By executive action, President Obama is banning the use of solitary confinement for juveniles held in federal prison, and also for low-level offenders.

Writing in today’s Washington Post, Obama cites the case of Kalief Browder in New York City, who was 16 when he was accused of stealing a backpack.

Browder spent more than 400 days in solitary confinement during the three years he was held at Rikers Island without a trial.

He killed himself after he was released.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing parole or reduced sentences for inmates in state prisons who were children when they committed murder decades ago, a ruling that Antonin Scalia called “astonishing.”

— via Here & Now