "Well, guess what? Ninety-five percent of them are gonna get out back into your community. What do you want them to be like when they get out?"
Rock Center's Rima Abdelkader contributed to this report.
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He killed someone drinking and driving. I wouldn't just blame the solitary for his psychological torture. He still took a life, does not deserve to be pampered. It's hard for me to feel sorry for him and his family. His family probably drinks and drives and does drugs too.
Prisons realize there is more liability if Bubba gets ahold of an underage boy.
zero tolerance, just put them down as soon as they are found guilty beyond reasonable doubt. will do well as population control too......
don't get into jail if you want to live. when you commit crime, no matter how little it is, you surrender your life.... solitary is still too good for you.
before you say anything, mark these points: crime, not misdemeanor or felony and it must be beyond reasonable doubt, if later we find they are put to death wrongly, the DA must be then put to death himself.
You're an idiot...
Yus, you're an Idiot...
They broke the law--LET THEM SUFFER!!!
Sorry, was just doing my "red state citizen" impression...
Well if you do the crime you will have to do the time, I'm sure the victims have it much worse than being in a prison in Iso. Like the dead victim(s) of the vehicular homicide?
What a load of @$%# whoever came up with Charge as adult is a Souless Moron
kids are not Adults Period.. Our System Sucks...it has bee run by Undereducated low Class who take great joy in treating People like Dogs... it has Never worked and should be sued til it is destroyed.....
If you are going to do the crime you have to do the time.
Too bad so sad.
You inbred hicks need to understand what is being said. He is in prison for the crime. The prison places him into a prison within a prison ONLY due to their age, not because he acted up and deserved that. No one is saying he should not be in prison. Go get a high school education and stop having sex with farm animals, you will understand things better.
He had a chance to share a cell with another inmate, but this precious 17 could not get along with this person and sent back into confinement!!!
He had a chance but could not behave... strike two! sex with farm animals? huh? you sound like a pro at this, please explain
Solitary confinement is better than DEATH !!! They shouldn't make jail easy just to be nice, it's supposed to be difficult.
I would like you to spend a week in Solitary confinement and see what you say about it being better than death after you get out.
And if SC is better than death, why did this boy kill himself? Was he having too much fun, perhaps?
Everyone has done stupid things in a lifetime, he should be held responsible but I believe this is worse punishment than is necessary for a kid. And I know he committed a crime. But there should be some place other than a small dungeon.
Is it possible that he actually killed himself because he was wracked with guilt over the fact that he had killed someone, and not because he was in solitary?
Even if that was the case, he should have been able to get help. Him killing himself isn't the point of the article - its that kids are being placed in an otherwise extreme punishment placement in the jails not due to what they did, but their age.
Good point.
I'm sure that was some of the reason, big guilt on a young person...
Exactly!! Good point Surveyor11
Americans don't realize how big a business the jail system is for non-government providers. Profit and business is at the heart of this, which is never good for a system that benefits more the more people are placed in prison. Politicians sell "tough on crime" to their voters so business can profit and pay politicians. Round and round you go.
America has the largest prison population in the world - yet only 5% of the world population. Math doesn't lie.
This is what the repukes, tea pots and right wingers have planned for all of Amerika. NO respect at all for youth, children, the old or the mentally ill. This is becoming a dreadful place to live.
yeah, we should let 17 year old drive drunk and high and kill anyone they want them give them a pass on it. I mean after all, they were mature enough to get a drivers license, have a drink, have drugs but of course want no part of the consequence of such behavior.
You're right about non caring from the government..and about no respect.
Anyone just read of the two thugs who killed an innocent baby and shot the mother? I have no sympathy for these kids being in jail. This kid in the story killed a person! Could have been your husband, your son, your brother. You get my point.
This kid made a very bad error, compiled by bad luck. He should serve prison, but should not be forced into a prison of a prison just due to his age. You people need to realize what is being said.
he was 17, not 8... if he didn't know drinking and doing drugs then getting into a car and killing someone was a possibility then he is better off where he is.
John C_1, The person who had bad luck was the innocent victim he killed. James chose to smoke pot and drink and then get behind the wheel of a car and drive fast enough that the accident took another persons life. If it was your loved one or close friend would you still be saying he did not deserve a prison sentence?
All prisoners should be in solitary, all the time.
It would end all jail violence and stop the creating of better criminals.
No gym, no outside. Just books and food in a cell.
People go crazy in solitary, and 99% of all prisoners will one day be released. How does that help society releasing crazy people??
Again, its called high school and you should not have left.
Profit over people.
Sad isn't it?
