Black Americans make up a disproportionate amount of the U.S. prison population and there are even larger disparities when it comes to the population of solitary confinement. As we close out Black History Month, an article from award-winning incarcerated journalist Steve Brooks provides insight into the relationship between the historic oppression of Black people and solitary confinement. Through his own narrative experience of solitary, Brooks examines the unique impact the practice has on the lives of Black people. Solitary Watch.

More than 9 percent of Black men in Pennsylvania were imprisoned in solitary confinement for 15 days or more before they reached the age of 32, according to a 2021 study conducted at Columbia University. The study’s authors believe their findings likely apply to the broader United States as well. This means nearly one in ten Black men nationally has subjected to conditions that have been defined as torture by the United Nations, and shown to cause psychological damage, suicide, and PTSD.

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement:. The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is being called “an agency in crisis” after a series of recent reports by government watchdogs. Washington Post | One, by the Justice Department’s Inspector General, revealed that the prison system struggles to keep people in its facilities alive. According to the report, 344 people died by homicide, suicide, accidents, and drug overdoses while in BOP custody between 2014 and 2021. Of the incarcerated people who died by suicide, about half died in solitary confinement. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General | A separate IG report criticizes the agency for “shoddy record keeping, falsified documents and destroyed logs related to the special housing units used to discipline inmates.” DOJ Office of the IG | Finally, a comprehensive report by the Government Accountability Office found that “federal prisons haven’t addressed longstanding concerns about overuse of solitary confinement,” despite a host of recommendations put forth in earlier reports and studies. Included in the GAO report was an October 2023 “snapshot” showing that about 12,000 people, or 8 percent of the federal prison population were, in solitary confinement–considerably higher than the national average. Additionally, the report found that, in 2022, Black Americans made up approximately 59 percent of people in federal solitary confinement although they only account for 38 percent of the total prison population. Government Accountability Office.

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement:. In a recent report, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General found that the Federal Bureau of Prisons routinely subjects incarcerated people to “conditions that put them at heightened risk of self-harm, drug overdoses, accidents and violence.” After analyzing 344 deaths, the inspector general found “unsafe conditions” in nearly all cases. The New York Times | Between 2014 and 2021, 187 people died by suicide while in BOP custody and nearly half of the suicides occurred while the person was isolated in “single-cell [solitary] confinement.” Additionally, the majority of people who died by suicide were classified as the lowest level of mental health risk, meaning they had no treatment plan in place. The Guardian | What’s more, BOP policy only requires an in-depth review after a suicide occurs and the decentralized nature of the system makes implementing policy recommendations nearly impossible. United Press International | The 100-page report ends with a series of recommendations for reducing and more accurately reporting deaths in custody, and sets a deadline of May 15, 2024, for the BOP to report on progress. U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General.

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement:. A new study by Harvard-affiliated researchers and the nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to “flout international human rights standards” by locking immigrants in solitary confinement en masse. According to the study, approximately 3,000 immigrants were held in solitary confinement by ICE in 2023. Between 2019 and 2023 the number of detained immigrants in solitary confinement with mental health issues skyrocketed from 35 percent to 56 percent. International Consortium of Investigative Journalists | Despite a 2013 directive intended to limit the number of immigrants placed in solitary, especially for people with vulnerabilities, the report found that ICE oversaw more than 14,000 placements in solitary confinement between 2018 and 2023. Although the average duration of time in solitary was 27 days, researchers documented 682 cases lasting over 90 days and 42 lasting over one year. In addition to documenting the extent of ICE’s reliance on solitary confinement, the report makes several recommendations which “serve as a roadmap to completely phase out the use of solitary confinement in immigration detention.” Physicians for Human Rights.

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement:. In a 42-9 vote, the New York City Council voted to override Mayor Eric Adam’s vetoes of legislation banning solitary confinement. The new legislation requires all people incarcerated in New York City jails to have a minimum of 14-hours out if cell time in a communal setting and limits confinement to 4 hours immediately following an incident or confrontation. In response to Adams’ veto City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams stated “we cannot allow the human rights and safety crisis on Rikers to continue by maintaining the status quo of failed policies and practices.” ABC News | Although Mayor Adams continues to claim that solitary does not exist in New York City, incarcerated people and advocates state that this isn’t true. According to Jennifer Parish of the Urban Justice Center, “there are units where people are locked down 23 or 24 hours a day.” One attorney described the conditions of these units as filthy and infested with insects and rodents. Spectrum News NY1.

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement:. Nebraska children are spending increasing amounts of time in solitary confinement. According to a recent report from the state’s Inspector General on Child Welfare, in the last year the number of children in solitary in the state’s youth facilities has increased by 44%. The report suggests state-run detention centers and treatment facilities are not adhering to state laws limiting the use of solitary confinement for children. One 16-year-old told his family that he has been in and out of solitary confinement throughout the duration of his incarceration, at one point spending a week confined alone in his room. In another case, a 14-year-old in Lancaster County spent 129 out of 133 days in solitary. While facility officials state that prolonged confinement is only used in rare cases, data indicates otherwise. Flatwater Free Press.

Dillion Compton was only 16 years old when he was first tried and convicted as an adult in Texas. While incarcerated Compton spent almost nine years in temporary and long-term solitary confinement, and he has been on Death Row for the last five years. In a recent essay, Compton describes solitary confinement as “a world of un-natural, debilitating pressure,” and discusses how he copes with the mental and physical effects of his current circumstances. Solitary Watch.

