mr. mcconnell: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are, sir. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings your honor the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to the motion to reconsider the motion to invoke clove on senate amendment number

5082 to h.r. 5325. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. and the motion is agreed to. mr. mcconnell: i move to reconsider the motion toip voke cloture on senate amendment number 5082 to h.r. 5325. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say -- aye. all those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on senate amendment number 5028 to h.r. 5325, an act making

appropriations for the legislative branch for the fiscal year year ending september 30, 2017, and for other purposes, signed by 16 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on amendment number 5082 offered by the senator from kentucky, mr. mcconnell, to h.r. 5325 shall be brought to a close? upon reconsideration. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber that would like to vote or change their vote? if not, on this vote the yeas are 77, the nays are 21. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the affirmative, the motion upon reconsideration is agreed to. cloture having been invoked, the motion to commit -- recommit fails. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? mr. president, the senate is not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent to withdraw amendment number 5083 and 5085. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. under the previous order, all postcloture time is expired.

mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the yeas and nays on the amendment. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, the question is on amendment numbered 5082. all those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the amendment is agreed to. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to the motion to reconsider the motion to invoke cloture on h.r. 5325. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all of those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. mcconnell: i move to reconsider the motion to invoke cloture on h.r. 5325. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. those opposed, no.

the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on h.r. 5325, an act making appropriations for the legislative branch for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2017, and for other purposes, signed by 16 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on h.r. 5325, an act making appropriations for the legislative branch for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2017, and for other purposes, shall be brought to a close upon reconsideration. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll.

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber who wish to vote? or to change their vote? if not on this vote the yeas are 77. the nays are 21. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn having

voted in the affirmative, the motion upon reconsideration is agreed to. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: the senate not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. the senate will be in order. the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i know of no further debate on h.r. 5325. the presiding officer: is there further debate on the measure? mr. mcconnell: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: if not, the clerk will read the title of the bill for the third time. the clerk: calendar number 516, h.r. 5325, an act making appropriations for the legislative branch for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2017, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: question is on the bill, as amended. mr. mcconnell: i ask for the

yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote? if not, the yeas are 72. the nays are 26. the bill as amended is passed. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama.

mr. shelby: mr. president, i now ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to executive session and the banking committee be discharged from further consideration of pn-1093, the nomination of john mark mcwatters of texas to be a member of the board of directors of the export import bank that the senate proceed to consideration and vote without intervening action or debate, that if confirmed the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. mr. shelby: mr. president? the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. shelby: i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, i want to thank senator merkley and senator peters for their courtesy to speak for just a few minutes.

in a few days, mr. president, it will be exactly one year since the tragic shooting that took nine innocent lives and left nine more injured at umcor community college outside of rosenberg. senator merkley and i will be there in a few days. we understand the families and the friends of those lost, injured, students, faculty and staff. this anniversary is going to be a painful remierpd -- reminder of an extraordinarily difficult day. senator merkley and i are so proud of that community. we call it ucc strong. and yet we want to remember those individuals whose lives

were ripped away that day and all in the community who have been suffering. other goanans every -- oregonians everywhere have those families and victims in their thoughts. senator merkley and i have spent a lot of time in rosenberg over these last fuel months and folks there will tell you they do all they can to go forward, but the trauma doesn't really disappear, whether it's a walk past snyder hall or the sight of a student running on campus, the painful memories just keep rushing back. as the school presses on, there are a lot of exciting developments on the campus. a new college president hard at work. the school just opened their doors to the new bonnie ford

health, nursing and science center, state-of-the-art classrooms. so extraordinary resilience is being seen at u.c.c. and roseburg, but this is going to be a very difficult few days. as we reflect on the anniversary of this horrendous shooting. and of course the sad reality is the shooting takes its place on a long list of such shootings, horrible mass shootings targeting the innocent. families and victims across the country scarred by the shootings , in effect share a sorrowful bond. i know that roseburg and the movement we know as u.c.c. strong and the whole state of oregon have come together over