""Ninety-one percent of the children who are serving time in adult jails and prisons are serving time in jails and prisons for crimes that are not murder, crimes that are not sex crimes," he said. "Solitary confinement is pretty horrible for anybody, but it's especially horrible for a child. It is psychological torture.""
He just killed a 32 year old with his car! Isn't that murder?
No it is not "murder", it is manslaughter. He did not purposefully kill someone.
Seriously people, you guys are really this dumb??
Ok, so when some drunk smashes into one of your family members we will remember it was only manslaughter. Sorry, if you get behind the wheel of a car drunk and high, he was not without fault and it may as well have been with a gun.
Yes John, they are really that dumb. Brainless, clueless, simpletonians. In another era people constantly told them they were stupid so that by the time they were adults, they knew they and their ideas were stupid. Unfortunately, they've been lead to believe that they have valuable thoughts.
If he had used a gun it would have been murder which requires premeditation. No one said the young man was without fault. We have said placing him in solitary confinement to protect him while driving him crazy is not a viable option.
The only "Justice" in America is what you can afford to buy. Did he have a lawyer or a Public Defender? A lawyer will sometimes work in your favor, I say sometimes because they suck too(look at Congress). Real change begins at home, where you're raised. Did he have one parent? Two? Or none at all? Sometimes that does'nt matter either because kids are more in tune with their peers than they are with ANY control figure. So, the answer - a crime is a crime, You do the deed, you pay the price. Unfortunately, this kid paid the ultimate price.
Finally someone that says something intelligent. I agree, that is what kept me out of this sort of situation. Regardless, I do not think they should send kids to solitary. That is cruel.
Sorry, everyone makes mistakes in life and sometimes those mistakes cause death to others. When that happens you pay the price. At 17, with a drivers license and drinking then killing someone should result in an adult charge. You were old enough to drive, you were old enough to have a drink and then you want to be charged like a juvenile?
The continued lack of NOT taking perseonal responsibility for ones actions and always blaming someone/something else is what is wrong with people. Sorry the 17 year old that was old enough to drive, drink and kill someone wasn't prepared for the consequence, poor upbringing does that along with a 17 year old that probably was never once told 'NO' in life.
He did the crime....drinking while underage and he took an illegal drug..then KILLED a man....who had family, life ahead of himself and HE WASN'T DRUNK OR UNDER THE INFLUENCE of a Recreational Drug and NOW you want to feel sorry for the dumb ass kid? Tell that to the dead man's family and see how THEY like it? It would be a different story if it happened to YOUR mother, father, wife, husband, etc. ANYONE you loved. I'm sick of these bleeding hearts......put the kid's asses in jail and if they can't do the time, then DON"T TO THE CRIME!
Wow Helen, you have just an INHUMAN level of decency. Can't wait until you have a minor problem with your prescriptions and then accidently rear-end someone...enjoy those 15 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter your heartless worm because the courts will say that you VOLUNTARILY TOOK your medication and that it was your fault. And by the way, quoting the theme song from "Baretta" doesn't make you sound even REMOTELY intelligent.
He made the choice to get @*$#% up and he ended up killing someone.
What about the the tragedy of the 32 year old man he murdered? What about what that man's family had to (and will for the rest of their lives) go through? Seriously here we go again coddling bad decisions and protecting the wrong people.
Mental health issues before they got into juvenile detention or solitary confinement? You don't say... seriously people it's time to take a long hard look at why mental health is skyrocketing in this country at an alarming rate.
Take the 92% and force them to go live with their parents who clearly failed...
Im sure facing prison time had NOTHING to do with the suicide. Misleading article titles much?
RE: "Minors shouldn't be tried as adults" as a rational argument...
What about these "kids"?
"Oh they're just children, they shouldn't be judged as adults!" What a load of BS. Let's ask the victims' families what they think about these "children."
Shouldn't be solitary confinement, but that kid looks really mean in that picture. Good thing he's in jail.
Whats disturbing is that society hasn't got a place for these kinds of juvenile delinquents to go safely. He made some seriously bad, grown-up choices and then ended up with the serious consequence of killing someone. Justice will be served, but we have to do so with a clear knowledge of HOW TO. Someone somewhere failed...
One word: Parents
usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/22/17414832-two-teen-suspects-arrested-in-shooting-death-of-georgia-baby
Where is congressional/presidential leadership on this crime against our young people? I can tell you that even a few days in solitary is absolutely, mind-numbingly dreadful and for New York to incarcerate them for an AVERAGE of 43 days is reprehensible. It will take a courageous group of attorneys, the ACLU or someone with some balls to sue the living hell out of the State of New York and then drive it all the way to the Supreme Court. This abuse has to stop.