HJBR Jul/Aug 2022

CHANGING THE WORLD 10 JUL / AUG 2022 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   Louisiana Limits Solitary Confinement for Youth The governor signed Louisiana’s first law restricting isolation for youth after two suicides and a ProPublica, NBC News, andThe Marshall Project investigation into harsh conditions in a new state juvenile facility. byAnnieWaldman, ProPublica, Beth Schwartzapfel, The Marshall Project, and Erin Einhorn, NBC News This story was originally published by ProPublica, June 22, 2022. Lawmakers in Louisiana passed new restric- tions on the use of solitary confinement in juvenile facilities following an investigation by The Marshall Project, ProPublica and NBC News into harsh conditions in a youth lockup. The law, which will go into effect Aug. 1, marks the first time that lawmakers in a state known as the world’s incarceration capital have put limits on solitary confinement for youth, advocates say. The news organizations’ investigation found that in one of the state’s facilities, the Acadi- ana Center for Youth at St. Martinville, boys as young as 14 were held in solitary confinement virtually around the clock for weeks. The boys were forced to sleep on the floor in the dark and were shackled when they left their cells to shower. In this facility, which opened last summer, the teens received no education for months, in violation of state and federal law. The conditions were so severe, one ex- pert said, they amounted to “child abuse.” St. Martinville opened despite an ongo- ing debate about the dangers of solitary confinement in Louisiana’s juvenile lock- ups, a controversy that began in 2019 after two teens in a different facility died by sui- cide in solitary confinement within 72 hours. Rep. Royce Duplessis, a New Orleans Demo- crat and the bill’s sponsor, said he didn’t think the legislation would have been successful with- out reporting from NBC News, The Marshall Project and ProPublica, which brought crucial attention to the conditions in juvenile facilities. “It showed the public, it showed legisla- tors that some things were happening that nobody should be proud of,” Duplessis said. “It showed we need to make some changes.” Advocates say the new law, signed by Demo- cratic Gov. John Bel Edwards on June 16, will im- prove conditions at facilities like St. Martinville. “I’m not expecting this to be a panacea, but the law makes a clear statement about