this past year to support the families, the victims and those who were injured. senator merkley and i over the next few days are going to dedicate and redouble our efforts to do all that we possibly can to again reach out to folks in roseburg and be supportive and do everything we can as senators honored to represent oregon in the united states senate to prevent more shootings like the horrible one that took place at u.c.c. in oregon. with that, i yield the floor to my colleague, senator merkley. i very much appreciate the chance to work with him and our delegation on this, and i yield the floor. mr. merkley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i join with my friend and colleague, senator wyden, to recognize the somber anniversary of the tragedy that struck our home state of oregon

a year ago. on october 1, 2015, the town of roseburg was changed forever. roseburg is a quiet, beautiful, small town like so many others across our nation. i spent part of my childhood in roseburg. i was there as a toddler in kindergarten and first grade. it's where i learned to swim in the umpqua river. it's a place where i find it hard to imagine anything terrible happening. community members are so supportive of each other. but something terrible did happen that beautiful autumn day of october 1 when the lives of nine oregonians, students and teachers at umpqua community college were tragically cut short by the actions of a crazed gunman.

nine incredible, innocent people taken from us in the blink of an eye mr. president, i want to take a moment to share the names of those nine victims and to say a few words about each. 19-year-old lucero akaras, a freshman who graduated from roseburg high school. she wanted to become a pediatric nurse and help care for the most vulnerable of our citizens. quinn cooper, a member of the cow creek band of indians who graduated from roseburg high. that fateful october day was only his fourth day of college. he loved dancing and voice acting. he loved marshal arts and was just a few days away from taking his brown belt test. lucas ibal graduated from

roseburg high school. he was studying chemistry. he loved soccer and animals. he volunteered at the wildlife safari animal park as well as at a local animal shelter. 20-year-old trevon anspatch, his parents called him the perfect son who was, in their words, larger than life and brought out the best in those around him. he was a talented athlete who also loved working with the douglas county fire district. kim dietz, she loved the outdoors. her husband, eric, her daughter, shannon, their two great pyrenees dogs. she would carpool with shannon to school every morning and worked alongside her husband at the vineyards. jason johnson. jason had been facing substantial challenges as so many others have, but he was proud to have taken control and turned his life around after

completing a six-month rehab program with the salvation army, he decided he wanted to go back to school and continue his education. as jason's mother said, he finally found his path. serena moore. serena came from my hometown of myrtle creek and was in her third semester of u.c.c. studying business. she was an active member of the grants pass seventh day adventist church and the proud mother of two adult sons. lawrence levine, an english professor at u.c.c., who loved the blues and loved fly fishing. he was a quiet, laidback guy who loved teaching, but his true passion lay in writing novels, although tragically, his life was cut short before he could publish.

and rebecka ann carnes. she was my first cousin's great granddaughter. she was an 18-year-old graduate of south umpqua high school. she was an avid hunter. she loved four-wheeling. rebecka was a beautiful spirit who was excited for college, excited to get out and explore the world. in a picture she posted online, you can see that she had written on her high school graduation cap which she was holding in front of her "and so the adventure begins." she was ready for the adventure of a life to come, but it was an adventure cut short in a hail of bullets. although the persistence of time may force us to move forward, we

must never forget these beautiful members of the community or forget the tragedy that took their lives. their families, the roseburg community, the douglas county community, the entire state of oregon continues to mourn their loss. there is an irish saying which goes -- "death leaves a heartache that no one can heal. love leaves a memory that no one can steal." our hearts continue to ache for these nine wonderful individuals taken from us far too soon, and in the aftermath of this tragedy, the fabric of the roseburg community and the greater douglas county community has only grown stronger. the community has rallied together through the u.c.c. strong fund to support the families of those who died, to

give aid to those who survived, to make umpqua community college an even greater asset to the community than it was a year ago and to celebrate the lives of these nine men and women and ensure that their memories continue to live on. and this saturday, on another autumn october 1, the community will come together and they will walk together to mourn, to remember, to support the families of those lost, to embrace and help heal those who were injured and those who were traumatizeed and to continue to rebuild the community, and as they come together on saturday morning, all of oregon will be

coming together with them, holding them in our thoughts, holding them in our hearts, holding them in our prayers, mourning with them, remembering with them, supporting and embracing them and partnering with the amazing umpqua strong community. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. peters: mr. president, i want to take a moment to thank my colleagues for their ongoing support and patience as we continue fighting to deliver federal support for flint families. with an agreement earlier today to take up a bipartisan house

amendment to the water resources development act, or wrda, we have taken another step forward to finally put flint on the road to recovery. just a few days ago, we still had some members here in congress who were refusing to allow even a vote to provide any assistance to the families in flint, but with this agreement, we now have a commitment from the house leadership to move forward in helping flint families. and while i am pleased with this development, i remain disappointed that the passage of today's continuing resolution will not deliver federal funding to flint residents. to be clear, i strongly support continuing to fund the government, and i believe that there are many good policies in the c.r. it contains resources to address the spread of the zika virus and disaster relief for flood victims, both of which i support a great deal. in fact, we know that the threat

of zika poses to our nation's public health, and it is critical that we have finally passed funding to accelerate vaccine development to prevent zika transmission and boost public health efforts to the impacted communities. in addition to addressing these emergencies, i also support the inclusion of legislation to fully fund military construction and the v.a. for the coming year. as a former lieutenant commander in the united states navy reserve, i support investments in v.a. programs, military personnel and family housing for our service members. this critical funding will also address disability claims processing, the health care needs of female veterans and the urgent need to modernize the v.a.'s information technology systems. inclusion of veterans' funding and resources to fight zika had broad bipartisan agreement, but i think it is important to know the senate also reached

consensus on providing much-needed relief to the victims in flint by passing a wrda bill earlier with 95 votes, but these fully paid flint resources were put on hold. they were put on hold while disaster relief for flood victims in louisiana was included in the c.r. now, i support helping the people of louisiana, but i also believe strongly that we should not be in a position where we pick to help some states and not others. everybody, no matter who they are, no matter where they live, if they are facing a crisis, if the u.s. congress is going to help those in need, we need to help everyone, regardless of where they live. americans are americans, regardless of the state in which they reside. therefore, i could not support a government spending bill that will once again force the citizens of flint to wait for

the help that they so desperately need. this is simply unacceptable, that a bipartisan, fully offset flint aid package was left out of the c.r. there is no excuse whatsoever for leaving the people of flint behind. it has been a year since the first public health emergency declaration in flint, and over eight months since a national emergency was declared. yet almost 100,000 residents of flint still do not have a reliable source of safe water. they are still using bottled water to drink, to cook and to bathe. i deeply appreciate the progress we've made so far, but flint families should not have to wait any longer. when a disaster strikes in this country, we pull together to help each other out.

we should do that for all communities. we don't tell people who have waited so long, they have waited so long, and yet we are telling them that they have to get to the back of the line. this is why i could not support this bill that prioritizes one state's emergency over another's. we should do the right thing by the people of flint as well as victims of flooding, zika and other national emergencies. over the coming weeks, i will be working to ensure that we follow through on the promises that were made to the people of flint this week in both chambers in congress. we must send a bill to the president that will help the people of flint continue to replace their damaged pipes so that they can turn on their faucet and have clean, safe water flowing from the tap once again, and i certainly hope and expect that my colleagues in

both chambers will not let the people of flint down in their desperate time of need. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. coons: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. coons: mr. president, i rise today to speak about an urgent and long overdue reform, to address how the united states houses and treats prison inmates in our federal criminal justice system. we are losing millions of americans, millions disproportionately of african-american men to a criminal justice system that robs them of any meaningful opportunity to find gainful employment or to participate in our democracy after they have served their time. fortunately, americans across the country have come to recognize that our so-called criminal justice system is broken. here in the senate, i am encouraged that many of my colleagues, including senator

durbin, senator booker and many others have joined together in support of a broad bipartisan bill, the sentencing reform and corrections act. our criminal justice system should be about justice and rehabilitation, not just punishment. passing the sentencing reform and corrections act would be a significant step in that direction, but today i have come to talk about a specific and targeted bill that senators durbin, booker, leahy, franken and i are introducing. far too often, federal inmates find themselves placed in six-by-eight-foot cells for 23 hours a day, solitary confinement, colloquially called restrictive housing units. these units are intended to segregate dangerous prisoners from the rest of the prison population or to punish individuals for crimes or misdeeds committed behind bars, but when one looks at the actual evidence surrounding the use of solitary confinement, they find

it doesn't actually stop or reduce crime or bad behavior, and it doesn't keep us safe. what it does cause is lasting, often irreparable harm to those inmates subjected to it, often making it impossible for them to later successfully re-enter society after they have served their time. senator durbin, who was to join senator booker and me on the floor this afternoon but for a change of schedule, first held hearings on this topic when he was chair of the senate judiciary subcommittee on the constitution, civil rights and human rights. he held a hearing on solitary confinement, the first-ever congressional hearing on the topic back in 2012. in fact, he held two hearings. and he left this note for me that at one of his first hearings on solitary confinement, one of the witnesses was a man named anthony graves whose testimony forever affected him. anthony spent 18 years in prison, including 16 years in solitary confinement. and in 2010, he became the

12th death row inmate to be exonerated in the state of texas. think about that. mr. graves spent 16 years in solitary confinement for a crime he was later proved never to have committed. at that hearing, mr. graves testified about his experience, and here's what he said -- quote -- "i lived under some of the worst conditions imaginable. the filth, the food, the total disrespect of human dignity. i lived under the rules of a system that literally drives men out of their minds. solitary confinement," he later said," does one thing. it breaks a man's will to live. he ends up deteriorating. he never is the same again." how big is the impact then? how big is the impact, senator durbin asked in those hearings and i ask today, how big is the impact of solitary confinement in our prison system? it's difficult to determine exactly how many inmates are housed in these so-called

restrictive settings. one recent study estimated as many as 80,000 state and federal inmates in total. in my home state of delaware, 453 inmates, about 8% of our state prison population, were held in restrictive housing units in 2015. nearly a third of those receiving mental health treatment. but to fully understand the extent to which our prisons utilize solitary confinement, we have to look not just at the total number of inmates being placed in restrictive housing but the duration of time they spend there. one recent report by the nonpartisan institute of justice found inmates, even those not overly disruptive or violent stay for long periods of time, months or years. in washington state, in 2011, the average length of stay in solitary was 11 months. in the state of texas in 2013, the average stay was four years. mr. president, the overwhelming majority of individuals sentenced to prison will return to our communities.

rehabilitating those who have paid their debt to society as a key goal of our criminal justice system. that's why we shouldn't subject inmates to practices like solitary confinement that lessen their ability to successfully re-enter. and mounting evidence shows that solitary confinement physically and mentally harms, destabilizes inmates in ways that then threatens the very communities, our communities to which they will later return. over a year ago president obama asked attorney general loretta lynch -- earlier this year the department of justice release a report recommending reforms which the bureau of prisons is now implementing. but today, today senator durbin, senator booker, senator leahy and senator franken are introducing a bill to codify into law many of the recommendations the bureau of prisons is working to put in place and to lay the groundwork for broader reform. this bill is grounded in two key observations.

first, that our prison system has grown in population beyond any reasonable scope and that second, restrictive housing or solitary confinement is employed far too frequently for minor behavioral infractions, not as a sanction of last resort. this act will establish the limits on use of solitary and be required that it be limited to the brief amount of time and least restrictive conditions that make sense in the setting. the bill requires the bureau of prisons to limit the use of solitary confinement for inmates nearing their release date and establish a transitional process for inmates who must remain housed in solitary confinement up to their release. the bill mandates the federal bureau of prisons may not place an inmate in solitary confinement if the inmate is a minor, has a serious mental illness, has intellectual or physical disabilities, is pregnant or in the first eight weeks after delivery except in all those cases except under limited and temporary

circumstances. finally, the bill requires an annual report to congress from the bureau of prisons about their assessment of their progress in improving solitary confinement practices and regulations. mr. president, the time to reform our criminal justice system is now and this bill would mark an important step forward. some might ask why this is a passion of mine. as i was a young man, my father volunteered through our church and prison ministry, and i was as a young man exposed to the impact that prison conditions can have on those who are serving time. but more importantly, few individuals have captured the urgency of this issue as powerfully as a fellow delawarean and friend brian stevenson. brian stevenson is the author of a book entitled "just mercy" that chronicles its efforts i. since long before sensible reforms to our criminal justice system seemed possible, brian has been fighting to improve this badly broken system.

in his book he tells the powerful and painful story of a 13-year-old child ian incarcerated as an adult in an adult prison and who spent 18 years in solitary. brian stevenson recounts -- quote -- ian's mental health unraveled. he attempted suicide several times and each time he hurt himself, his time in solitary was simply extended. i remember being brought to tears by a number of passages in brian's book and i profoundly agree with his concluding assessment that the true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, the condemned. when it comes to fairly distributing justice in america, congress has long failed. the central test of character. with this bill, this senate has a rare opportunity to right some of the wrongs that have too long

plagued every step of our criminal justice system. and we need to step up and take up and move forward the sentencing reform and corrections act as well, an important and broad bill which would reduce mandatory minimums and give judges more discretion in sentencing. in this effort we have a broad coalition of democrats and republicans and a diverse group of faith and reform and advocacy groups and in president obama we have a leader who has acted to end solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prison and who is ready and willing to sign a broader package of criminal justice reforms into law. now it's up to congress. i'd like to transition, if i might, to a man who from his very first days here in the senate of the united states has been a powerful, passionate and engaged advocate for criminal justice reform broadly and for a change to our solitary confinement practices in particular. mr. president, far too many americans have grown up in a

society where the defined by the worst thing they've ever done when an inmate leaves prison with his sentence complete and time served, with his mind and spirit broken because of solitary, we are all less safe in our -- and our world is less just. i want to thank senator durbin for his efforts on this bill but in particular i want to thank senator booker for his passion, for his engagement, for his effectiveness. he is my colleague who has been most engaged on the changes of solitary confinement from his first days here and he is the deserving partner of senator durbin's long record going back to the hearings he first held in 2012. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor to my colleague from the great state of new jersey. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. booker: thank you, mr. president. i really want to thank my senate colleague from delaware, senator coons, for his extraordinarily eloquent and frankly urgently passionate voice on issues of

solitary confinement and, frankly, for all the work he's doing on criminal justice reform as a whole. this bill that he and senator durbin have worked so hard, that i'm so proud to join along with senator franken, this bill is a critically important bill when it comes to the overall reforming of our criminal justice system. and please understand, as he has said, this is currently a practice in our federal system as well as in state prisons. and it is an archaic and damaging and ineffective and inefficient practice that actually works against the public interest, not just their financial interests but even in the safety and the well-being of our communities. now, solitary confinement, many people don't know exactly what we're talking about as senator canes said. it's people being kept in a prison cell for 22 to 24 hours a day with little to no human interaction. as senator coons said, it's the fact that on any given day we

now have 80,000 to 100,000 incarcerated people in state and federal prisons who are being held in such conditions, in rooms often no bigger than a parking spot. we know that inmates placed in solitary confinement as senator coons said can be put there for the most minor of infractions, for literally just filing papers with the court to try to assert their constitutional rights. we also know that solitary confinement is extraordinarily expensive, more expensive than nonsolitary confinement. in fact, on average it costs about $75,000 each year for an individual to be housed in solitary confinement. and yet it's increasingly clear that this overuse, especially for low level offenders, not people who have done violent crime, not people who have assaulted a security -- a correctional officer but people who are there for low-level,

nonviolent crimes, we know that this is providing little benefit to no benefit for the public good but what's extraordinary is it's creating conditions in which -- to the public harm. solitary confinement has irreversible effects on the human brain which may lead an inmate to harm themselves or others. it does psychological damage. it can do serious psychological damage making a person more dangerous. so here we have a correctional system that doesn't correct but actually is doing more harm and putting people in a position where they can be more dangerous to themselves, to their fellow inmates and to society as a whole. it makes no sense. and international bodies understand this. other nations for some

