In a 2011 report, Juan Mendez, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, noted that prolonged solitary confinement has become a favored instrument of the war on terror around the globe. Mendez detailed the psychological devastation wrought by even short spells of solitary, and concluded that any period exceeding 15 days increased the risk of grave harm "that may constitute cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, or even torture." Countries like Kazakhstan figured prominently in the report -- as, of course, did the United States. Fine company, indeed. Perhaps this helps explain why the Obama administration has refused to grant Mendez unimpeded access to the prisoners at Guantánamo.
The United States is exceptional not only in the use of solitary confinement, but in the willingness to subject juveniles to this excruciating form of punishment. A recent Human Rights Watch report on the 2,570 youth offenders currently serving life sentences without the chance of parole -- yes, you read that right -- found that many are placed in "segregation" units, sometimes for years. One prison official explained the logic: "When you come in at a young age with life without [parole], there's not a whole lot of light at the end of the tunnel." The initial abuse of life without parole, that is, provokes behavior that in turn leads to the subsequent abuse of segregation. International law prohibits the imposition of life sentences on minors, and Mendez declared that the imposition of solitary confinement of any duration on juveniles constitutes "cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment."
Oh, and one more thing: The United States and Somalia are the only two countries to have failed to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. In 1995, when the United States signed the treaty, conservatives argued that it would allow children to sue their parents for mistreatment, and objected to a clause prohibiting capital punishment for minors. President Bill Clinton never submitted the treaty for ratification. In a 2008 debate, Obama said, "It's embarrassing to find ourselves in the company of Somalia" and promised to "review" the decision. That review is apparently still pending. And it's still embarrassing to find ourselves in the company of Somalia.
Mitt Romney, Obama's likely opponent in November, often alleges that the president does not believe in "American exceptionalism." It's a specious claim, but the truth is that America is exceptional -- in some ugly as well as admirable ways. Obama wanted, in effect, to restore the true American exceptionalism by putting an end to its uglier forms. Like so many of his other aspirational goals -- like "changing the culture of Washington" -- this has proved much harder than he thought. It is easier to argue that America under Obama has become a better citizen of the international community than it is to argue that it has become a more rights-regarding nation at home.
Of course, Obama inherited a conservative Supreme Court, Supermax prisons, Gitmo, and a politics infused with what he once called "the color-coded politics of fear." He inherited all that in the same way that he inherited two wars and something close to a depression. If he's made winding down the wars and warding off economic catastrophe rather than signing U.N. conventions his priority -- well, for that we can forgive him. But let's hope that setting an example to the world of treating your own citizens with the dignity they deserve will make it on to his list of things to do in his hypothetical second term. So yes, we can cut the president some slack on this one. But let us not forget how shameful it is to be classed with Kazakhstan, not to mention Somalia.
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