A Cruel and Unusual Burden: The Case for the Unconstitutionality of Solitary Confinement
On October 22, 1983, a pair of inmates killed two prison guards at Illinois’ Marion State Penitentiary. In response to these murders, prison officials put the penitentiary in a “permanent lockdown.”[1] As a result, the Marion State Penitentiary, already known to be one of the most secure facilities in the country, became the first prison in the United States to adopt universal solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which inmates are isolated f