Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, today I am proud to stand here with Senators RAND PAUL, MIKE LEE, and DICK DURBIN in introducing the Maintaining dignity and Eliminating unnecessary Restrictive Confinement of Youths Act of 2015, or the MERCY Act. This bipartisan bill would prohibit juvenile detention facilities from placing federally adjudicated delinquents in solitary confinement and would limit the use of such confinement for all juveniles in federal pretrial detainment. Prolonged use of solitary confinement of young people often results in severe psychological harm and it is time the federal government leads on this issue and bans the practice.

The juvenile justice system was created because it has always been understood that children are different than adults and need special protection. It was founded on the principle that youth are malleable and, therefore, the focus should be on rehabilitation rather than punishment. Adolescents are still developing psychologically and physiologically and have different needs than adults. In fact, research has shown that brains in humans do not fully develop in most individuals until the age of 25, which underscores the fragility of these young Americans. Unfortunately, our juvenile justice system has lost its way and the emphasis has shifted from one of rehabilitation to punishment. Children are finding themselves trapped in a criminal justice system that does more harm than good and nowhere is that more evident than in the practice of solitary confinement.

In 2011 alone, more than 95,000 youth were held in prisons and jails, and a significant number were held in isolation. In 2013, the Department of Justice found that 47 percent of juvenile detention centers locked youth in solitary confinement for more than four hours at a time, and some held youth for up to 23 hours a day with no human interaction. Words can hardly explain the horrors many children face while placed in isolation. Young people held in solitary suffer from resounding psychological and neurological damage, including depression, hallucinations, paranoia, anger, and anxiety. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy recently commented on the practice of solitary confinement in an opinion and said, ``The penal system has a solitary confinement regime that will bring you to the edge of madness, perhaps to madness itself.'' The negative impact that this practice can have on youth is evidenced by the fact that studies have shown that half of all suicides by juveniles in detention facilities occurred in isolation.

Medical experts to civil and human rights advocates have made calls to end this horrible practice. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture called for the practice to be banned across the globe. Despite the extensive data that demonstrates the harmful nature of solitary, the United States continues to use solitary confinement at alarming rates. It is time the United States catch up to international standards and ban the use of unnecessary juvenile solitary confinement.

The MERCY Act would prohibit the use of solitary confinement of youth adjudicated delinquent in the Federal system, unless it is a temporary response to a serious risk of harm to the juvenile or others. Additionally, it would preclude the use of solitary confinement of any youth awaiting trial in federal court regardless of whether that person is being tried as an adult or juvenile. The bill ensures that before a juvenile is placed in room confinement, the staff member must use the least restrictive techniques, including de-escalation techniques or discussions with a qualified mental health professional. It mandates that juveniles be informed of why the room confinement placement occurred and that release will occur upon the youth regaining self-control or a certain period of time has elapsed. The Mercy Act limits solitary confinement on juveniles that pose a risk of harm to others to no more than 3 hours and to juveniles who pose a risk of harm to themselves to no more than half an hour. Finally, after the maximum periods of confinement expires, the bill mandates that juveniles be transferred to a facility where appropriate services can be provided.

If we truly want our criminal justice system to reflect our founding principles as a nation of liberty and justice for all, we must promote a more compassionate, common sense approach to rehabilitation that helps restore promise in our young people. It is time we ban the solitary confinement of youth and I urge the speedy passage of the bipartisan MERCY Act.

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