NEW: More than 130 civil rights and justice groups sign letter calling on President Biden to fulfill campaign pledge to end solitary confinement in federal facilities.
, who died by suicide in June 2015 after he was released from Rikers, where he had spent two years in isolation as a teenager after he was accused of stealing a backpack.the complex in the next five years and replace it with smaller jails. Reform advocates say the action has emphasized how issues such as solitary confinement remain troubling in federal facilities as well and must be addressed.
"There's a groundswell in the United States for change across the whole spectrum of the criminal justice system, and that includes how people are treated in carceral systems," said Tammie Gregg, deputy director of the ACLU's National Prison Project."We feel like the moment is now, regardless of which administration is in place."
Gregg said Biden could direct the Justice Department, which oversees the federal prison system, and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration facilities, to comply.Correction officers' unions in states that have moved to revise solitary confinement rules have, arguing that the changes diminish accountability for prisoners and put the facilities' staff members at risk.
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