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Solitary Watch
The Word: Prisons Are Where America Buries Its Problems. Solitary Confinement Is Where Prisons Bury Theirs.
Nearly a decade ago, in a piece published by The Intercept, the late James Ridgeway wrote about U.S. prisons and jails as the locations for a new kind of “banishment,” in which long-term or permanent outcasts are sent to live apart from society—not in some distant land, but in walled-off enclaves not far from our cities and towns.
Report Documents Flagrant Violations of New York Solitary Reform Law…and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week
The Correctional Association of New York released a 41-page report documenting “numerous departures” from the letter and spirit of the HALT Solitary Confinement Law. While the overall number of people in solitary confinement in New York has decreased by more than two-thirds following the implementation of HALT, the report finds that facilities have continued to hold people in solitary well beyond the legal limit of 15 consecutive days. The report examines the alleged relationship between HALT and prison violence, citing interviews with incarcerated people who said they received false tickets for assaults after being “set up” by staff. CANY | Context: The New York prison agency’s efforts to circumvent HALT have also been covered in an ongoing reporting series by Chris Gelardi. New York Focus.
Kids Locked Up Alone in Filthy Cells at Baltimore County Jail…and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week
Youth at the Baltimore County Detention Center have been locked in squalid, rat-infested cells for 23 hours a day, according to a letter from the Maryland Office of the Public Defender. Youth are not separated from adults at the facility and students with disabilities are not afforded individualized educational plans, in violation of federal law. The letter reported that conditions for youth have not improved since the last time the public defender’s office conducted an investigation of the facility in 2018. The Baltimore Sun.
Video Exposes Force Feeding at ADX Florence…and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week
Journalists have obtained video footage of a force feeding at a Colorado federal prison after more than three years of litigation. The footage shows Mohammad Salameh being force fed in 2015 in ADX Florence’s H Unit, one of the country’s most restrictive housing units, in which individuals are barred from nearly all communication with the outside world. “What’s depicted in these exclusive videos,” writes Aviva Stahl, “reveals how correction officers and Bureau of Prisons medical staff operate when they have no fear of public scrutiny.” The Nation.
Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Leader Held in Solitary for Six More Years…and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week
Todd Ashker, an organizer of the Pelican Bay hunger strikes and lead plaintiff of a lawsuit that led to significant changes in California’s use of solitary confinement, has been held in solitary for nearly six years since the changes went into effect. Last week, a federal judge ruled that Ashker’s placement in solitary was an instance of retaliation for his participation in the lawsuit that violated his First Amendment rights. Ashker’s lawyers have said that prison officials have retaliated against at least one other lawsuit participant, though their identity has not yet been disclosed. San Francisco Chronicle.
Man Freezes to Death in Alabama Jail…and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week
A new fact sheet from Solitary Watch looks at the relationship between solitary confinement and prison violence. The fact sheet, written by Sara Rain Tree, draws from a broad range of research and reporting to debunk the myth that solitary reduces prison violence, and explores how limiting solitary can in fact make prisons safer. By failing to resolve the root causes of violence, the fact sheet states, prisons’ widespread use of solitary has “created a cycle within carceral facilities where both violent and nonviolent behaviors are punished with more violence.” Solitary Watch.
New Fact Sheet Explodes the Myth That Solitary Confinement Reduces Violence in Prisons
Today, Solitary Watch is publishing the fourth in a new series of fact sheets offering facts, analysis, and resources on a variety of topics related to solitary confinement in U.S. prisons, jails, and immigrant and juvenile facilities. This fact sheet, written by by Sara Rain Tree, addresses misconceptions about solitary confinement and prison violence, and provides the facts on the relationship between solitary and prison safety.
Abusive Federal “Double Solitary” Unit Closes…and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week
In an essay for our Voices from Solitary series, L. LeDonne describes her experience in solitary while incarcerated in Connecticut’s York Correctional Institution. A musician by training, LeDonne wrote “Seg Song” as a response to the isolation of solitary. “The only remedy I knew was to write, to create, so I would be able to cope with the circumstances surrounding me,” LeDonne recounts. The song, which was sung by LeDonne and others in solitary at the facility, is available for listening on our website. Solitary Watch.
Voices from Solitary: Seg Song
L. LeDonne was incarcerated from 2017 to 2020 at York Correctional Institution, Connecticut’s state prison for women. She was 54 years old when she was sent there. LeDonne now lives in Shelton, Connecticut. She continues to make music and has received grants to launch a non-profit music program for formerly incarcerated people to help process trauma and PTSD. More information about her works can be found at Ledonnemusic.com.
Staff Accused of Starting “Fight Club” at New Jersey Prison…and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week
At the “Restorative Housing Unit” in New Jersey’s South Woods State Prison, staff have reportedly been using brute force and encouraging fights between incarcerated people. The so-called Restorative Housing Units were created in 2019 by the Isolated Confinement Restriction Act, which placed limits on solitary confinement, but advocates say the units are no different than solitary. “As far as we can tell, the only thing that the DOC did was to change the name,” said Amos Caley of the New Jersey Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement. The Appeal.