At 16 years old, Dillion Compton was tried and convicted as an adult, resulting in his placement in solitary confinement at a Texas jail as a child. Having described solitary as “a world of un-natural, debilitating pressure,” Compton has spent almost nine years in total in temporary and long-term solitary over different periods of his life. After five years of being on Texas Death Row, the threat of execution continues to loom. However, Compton says he navigates the mental and physical challenge of his circumstances through drawing, writing letters, and reading the Bible. Compton is a certified paralegal with an advanced certificate from Blackstone Career Institute. The following is one of Compton’s essays originally published on the Texas Letters Project, which sheds light on the solitary world. —Kilhah St. Fort.

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement:. A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a deaf person incarcerated in the Clark County Detention Center alleges “pervasive mistreatment” among other civil rights violations. The ACLU is representing Christopher Jones, who “was accused of refusing to obey a direct order because he spoke to a psychiatric staffer instead of returning to his bunk when ordered to do so by staff members who were unaware that Jones was deaf. He was transferred to solitary confinement that same day. The jail investigator recommended Jones receive a maximum sentence for the violation even though the investigator noted that staff members were unaware Jones was deaf when they ordered him back to his bunk, and Jones calmed down once someone communicated with him in basic ASL to explain what was happening.” In the lawsuit, the ACLU of Nevada argues that such treatment is systemic, and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department fails to meet minimum standards of communication for deaf and hard of hearing incarcerated people by denying them access to qualified interpreters and auxiliary aids, in violation of the Eighth Amendment, Americans with Disabilities Act, and Nevada Constitution. The Nevada Independent.

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement:. Approximately 55 percent of incarcerated people in solitary confinement in Virginia have been there for more than 15 days. Whether in solitary for disciplinary violations or “their own protection,” many of these individuals live in dangerous conditions and face abuse from staff. One man in solitary at Wallens Ridge State Prison recounted how guard often punish people on the unit by denying them exercise or delivering “ghost” meal trays with “nothing on it, and they might go several meals at a time to keep you underweight—miserable, and if you act up, they’re going to take your commissary privileges.” Askari Lumumba, who experienced solitary confinement at Red Onion State Prison, said: “I’ve seen guys have breakdowns almost immediately – very sociable people who go back there and can’t take it. They’re kicking the door. They’re pacing the floor. They’re dealing with anxiety. They’re cussing out staff. They’re suffering delirium.” (This story was supported by a grant from Solitary Watch’s Ridgeway Reporting Project.) WVTF | Reports are emerging that at least seven individuals at Red Onion Prison are refusing to eat to protest abusive conditions. According to participants in the hunger strike, included are abuse by guards, the use of dogs to “threaten and intimidate,” and the ongoing use of solitary confinement, which the prison system claims to have abolished. A bill passed last year is supposed to guarantee four hours a day of out-of-cell time, a mandate that the strikers and their outside allies say is not being met. Richmond Times-Dispatch.

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There’s Still Time to Help Us End the Torture in U.S. Prisons and Jails. Only three days left for matched donations! Any amount is appreciated—and doubled if donated by Sunday, December 31st! All donations are deeply valued, and until midnight on Sunday, December 31st, all donations up to $1,000 will be doubled through the NewsMatch program. Please consider making a tax-free, end-of-year donation today.

This is one of the first posts we ever published on Solitary Watch, fourteen years ago, and we now share it with our readers every year. Once a year, we also ask you to consider supporting the work we do: shining light into the darkest corners of our punishment system, and bringing a glimmer of hope and humanity to the people who reside there.

Just ten days remain in our year-end fundraising effort. We come to you only once a year to ask for your support—and that support has never been more important than it is today. Right now, we have the opportunity to receive $20,000 in Matching Funds from NewsMatch, but only...

The Guardian recently published an article detailing the ways in which Solitary Watch Editor-in-chief Juan Moreno Haines, who does his job while incarcerated at San Quentin, is helping to revolutionize the field of prison journalism. In a message to readers last week, Juan talked about why it is important to support this work: “The voices of incarcerated writers will deepen the public’s understanding of the criminal punishment system and its damaging effect on every aspect of our communities. And the stories they tell will help readers re-envision how we treat human beings.” Solitary Watch.

Dwayne “BIM” Staats is currently on his ninth day of a hunger strike at State Correctional Institution (SCI) Camp Hill, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Staats has been in solitary for about fourteen years altogether, including four years in Pennsylvania and ten in Delaware. Staats represented himself and others against charges associated with the 2017 uprising in the Delaware supermax facility James T. Vaughn Correctional Center. Already facing a sentence to die in prison, Staats was given another life sentence for his alleged involvement in the uprising.

I want to share with you a remarkable feature story published yesterday by The Guardian, which focused largely on some exciting recent news from Solitary Watch:. “In November, Juan Moreno Haines earned a coveted promotion. The California journalist was named editor-in-chief of Solitary Watch, a non-profit news organization reporting on conditions in US prisons.

The work we do is made possible by your support. From now through the end of December, your donation will be DOUBLED through the NewsMatch program! Please take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity and consider making a tax-deductible donation in any amount today. New this week from Solitary Watch:. New...

When Solitary Watch made me editor-in-chief last month, it deepened its commitment to supporting and amplifying the vital work of incarcerated writers. This is an enterprise that is very close to my heart: I myself have been behind bars at San Quentin for 27 years and counting. As a prison journalist, I have experienced firsthand the silencing of incarcerated voices, as well as the power of prison writing to break that silence.