Colorado Lawmakers Roll Back Solitary Confinement Bill
DENVER (AP) - Colorado lawmakers have backed away from sweeping new rules on solitary confinement in state prisons.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted instead Tuesday for a watered-down measure that makes only small changes to how the Colorado Department of Corrections decides to put an inmate in solitary.
The bill would have required state prisons to have a physician evaluate inmates with some mental illnesses before they're placed in solitary confinement.
The revised bill gives the Department of Corrections guidelines on determining whether an inmate a security risk worth putting in solitary. But most of the department's solitary confinement policies are unchanged. The bill now heads for a vote by the full Senate.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
