In 2015, California settled Ashker v. Governor, a historic class-action lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of a group of Pelican Bay State prison inmates who had each spent at least a decade in isolation. The settlement resulted in an end to the use of indefinite solitary confinement in CA prisons.

On Monday, CCR filed a motion accusing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of violating the rights of inmates freed from indefinite solitary by finding ways to send them back to long-term isolation without due process.

In addition, last week CCR and Stanford Lab released a report revealing that inmates held in long-term solitary confinement experience serious and possibly permanent mental health consequences even after they have returned to the general prison population.

The report also recommends psychoeducation to teach inmates about trauma and to help them “normalize distress,” and manage their post-SHU symptoms.

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