{"id":716,"date":"2019-10-24T15:14:03","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T19:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/?page_id=716"},"modified":"2025-05-12T11:15:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:15:25","slug":"34-current-and-former-prosecutors-judges-and-justice-department-officials-urge-eighth-circuit-to-review-solitary-confinement-practices","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/our-press-releases\/34-current-and-former-prosecutors-judges-and-justice-department-officials-urge-eighth-circuit-to-review-solitary-confinement-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"34 Current and Former Prosecutors, Judges, and Justice Department Officials Urge Eighth Circuit to Review Solitary Confinement Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nearly three dozen current and former prosecutors, former judges, and former U.S. Department of Justice officials signed an amicus curiae (\u201cfriend of the court\u201d) brief filed Wednesday in\u00a0<em>Hamner v. Burls<\/em>, a case in the U.S Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit concerning the placement of a mentally ill prisoner in solitary confinement for 203 days after he reported another inmate\u2019s planned attack on a correctional officer. The brief was authored by Georgetown Law\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/\">Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection<\/a> (ICAP).<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Hamner filed a lawsuit alleging violations of his constitutional rights based on his prolonged solitary confinement. The district court dismissed Mr.\u00a0Hamner&#8217;s claims and the Eighth Circuit affirmed the dismissal on appeal.\u00a0 Without deciding whether Mr. Hamner\u2019s constitutional rights had been violated, the Eighth Circuit held that the defendants had qualified immunity from suit because the constitutional rights Mr. Hamner claimed were not \u201cclearly established\u201d by the courts\u2014a necessary prerequisite for Mr. Hamner to obtain damages in this case.<\/p>\n<p>Mr.\u00a0Hamner\u00a0now seeks rehearing of the Eighth Circuit\u2019s decision.\u00a0 The amicus brief filed on Wednesday supports Mr. Hamner\u2019s request, arguing that the court should answer the constitutional questions that Mr.\u00a0Hamner\u2019s case\u00a0raises in order to provide much needed guidance about the use of solitary confinement in state and federal prisons.\u00a0 The brief further explains why the issues raised by solitary confinement are of particular importance to prosecutors, judges, and Justice Department officials: the overuse of solitary confinement erodes public trust in the criminal justice system, thereby impeding efforts to protect public safety; it undermines the criminal justice system\u2019s rehabilitative goals; and it is detrimental to efforts to obtain extradition from foreign nations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr.\u00a0Hamner&#8217;s case highlights many of the concerns prosecutors have with solitary confinement.\u00a0 He appears to have been subjected to segregation<em>\u00a0because\u00a0<\/em>he provided assistance in preventing a crime\u2014a serious disincentive for those who would otherwise want to help prevent and prosecute crime in the future,\u201d said\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/faculty\/mary-mccord\/\">Mary McCord<\/a>, Legal Director at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center.\u00a0 \u201cAnd he was placed in solitary confinement despite known serious mental health issues, which were made worse by his separation from meaningful stimulation and human contact. It is time that the courts address the grave concerns raised by the continued use of prolonged solitary confinement in jails and prisons across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The brief can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2019\/10\/Hamner-Brief.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>ICAP uses the power of the courts to defend American constitutional rights and values.\u00a0 Based at Georgetown Law Center, ICAP draws on expert litigators, savvy litigation strategy, and the constitutional scholarship of Georgetown to vindicate individuals\u2019 rights and to protect America\u2019s constitutional way of life.\u00a0 More information about ICAP can be found at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/\">law.georgetown.edu\/icap.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nearly three dozen current and former prosecutors, former judges, and former U.S. Department of Justice officials signed an amicus curiae (\u201cfriend of the court\u201d) brief filed Wednesday in\u00a0Hamner v. Burls, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"parent":26,"menu_order":36,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-716","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":888,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/716\/revisions\/888"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}