#RESPECT: Obama Bans Solitary Confinement for Juveniles in Federal Prisons

On Monday, President Barack Obama said that he was moving to ban solitary confinement for juveniles and low-level offenders in federal prisons. Faithfully using his executive order to push for change. In a statement that was written in The Washington Times, Obama said the punishment destroys the possibility that prisoners could be rehabilitated.

“The United States is a nation of second chances, but the experience of solitary confinement too often undercuts that second chance,”

Obama wrote in his op-ed, adding the decision came after a review by the Justice Department. President Obama also stated the practice is overused and has the potential for devastating psychological consequences. The new rules also dictate that the longest a prisoner can be punished with solitary confinement for a first offense is 60 days, rather than the current maximum of 365 days.

The president’s reforms applies to roughly 10,000 federal inmates serving time in solitary confinement. Federal officials sent adults inmates to solitary for nonviolent offenses 3,800 times in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2014, the swift policy change will have more sweeping ramifications.

The reforms come six months after Obama, as part of a broader criminal-justice reform push, ordered the Justice Department to study how solitary confinement was being used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Check out President Obama address to the NAACP in 2015 below and feel free to comment: