Bill to Reform Solitary Confinement in State Prisons Clears Hurdle

California prisons have long utilized security housing units (SHU), in which they lock up the inmates they say are the state's most dangerous. There, inmates sit in windowless cells alone for years at a time. Prisons have been under pressure to reform that system, which advocates say is abusive. But legislators say they lack information to assess reforms' effectiveness. Oakland Sen. Loni Hancock and San Diego Sen. Joel Anderson co-wrote a bill that requires data collection on inmates in the SHU. The bill passed the Senate Public Safety Committee on Tuesday.