“How can we subject prisoners to unnecessary solitary confinement, knowing its effects, and then expect them to return to our communities as whole people? It doesn’t make us safer. It’s an affront to our common humanity.” President Obama announces a ban on the use of solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prisons.

+ Here’s Obama’s Op-Ed on the topic.

+ “It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment.” That’s a quote on solitary from John McCain from an old New Yorker piece from Atul Gawande: Hellhole.

+ The Supreme Court has opened the door to parole for juveniles who have been given life sentences.