Punishment that causes durable impairments of the punished person’s brain surely violates the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment proscription of “cruel and unusual punishments.” So, recently the Supreme Court’s three “liberal” justices rightly dissented against the six “conservative” justices’ decision not to hear a case concerning the all-too-common prison practice of protracted solitary confinement. Michael Johnson, imprisoned in Illinois’ Pontiac Correctional Center (we will revisit “correctional” below) for home invasion and assault, was a mental wreck before prison policy made him more so. The state’s Department of Corrections classifies him “seriously mentally ill”; his conditions include severe depression and bipolar disorder. Read the full opinion at The Washington Post.

Source: Washington Post November 20, 2023 15:10 UTC