Kids in Solitary Confinement: America's Official Child Abuse

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/10/14-1


One teen who participated in the Human Rights watch report wrote that being in isolation felt like 'a slow death from the inside out'. (photo: Vincent O'Byrne/Alamy)

Molly J said of her time in solitary confinement:

"[I felt] doomed, like I was being banished … Like you have the plague or that you are the worst thing on earth. Like you are set apart [from] everything else. I guess [I wanted to] feel like I was part of the human race – not like some animal."
Molly was just 16 years old when she was placed in isolation in an adult jail in Michigan. She described her cell as being "a box":

"There was a bed – the slab. It was concrete … There was a stainless steel toilet/sink combo … The door was solid, without a food slot or window … There was no window at all."
Molly remained in solitary for several months, locked down alone in her cell for at least 22 hours a day.