Use of Solitary in Federal Prisons Increases Under Biden… and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week
In the latest in our series of monthly dispatches, The Word from Solitary Watch, Staff Writer and Editor Vaidya Gullapalli explores how solitary confinement is used to retaliate against individuals in prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers who participate in strikes and other forms of peaceful advocacy. “Imprisoned people who protest dangerous conditions and agitate for change risk grave harm,” Gullapalli writes. “The least we can do is bear witness—and lend support.” Solitary Watch.
Men on Texas Death Row Sue to End Decades of “Cruel” Isolation…and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week
Incarcerated men on Texas death row filed a lawsuit challenging their placement in indefinite solitary confinement. The state’s male death row, which is housed in the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, has held men in near-total isolation since 1999, after a person escaped from death row. The lawsuit states that the men are locked in their cells for 22 to 24 hours a day in violation of the state’s own policies, and are routinely denied proper access to medical care and attorneys. Texas Tribune.
The Word: When Solitary Is Used to Silence
Yesterday, a three-week-long hunger strike by people in Texas prisons came to an end. The strikers were trying to draw attention to the use of solitary confinement in the state. At a time when there is a vigorous movement to end mass incarceration in the United States, it is worth remembering that imprisoned people who protest dangerous conditions and agitate for change risk grave harm. Efforts like those in Texas are frequently met with harsh retaliation; often, the retaliation itself is solitary confinement.
New Report and Public Database Track Legislation to Limit or End Solitary Confinement
Today, Unlock the Box released the first comprehensive report on legislation related to solitary confinement that has been passed or introduced in states and cities across the country, along with an interactive legislation tracking tool. Unlock the Box is “a coalition of organizations and movement leaders who partner with state and local campaigns across the United States working to end the use of solitary confinement for all people.” A press release on the new report and legislation tracker follows.
Federal Judge Orders Arizona to Fix Deadly Prison Conditions…and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week
The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (ADCRR) has been ordered by a federal judge to make “substantial” reforms to bring Arizona prisons in line with constitutional standards. In addition to mandating the increased provision of medical and mental health services, the remedial order requires ADCRR to ensure adequate staffing in solitary confinement units and to create a system to facilitate stepping down from solitary. “The trial laid bare the significant harm that living in isolation causes to people who are incarcerated,” said attorney Maya Abela. “With this order, ADCRR is required to take steps to address those harms.” ACLU.
Hunger Strike Against Solitary Confinement in Texas Prisons… And Other News on Solitary This Week
Katie Rose Quandt, senior contributing writer at Solitary Watch, reports on Republicans’ complaints on the treatment of January 6 defendants at the D.C. Jail. Republican legislators have vocally criticized the use of solitary confinement on those allegedly involved in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but have remained silent on conditions faced by others incarcerated at the jail, who are mostly Black. While they are correct that the conditions are torturous, Quandt writes, “They are wildly wrong—or just plain disingenuous—to assert that this treatment is somehow unusual or unique to the January 6 defendants.” Solitary Watch / Truthout.
The Right Finally Protests Brutal U.S. Jail Conditions—But Only for January Sixers
This article was published in partnership with Truthout. Republicans are not known for championing the rights of incarcerated people. Doing so would run counter to their purposefully cultivated “tough on crime” image, which often includes a penchant for harsh prison and jail conditions. But in the two years since the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the party—and especially its most extreme right wing—have made a cause célèbre of the several dozen accused insurrectionists languishing in the District of Columbia Jail.
One Prison Strike Ends; Another May Begin…and Other News on Solitary This Week
Incarcerated individuals at Nevada’s Ely State Prison have ended a month-long hunger strike. The strike participants, who began refusing food on December 1st, used the strike to call attention to a list of demands that include improved food and living conditions, an end to extended solitary confinement, and independent oversight of the state prison system. Though prison officials have indicated that they have begun auditing food portions, they have not commented on the strikers’ other demands. Las Vegas Review Journal.
Seven Days in Solitary [12/28/22]
• Director Jean Casella shares one of Solitary Watch’s first posts from 2009, “Santa Was in Solitary and Jesus Got the Death Penalty,” which tells us more about the two figures at the center of the Christmas holiday. Here in the United States, she writes, “Christians go to church to worship an executed savior and shop to commemorate an incarcerated saint. We hope some will heed their teachings, and pause to give a thought and a prayer to their compatriots who are spending this Christmas behind bars.”
Last Chance: Remind People Suffering in Solitary That They Are Not Forgotten
Since its founding, Solitary Watch has maintained contact with thousands of people who live in the darkest corners of the U.S. punishment system, cut off from human contact and out of sight of the public and the press. They have served as our eyes and ears as we report on solitary confinement.
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Solitary Watch is a nonprofit national watchdog group that investigates, documents, and disseminates information on the widespread use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and jails.
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