I 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8048 
To develop and implement national standards for the use of solitary 
confinement in correctional facilities, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 13, 2022 
Mr. TRONE (for himself, Mrs. BICE of Oklahoma, and Mr. MEIJER) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Ju-
diciary 
A BILL 
To develop and implement national standards for the use 
of solitary confinement in correctional facilities, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Solitary Confinement 
Study and Reform Act of 2022’’. 
SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of this Act are to— 
(1) develop and implement national standards 
for the use of solitary confinement to ensure that it 
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is used infrequently and only under extreme cir-
cumstances; 
(2) establish a more humane and constitu-
tionally sound practice of segregated detention or 
solitary confinement in correctional facilities; 
(3) accelerate the development of best practices 
and make reforming solitary confinement a top pri-
ority in each correctional facility at the Federal and 
State levels; 
(4) increase the available data and information 
on the incidence of solitary confinement, con-
sequently improving the management and adminis-
tration of correctional facilities; 
(5) standardize the definitions used for col-
lecting data on the incidence of solitary confinement; 
(6) increase the accountability of correctional 
facility officials who fail to design and implement 
humane and constitutionally sound solitary confine-
ment practices; 
(7) protect the Eighth and Fourteenth Amend-
ment rights of incarcerated individuals at correc-
tional facilities; and 
(8) reduce the costs that solitary confinement 
imposes on interstate commerce. 
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SEC. 3. NATIONAL SOLITARY CONFINEMENT STUDY AND 
REFORM COMMISSION. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established a com-
mission to be known as the National Solitary Confinement 
Study and Reform Commission. 
(b) MEMBERS.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—The Commission shall be 
composed of 9 members, of whom— 
(A) 3 shall be appointed by the President; 
(B) 2 shall be appointed by the Speaker of 
the House of Representatives, unless the Speak-
er is of the same party as the President, in 
which case 1 shall be appointed by the Speaker 
of the House of Representatives and 1 shall be 
appointed by the minority leader of the House 
of Representatives; 
(C) 1 shall be appointed by the minority 
leader of the House of Representatives (in addi-
tion to any appointment made under subpara-
graph (B)); 
(D) 2 shall be appointed by the majority 
leader of the Senate, unless the majority leader 
is of the same party as the President, in which 
case 1 shall be appointed by the majority leader 
of the Senate and 1 shall be appointed by the 
minority leader of the Senate; and 
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(E) 1 shall be appointed by the minority 
leader of the Senate (in addition to any ap-
pointment made under subparagraph (D)). 
(2) PERSONS ELIGIBLE.—Each member of the 
Commission shall be an individual who has knowl-
edge or expertise in matters to be studied by the 
Commission. Not less than three members of the 
Commission shall be individuals who have been in-
carcerated or have had an incarcerated family mem-
ber. 
(3) CONSULTATION REQUIRED.—The President, 
the Speaker, and the minority leader of the House 
of Representatives, and the majority leader and mi-
nority leader of the Senate shall consult with one an-
other prior to the appointment of the members of 
the Commission to achieve, to the maximum extent 
possible, fair and equitable representation of various 
points of view with respect to the matters to be 
studied by the Commission. 
(4) TERM.—Each member shall be appointed 
for the life of the Commission. 
(5) TIME
FOR
INITIAL
APPOINTMENTS.—The 
appointment of the members shall be made not later 
than 180 days after the date of enactment of this 
Act. 
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(6) VACANCIES.—A vacancy in the Commission 
shall be filled in the manner in which the original 
appointment was made, and shall be made not later 
than 60 days after the date on which the vacancy 
occurred. 
(c) OPERATION.— 
(1) CHAIRPERSON.—Not later than 15 days 
after appointments of all the members are made, the 
President shall appoint a chairperson for the Com-
mission from among its members. 
(2) MEETINGS.—The Commission shall meet at 
the call of the chairperson. The initial meeting of the 
Commission shall take place not later than 30 days 
after the initial appointment of the members is com-
pleted. 
(3) QUORUM.—A majority of the members of 
the Commission shall constitute a quorum to con-
duct business, but the Commission may establish a 
lesser quorum for conducting hearings scheduled by 
the Commission. 
(4) RULES.—The Commission may establish by 
majority vote any other rules for the conduct of 
Commission business, if such rules are not incon-
sistent with this Act or other applicable law. 
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(d) COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF THE IMPACTS OF 
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall carry 
out a comprehensive legal and factual study of the 
penological, physical, mental, medical, social, fiscal, 
and economic impacts of solitary confinement in the 
United States on— 
(A) Federal, State, and local governments; 
and 
(B) communities and social institutions 
generally, including individuals, families, and 
businesses within such communities and social 
institutions. 
(2) MATTERS
INCLUDED.—The study under 
paragraph (1) shall include— 
(A) a review of existing Federal, State, 
and local government policies and practices with 
respect to the extent and duration of the use of 
solitary confinement; 
(B) an assessment of the relationship be-
tween solitary confinement and correctional fa-
cility conditions, and existing monitoring, regu-
latory, and enforcement practices; 
(C) an assessment of the characteristics of 
incarcerated individuals and juvenile detainees 
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most likely to be referred to solitary confine-
ment and the effectiveness of various types of 
treatment or programs to reduce such likeli-
hood; 
(D) an assessment of the impacts of soli-
tary confinement on individuals, families, social 
institutions, and the economy generally; 
(E) an identification of additional scientific 
and social science research needed on the preva-
lence of solitary confinement in correctional fa-
cilities as well as a full assessment of existing 
literature; 
(F) an assessment of the general relation-
ship between solitary confinement and mental 
and physical illness; 
(G) an assessment of the relationship be-
tween solitary confinement and levels of train-
ing, supervision, and discipline of the staff of 
correctional facilities; and 
(H) an assessment of existing Federal and 
State systems for collecting and reporting the 
number and duration of solitary confinement 
incidents in correctional facilities nationwide. 