populations put in solitary confinement have referred to it as torture. the united nations considers long-term isolation to be cruel and degrading treatment. here we are, the united states of america, which i firmly believe is a symbol to the nation, to the globe of justice, righteousness, decency but yet we're engaging in tactics that our pure nations, many of them consider cruel and degrading. we know the data. it is clear that isolation actually worsens mental illness and can actually create issues in those who are previously seen as psychologically healthy. researchers estimate that at least 30% of inmates held in solitary confinement already have a mental disorder. so this is how we are treating mental illness. we incarcerate not just the poor but we incarcerate the addicted

and the mentally ill. those populations in prison, we should seek to make them better, healthier, to deal with their disease or their men al disorder. but yet we are routinely doing practices that aggravate this. we know that daily isolation not only makes mental illness worse for the individual but pore tends -- but portends of tewellly negative impacts on their lives, the lives of their families and the communities when they are released. we know that while confinement for short periods of time may be necessary for safety, please understand that the security of our correctional officers is critical in prison environments, but to allow practices that go on, it actually doesn't make our correctional officers safer. it makes their jobs more dangerous and puts them at greater risk. this is why correctional

officers across the country are speaking out, the very people that have to conduct the work in our prisons are speaking out against solitary confinement. one texas correctional officer said, when you cut our social interaction, when you cut out social interaction, you're dealing with a person who has nothing to lose and that's extremely dangerous. kevin kempf, the director of the idaho department of corrections remarked that reforming the practice of solitary confinement is not a soft on inmates approach. this is a public safety approach, he says. he refers to a time in 2014 when 44 inmates were released directly from isolation in a maximum security prison and out to the public. that means that they were released as a case that senator coons said from solitary confinement, from these conditions of no social

interaction, from an environment that researchers deemed aggravating to mental illness, and they go right from that solitary confinement environment out into the public. he remarked about this case that the 44 inmates we took belly chains and leg irons off of them and they walked into your community, that is irresponsible of me as a director, frankly our taxpayers should expect more of me, should expect more of our staff to do things differently. it comes as no surprise to any of us that the use of solitary confinement has received criticism both from the law enforcement forks, folks who -- folks, folks who vo sworn -- who have sworn octobers to protect the public -- oaths to protect the public as well as the medical community and the legal community. just last year in a supreme

court case davis v. elijah, justice kennedy denounced widespread use of solitary confinement in prison. justice kennedy cited a litany of the possible side effects from prolonged isolation, including anxiety, panic, withdrawal, hallucinations, and self-mutilation. after examining the evidence, justice kennedy concluded that ample -- and i quote -- "research still confirms what the court suggested over a century ago. years on end of near total isolation exacts a terrible price. the penal system has a solitary confinement regime that will bring you to the line, to the edge of madness, perhaps into madness itself." this is not a criminal justice

system that reflects our highest values. it doesn't stand for moral right when you're exacting such cruel punishment that doesn't just do punitive damage but also -- but also puts an inmate in a situation where they can cause more home and damage to themselves and others. and so the bill that chris coons talks about, the bill that we're introducing would substantially limit the ability the bureau of prisons to use solitary confinement in federal facilities. the bill would mandate the solitary confinement be limited to the briefest terms under the least restrictive conditions practical. and it could precluded the b.o.p., the bureau of prisons from placing vulnerable populations in solitary confinement like minors, like children, as well as people with serious mental illness, physical disabilities, and pregnant

women. critically, this legislation wants to promote more data collection. the bill would require the bureau of prisons to collect data on the use of solitary confinement a understand would create a natural resource center under the bureau of justice assistance. look, this is an issue, the issue of solitary confinement, that has been a priority for me here in the senate from my beginning months. in fact, over a year ago in august of 2015, i worked with members of the senate committee on homeland security and government affairs on an oversight hearing to explore current practices at the federal bureau of prisons. i requested this hearing because of the urgent need to shine a spotlight on our broken criminal justice system, including what occurs within the walls of a federal prison that the general public does not see, that's being done in the name of the public.