Youth to End Solitary SD

We Push to end solitary confinement across San Diego County.

We are a high school student-led organization which aims to abolish solitary confinement use in San Diego County Jails. We build the community infrastructure needed to push this agenda and lobby our Board of Supervisors for meaningful reform.

Why we care:

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IS TORTURE.

Torture is defined as any act “by which severe pain or suffering whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person” by the United Nations Convention against Torture.

Medical experts, civil rights attorneys, human rights officials, and the United Nations consider solitary confinement to be a form of torture.

120,000 Americans are held in isolation. A man in San Diego County has been put in isolation for 4 years.

“It’s like being buried Alive”

What its Like Inside “The Box”

  • The dimensions of a solitary confinement cell, 6 x 9 feet, are smaller than a parking space

  • Kept in isolation 23+ hours a day, with lights on 24/7

  • Plumbing backs up, leaving feces and urine on the floors of cells and filling restrictive housing units with the smell of sewage

  • Constant sounds of banging and screaming

  • Lack of proper heating or cooling systems

  • In Texas, prisoners were subjected to conditions of 115 degrees, being cooked alive

  • Constant sounds of banging and screaming

THE EPITOME OF CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT

Impacts on Physical Health

Inmates in solitary confinement have a higher risk of hypertension and have a shorter life expectancy. The hippocampus and pre-frontal cortex of an inmate visibly shrink after they are placed in isolation.

Psychological Harm

Inmates in solitary confinement are 5x more likely to commit suicide and oftentimes develop cutting disorders. Inmates suffering from long term isolation are known to have schizophrenic visions of people, experience sensory decompensation, and smear feces on themselves.

Sexual Intimidation

Women who experience solitary confinement are subject to strip searches and showering naked with male guards present. There are also several accounts of sexual harassment in solitary confinement wings by male guards, with women performing sexual acts to receive water and other necessary supplies. They are threatened with being placed in solitary confinement when they refuse to perform sexual acts for guards.

If you've read this and are as enraged as we are, welcome to the fight.

We encourage you to become an integral part of our community of critically engaged advocates by signing up for our newsletter, signing up to volunteer, or following us on Instagram and TikTok.