NBA Champion Caron Butler Works to End Solitary Confinement in Prisons
June 11, 2021
As a teen, criminal justice reform advocate and retired NBA champion Caron Butler spent time locked in a solitary confinement cell inside a juvenile prison. He points to it as the lowest moment of his life. Now, the former University of Connecticut star is pushing to end it in Connecticut with the hopes that it will set an example for other US states.
On Monday, he spoke at a news conference at the state Capitol asking Governor Ned Lamont to sign legislation that would essentially eliminate solitary confinement and other forms of isolation in prisons in the state. The bill, which requires almost all inmates to be allowed at least 6 1/2 hours out of their cells and limits the use of certain restraints, received final legislative approval early Sunday morning. It comes as the state is closing its maximum-security, Northern Correctional Institution, which was designed specifically to keep inmates in isolation.
Butler who spoke on activism and social justice at Beyond Sport House in 2019, has been open about his struggles as a youth in Racine, Wisconsin. He dealt drugs and was arrested more than a dozen times before serving more than a year in prison on drug possession and firearms charges.
He was 15 years old when he got into a fight in prison and was thrown into solitary, spending 23 hours a day isolated in a small cell for two weeks. He had no contact with anyone — no books, no radio, no television. He said none of the violence or other trauma in his young life prepared him for the despair of that situation.
“Being in those four walls and those four corners, it does something to you,” Butler said, in an interview with The Associated Press. “Mentally and spiritually, it takes away a lot. It dehumanizes you.”
According to Psychology Today, solitary confinement as a punishment is closer to a form of torture, with serious consequences for neurological health and severe impacts on the size and functioning of the brain. The sensory deprivation component also contributes to important health impairments, such as alterations of circadian rhythms, the internal biological clock that regulates overall the proper functioning of our bodies.
Butler believes he survived because of a strong family support system and because of his discovery of the outlet of basketball while in prison. He turned his life around when he got out to the point where Hall-of-Fame coach Jim Calhoun saw something in him and offered him a scholarship. He went on to spend 14 seasons in the NBA, where he is now an assistant coach with Miami. He is also a trustee at the Vera Institute for Justice and shared that he’ll never forget the torture he endured in prison.
Barbara Fair, the lead organizer for the Stop Solitary CT campaign, part of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, said it's important to have Butler step forward about living in solitary confinement. “This is somebody people can connect with,” she said. “That’s the biggest problem around our prison systems is that often people have a hard time connecting with the humanity of incarcerated people.”
Butler who consistently shares his story and experiences with the criminal justice system and ncourages dialogue on the issue, hopes to play a part in changing the policing problems in the United States.
He also feels that it's not a coincidence that Maya Moore, who also played for UConn and left her WNBA career to focus on prison reform, and others such as former UConn player Renee Montgomery, are active in the push for social justice reform.
"We were taught by two Hall of Fame coaches [Calhoun and Geno Auriemma] that when you are passionate about something, you have to find a way to create a wave and make that wave bigger and create a current. Just like momentum changes in a basketball game, you have to impose your will on a situation."
Source: Associated Press