California to End Unlimited Isolation for Most Gang Leaders

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California is ending its unlimited isolation of imprisoned gang leaders, restricting a practice that once kept hundreds of inmates in notorious segregation units for a decade or longer.

Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard tells The Associated Press that California is agreeing to segregate only inmates who commit new crimes behind bars.

The state is settling a lawsuit Tuesday filed on behalf of nearly 3,000 inmates held in segregation statewide.

It will no longer lock gang members in windowless cells solely to keep them from directing illegal activities.

The Center for Constitutional Rights says no other state keeps so many inmates segregated for so long.

Long-term isolation triggered inmate hunger strikes in California and recently prompted criticism nationally by President Barack Obama and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

(Story by: Don Thompson, The Associated Press)