Ian Manuel lived alone in a room the size of a freight elevator for almost two decades in Florida’s prison system, starting at the age of thirteen.[i] He didn’t have a window in his room to distract himself from the intensity of his confinement.[ii] He wasn’t allowed to talk to other inmates or even to himself. He was given just enough food to die.[iii]For Ian, this hopelessness drove him to multiple suicide attempts.[iv] This is known as solitary confinement—a cruel, unusual, and unconstitutional punishment for children. Although Ian was charged as an adult, the use of solitary confinement on children in Florida’s juvenile detention facilities is still practiced.[v] Federally, solitary confinement is banned, but some states still have no limits or prohibitions on solitary confinement.[vi] Only about one-third of states have laws restricting the use of solitary confinement for children;[vii] out of those states, Florida is not one of them.[viii]It is time for Florida to abolish the use of solitary confinement on children or to adopt a law that restricts it.

Today, at any given time, a minimum of about twenty-six percent of children in Florida’s Department of Corrections are in solitary confinement.[ix] Between July 2017 and June 2018, the department isolated 4,310 children in solitary confinement a total of 11,738 times, meaning approximately thirty percent of children were isolated in solitary confinement at some point during their incarceration.[x] In 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Florida Legal Services, and the Florida Justice Institute filed G.H. v. Tamayo, a federal lawsuit against the Acting Secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, seeking to end the use of solitary confinement in Florida’s juvenile detention facilities.[xi] The suit cited three children repeatedly placed in solitary confinement by the department, with the main child named in the case having wrapped his pants around his neck after repeatedly spending time in solitary confinement at the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center.[xii]

G.H. v. Tamayo challenges the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice’s policy in twenty-one state-operated detention facilities in Florida placing children in solitary confinement and describes the department’s failure to provide children with access to school services, recreation, or appropriate mental health services.[xiii] G.H. argues that placing children in solitary confinement violates the United States Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Rehabilitation Act.[xiv] In October of 2021, United States District Judge Robert L. Hinkle for the Northern District of Florida entered an order certifying G.H. v. Tamayo as a federal class action lawsuit.[xv] This means that the plaintiffs will represent all children who are or will be in solitary confinement in juvenile detention centers throughout Florida.[xvi] The outcome of this lawsuit could change the way Florida treats incarcerated juveniles for the better.

Florida has introduced several bills in the past to change the use of solitary confinement on children; however they have all failed.[xvii] House Bill 377 was sponsored in 2021 and sought to prohibit the Florida Department of Corrections or local governments from placing youth prisoners in solitary confinement but died at the end of the 2021 legislative session in April.[xviii] Additionally, attempts in 2019 and 2020 sought to accomplish the same goal as House Bill 377, but both were unsuccessful.[xix] Although Florida has not succeeded at reforming children’s solitary confinement law, Florida must act quick to protect its children. To do so, it must take the first step toward juvenile justice reform, similarly to Louisiana’s new law that severely restricts the use of solitary confinement on children.[xx]

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards signed House Bill 746, the state’s first law restricting solitary confinement on children, which became effective on August 1, 2022.[xxi] The law places strict constraints on solitary confinement, limiting children to no more than eight hours in isolation before a mental health professional must check them to determine whether the child continues to pose a threat to him or herself or others.[xxii] If the child continues to threaten him or herself or others, the child will remain in isolation, but the isolation must not exceed a total of twenty-four hours.[xxiii] The law places several other restrictions, like the requirement of the state juvenile justice agency to contact the child’s parents or guardian within the first two hours that the child is placed in isolation and the requirement of the child to be checked on every hour that the child is in isolation.[xxiv]

Louisiana’s new law resulted from an investigation revealing severe conditions in some of the state’s juvenile facilities.[xxv] In 2019, two teens at a state facility, the Acadiana Center for Youth at St. Martinville, committed suicide within seventy-two hours of being in solitary confinement.[xxvi] This facility placed boys as young as fourteen in solitary confinement virtually around-the-clocks for weeks.[xxvii] The boys slept on the floor and were shackled when they left their cells to shower.[xxviii]

The effects of solitary confinement on a human’s mental health are devastating and can even be deadly.[xxix]Solitary confinement has been shown to cause permanent changes to the brain and personality[xxx] and is particularly harmful to children because their brains are still developing.[xxxi] Half of the incarcerated children who commit suicide were in solitary confinement when they took their own lives, and sixty-two percent had been in solitary confinement at some point.[xxxii] Children can develop psychiatric syndromes due to solitary confinement, which include symptoms of hallucinations and illusions, severe panic attacks, paranoia, and delirium.[xxxiii]

If Florida does not adopt a law prohibiting the use of solitary confinement on children, it should alternatively adopt a law like Louisiana’s. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, Louisiana is the world’s incarceration capital.[xxxiv] If Louisiana can enact a law restricting the use of solitary confinement on children, Florida should be able to make the same step toward reform.

