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Colorado Lawmakers Roll Back Solitary Confinement Bill

DENVER (AP) - Colorado lawmakers have backed away from sweeping new rules on solitary confinement in state prisons.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted instead Tuesday for a watered-down measure that makes only small changes to how the Colorado Department of Corrections decides to put an inmate in solitary.

The bill would have required state prisons to have a physician evaluate inmates with some mental illnesses before they're placed in solitary confinement.

The revised bill gives the Department of Corrections guidelines on determining whether an inmate a security risk worth putting in solitary. But most of the department's solitary confinement policies are unchanged. The bill now heads for a vote by the full Senate.

Senate Bill 176:

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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