(3) REPORT.— 
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(A) DISTRIBUTION.—Not later than one 
year after the date of the initial meeting of the 
Commission, the Commission shall submit a re-
port on the study carried out under this sub-
section to— 
(i) the President; 
(ii) the Congress; 
(iii) the Attorney General of the 
United States; 
(iv) the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services; 
(v) the Director of the Federal Bu-
reau of Prisons; 
(vi) the Administrator of the Office of 
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Preven-
tion; 
(vii) the chief executive of each State; 
and 
(viii) the head of the department of 
corrections of each State. 
(B) CONTENTS.—The report under sub-
paragraph (A) shall include— 
(i) the findings and conclusions of the 
Commission; 
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(ii) the recommended national stand-
ards for reducing the use of solitary con-
finement described in subsection (e); and 
(iii) a summary of the materials relied 
on by the Commission in the preparation 
of the report. 
(e) RECOMMENDATIONS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—As part of the report sub-
mitted under subsection (d)(3), the Commission 
shall provide the Attorney General and the Secretary 
of Health and Human Services with recommended 
national standards for significantly reducing the use 
of solitary confinement in correctional facilities. 
(2) MATTERS
INCLUDED.—The information 
provided under paragraph (1) shall include rec-
ommended national standards relating to— 
(A) how authorities can progress toward 
significantly limiting the utilization of solitary 
confinement so that an incarcerated individual 
may be placed in solitary confinement only 
under extreme emergency circumstances, as a 
last resort, for as short a time as possible, sub-
ject to independent review, and pursuant to the 
authorization of a competent authority; 
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(B) methods that can be employed to en-
sure that the duration of solitary confinement 
of an incarcerated individual at an institution 
can be limited to hours at a time for purposes 
of emergency de-escalation, except that if the 
head of a correctional facility makes an individ-
ualized determination that the incarcerated in-
dividual cannot be safely returned to the gen-
eral population, the head of the correctional fa-
cility may continue to segregate the incarcer-
ated individual from the general population 
without the use of solitary confinement, while 
ensuring that the incarcerated individual has 
access to the type and hours of out-of-cell con-
gregate programming, activities, and engage-
ment comparable to the general population, in 
accordance with best practices and model pro-
grams for improving people’s well-being and re-
ducing violence in youth and adult correctional 
settings, non-correctional settings, and other 
mental health settings, and in accordance with 
the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules 
on the Treatment of Prisoners; 
(C) ensuring that prior to being classified, 
assigned, or subject to long-term segregation, 
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an incarcerated individual shall be entitled to a 
meaningful hearing on the reason for and dura-
tion of the confinement and have access to legal 
counsel for such hearings; 
(D) ensuring that indefinite sentencing of 
an incarcerated individual to long-term segrega-
tion will not be allowed and that the incarcer-
ated individual will be afforded a meaningful re-
view of the segregation at least once every 30 
days that the incarcerated individual remains in 
segregation and that correctional facility offi-
cials must record and provide a transcript of 
the review proceedings for the incarcerated indi-
vidual under review to the incarcerated indi-
vidual or the incarcerated individual’s designee; 
(E) ensuring that correctional facility offi-
cials design and implement programming that 
allows incarcerated individuals subject to long- 
term segregation to earn placement in less re-
strictive housing through positive behavior; 
(F) ensuring that protective custody and 
other custody designations designed to protect 
vulnerable incarcerated individuals, regardless 
of the reason for vulnerability, are not charac-
terized by solitary confinement or other type of 
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isolation conditions, and that incarcerated indi-
viduals placed in protective custody have access 
to programs, privileges, education, and work op-
portunities commensurate with general popu-
lation incarcerated individuals to the extent 
possible; 
(G) ensuring that correctional facility offi-
cials improve access to mental health treatment 
for incarcerated individuals in solitary confine-
ment; 
(H) ensuring that correctional facility offi-
cials do all that is feasible to make certain that 
incarcerated individuals are not held in solitary 
confinement for any duration; 
(I) ensuring that correctional facility offi-
cials develop alternative methods to manage 
issues with incarcerated individuals other than 
solitary confinement; 
(J) ensuring that correctional facility offi-
cers do all that is feasible to make certain that 
incarcerated individuals with mental health, 
physical, or cognitive disabilities are not held in 
solitary confinement for any duration; 
(K) ensuring that correctional facility offi-
cers do all that is feasible to make certain that 
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SEC. 4. ADOPTION AND EFFECT OF NATIONAL STANDARDS. 
(a) PUBLICATION OF STANDARDS.— 
(1) FINAL
RULE.—Not later than one year 
after receiving the report specified in section 
(3)(d)(3), the Attorney General shall publish a final 
rule adopting national standards for the reduction of 
solitary confinement in correctional facilities. 
(2) INDEPENDENT JUDGMENT.—The standards 
referred to in paragraph (1) shall be based upon the 
independent judgment of the Attorney General, after 
giving consideration to the recommended national 
standards provided by the Commission under section 
3(e), and being informed by such data, opinions, and 
proposals that the Attorney General determines to 
be appropriate to consider. 
(3) LIMITATION.—The Attorney General shall 
not establish a national standard under this section 
that would impose substantial additional costs com-
pared to the costs presently expended by Federal 
and State correctional systems. The Attorney Gen-
eral may, however, provide a list of improvements 
for consideration by correctional facilities. 
(4) TRANSMISSION TO STATES.—Not later than 
60 days after publishing the final rule under para-
graph (1), the Attorney General shall transmit the 
national standards adopted under that paragraph to 
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