Soohoo, C.. (2017). Human Rights, Solitary Confinement and Youth Justice. Human Rights and Legal Judgments: the American Story (Sarat ed).
Two areas where there has been increased human rights advocacy in the United States are in challenges to the use of solitary confinement and to the practice of trying and incarcerating youth (individuals under age 18 years) in the adult criminal justice system. In New York and in many other states, work around the second issue is known as “raise the age.” This chapter examines advocacy efforts around these two issues, with a particular focus on reform efforts in New York City and New York State, and considers the ways in which human rights activism and popular understandings of rights influence law and policy making.