Powerless Beings: Solitary Confinement of Humans and Nonhumans in America

David Nathan Cassuto; Michael B Mushlin

doi:10.18226/22370021.v14.n2.19

Authors

David Nathan Cassuto Pace University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3965-5923
Michael B Mushlin Pace University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3965-5923

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18226/22370021.v14.n2.19

Keywords:

Environmental law, confinement, solitary confinement, Animal Rights

Abstract

Every day, thousands of humans and milions of nonhumans endure solitary confinement. Human prisioners held in this way are confined for twenty-two to twenty-for houurs a day for weeks, months, or even years on end in cell the size of a parking space. For these humans, the experience is tortuous. Captive animals held in solitary confinement similarly apend much their lives locked into tiny spaces, isolated, and deprived of the types of interections and environment essencial to their wellbeing. And, like humans, they are driven mad. In human and nonhuman settings, the agony of solitary is chillingly alike and harmful. And, in neither setting is it justifiable or necessary. This article uses a comparative format to examine the moral, penological and scientific shortcomings of solitary confinement across species. Part I describes how solitary confimement is used in human and nonhuman settings and shows the deep wounds that in inflicts in both. Part II examines why the legal structures under which solitary con- finement is imposed (on numans and nonhumans) offer inadequate protections from its depredations. Part III argues that incarcerated be- ings have no leui protections because they are powerless and invisible. In Part IV, the authors write individually. The author with expertise in prison law (Mushlin) describes hou solitary confinement would end in penal facilities if prisoners were empowered and their rights pro- tected. Next, the author with expertise in animal law (Cassuto) explains why solitary confinement for animals in zoos, aquariums and laborato- ries should and could be abolished. The authors conclude with a call to empower creatures subjected to solitary confinement. If all vulnerable beings are adequately protected, the unnecessary suffering inflicted by solitary confinement will finally end.

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Author Biographies

David Nathan Cassuto, Pace University

Professor of Law, Pace Law School; Director, Brazil-American Institute for Law & Environment (BAILE).

Michael B Mushlin, Pace University

Professor Michael B. Mushlin is a Professor of Law at Pace University School of Law, where he teaches Civil Procedure, Evidence and Prisoners' Rights. He is the author of book chapters and articles on a variety of subjects involving evidence, federal jurisdiction, civil procedure, children's rights, and prisoners' rights that have appeared in journals such as the Yale Law and Policy Review, UCLA Law Review, Harvard Civil Rights Civil Liberties Law Review, The Journal of Legal Education, Brooklyn Law Review, and the Fordham Urban Law Journal. He also is the author of Rights of Prisoners (4th ed., West), a four-volume treatise on the law regarding prisoners' rights, and the co-author of New York Evidence with Objections (4th ed., National Institute of Trial Advocacy 2013).

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