Because of a link to mental illnesses and the potential for more violent behavior, President Barack Obama plans to eliminate solitary confinement for juveniles and low-level offenders in prison.
The Justice Department held a series of recommendations and guiding principles to make it so solitary confinement was only used as a last resort after Obama asked the department to review the use of solitary in the summer of 2015.
States like New York, California, Mississippi, Arizona and Ohio have all agreed to the change.
This case was brought forward after Obama heard about Kelief Browder, a 16-year-old who was arrested on suspicion of stealing a backpack in 2010 and was sent to Rikers Island facility in New York for three years where he was kept in solitary confinement.
Never tried, he was released in 2013. Browder committed suicide in 2015.
