Obama and Supreme Court Tag Team on Juvenile Justice Reform

President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday plans to end solitary confinement for juvenile offenders in federal custody, a day after the nation's highest court ruled that prisoners who were sentenced to life as juveniles now have the chance to challenge their punishments.

In an op-ed in published in the Washington Post, Obama revealed plans to adopt a range of Justice Department recommendations on justice and prison reform, which he estimates could affect around 10,000 federal inmates currently in solitary. The measures include banning solitary confinement for juveniles and people who have committed low-level infractions, broadening treatment for the mentally ill, and allowing solitary confinement prisoners to spend more time outside of their cells.

"How can we subject prisoners to unnecessary solitary confinement, knowing its effects, and then expect them to return to our communities as whole people?" Obama wrote. "It doesn't make us safer. It's an affront to our common humanity."

The president specifically referenced the case of Kalief Browder, a teen who was imprisoned at New York's Rikers Island jail for three years without trial. Browder, who was just 16 when he was detained in May 2010 over a suspected backpack theft, died by suicide after the charges against him were dropped and he was released in 2013. Browder spent two years in solitary confinement at Rikers.

Related: Kalief Browder — Teen Imprisoned at Rikers Island for Three Years Without Trial — Dies by Suicide

Obama said that the case should be reminder of the "heartbreaking results" of the overuse of solitary confinement. The president cited a study, which found that over the course of 2014, up to 100,000 prisoners across the US were held in solitary, including juveniles and the mentally ill. While Obama's ban of juveniles from spending time in solitary cells will only affect an estimated 26 teens under the age of 18 who are currently incarcerated in federal prisons, the impact of the proposal will potentially affect many more juveniles going forward.

Solitary confinement "has been linked to depression, alienation, withdrawal, a reduced ability to interact with others and the potential for violent behavior," the president wrote. "Some studies indicate that it can worsen existing mental illnesses and even trigger new ones. Prisoners in solitary are more likely to commit suicide, especially juveniles and people with mental illnesses."

The measures are also designed to reduce violence committed against prison staff, Obama said. In states like Colorado and New Mexico that have already cut solitary confinement populations, prisons have seen a drastic reduction in assaults against staff, he added.

The president's push for solitary confinement reform comes a day after the Supreme Court gave new hope for parole to more than a thousand inmates who were sentenced to life in prison as juveniles. In 2012, the court found that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders and constituted "cruel and unusual punishment." But Monday's ruling would apply the 2012 ruling retroactively — an unusual decision for the court, which generally does not apply rulings after the fact and has long upheld the finality of convictions after inmates have gone through the appeals process.

Of the 2,341 people currently serving mandatory life sentences without the possibility for parole for juvenile offenses, it's estimated that more than 1,000 of them will be affected by the decision. The remainder are imprisoned in states that have already applied the 2012 ruling retroactively.

Both the president's move and Supreme Court's decision come as part of a broader push for criminal justice reform sparked by nationwide protests over biased policing and numerous deaths of black people in custody. The bipartisan effort has been marked by a number of new bills and laws focused on overhauling issues, including moves to cut back on mandatory minimum sentencing, shorten jail terms for non-violent prisoners, and ban employers from asking about criminal records.

Related: Obama Outlines Criminal Justice Reform Plan After Year of Police Killings and Protests