In addition, Florida should consider the costs it would save if it prohibited or restricted solitary confinement. Solitary confinement costs more than keeping a child in the general population.[xxxv] Although the Florida Department of Corrections does not reveal the costs of solitary confinement, the Southern Poverty Law Center asserts that states which have restricted or prohibited the use of solitary confinement on children have saved up to eight million dollars annually.[xxxvi] A law that protects children’s health in correctional institutions and saves taxpayer dollars would benefit Florida overall.

The solitary confinement of children is costly, and it has detrimental effects on children’s physical and mental health. Now is the time for Florida to abolish solitary confinement of children in detention facilities or adopt a law like Louisiana’s. Florida must take the first step toward juvenile justice reform in the state to protect children like the ones in the case of G.H. v. Tamayo and the unfortunate others to come.

[i] See Ian Manuel, I Survived 18 Years in Solitary Confinement, N.Y. Times (Mar. 25, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/25/opinion/solitary-confinement-reform.html.

[ii] See id.

[iii] See id.

[iv] See id.

[v] See id.

[vi] See Anne Teigen, States that Limit or Prohibit Juvenile Shackling and Solitary Confinement, Nat’l Conference of State Legislatures, https://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/states-that-limit-or-prohibit-juvenile-shackling-and-solitary-confinement635572628.aspx (last updated July 8, 2022).

[vii] See Beth Schwartzapfel et al., Louisiana Limits Solitary Confinement for Youth, Marshall Project (June 22, 2022, 6:00 AM), https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/06/22/louisiana-limits-solitary-confinement-for-youth.

[viii] Teigen, supra note vi.

[ix] See Emily Wood, Florida should end solitary confinement of children, Tampa Bay Times (Feb. 28, 2022), https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2022/02/28/florida-should-end-solitary-confinement-of-children-column.

[x] See G.H., et al. v. Tamayo, et al., S.  Poverty Law Ctr., https://www.splcenter.org/seeking-justice/case-docket/gh-et-al-v-tamayo-et-al (last visited Sept. 24, 2022).

[xi] See id.

[xii] See Michaela Mulligan, A Bill Limiting Youth Solitary Confinement In Florida Failed This Year. Here’s What The Practice Entails, Wuft News(May 18, 2021), https://www.wuft.org/news/2021/05/18/a-bill-limiting-youth-solitary-confinement-in-florida-failed-this-year-heres-what-the-practice-entails/.

[xiii] See Teigen, supra note vi.

[xiv] See id.

[xv] See Order Certifying a Class and Subclass, 15, G.H. et al. v. Tamayo, et al., No. 4:19cv431-RH-MJF (N.D. Fla.).

[xvi] See JUDGE RULES FLORIDA LAWSUIT CAN HAVE ALL CHILDREN IN SOLITARY AS PLAINTIFFS, S. Poverty Law Ctr. (Oct. 27, 2021), https://www.splcenter.org/presscenter/judge-rules-florida-lawsuit-can-have-all-children-solitary-plaintiffs.

[xvii] See Mulligan, supra note xii.

[xviii] See id.

[xix] See id.

[xx] See H.R. 746, Reg. Sess. (La. 2022).

[xxi] See id.

[xxii] See id.

[xxiii] See id.

[xxiv] See id.

[xxv] See Schwartzapfel, supra note vii.

[xxvi] See id.

[xxvii] See id.

[xxviii] See id.

[xxix] See Tiana Herring, The Research is Clear: Solitary Confinement Causes Long-Lasting harm, Prison Pol’y Initiative (Dec. 8, 2020), https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/12/08/solitary_symposium/.

[xxx] See id.

[xxxi] See Schwartzapfel, supra note vii.

[xxxii] See SPLC Report: End solitary confinement in Florida, S. Poverty Law Ctr. (Apr. 4, 2019), https://www.splcenter.org/news/2019/04/04/splc-report-end-solitary-confinement-florida.

[xxxiii] See Herring, supra note xxix.

[xxxiv] See Schwartzapfel, supra note vii.

[xxxv] See Wood, supra note ix.

[xxxvi] See id.