Seven Days in Solitary [1/20/20]
• NPR obtained the findings from a 2017 investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Adelanto...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [2/3/20]
• The Boston Globe reported that prison administrators locked down the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts, following an incident on January 10 when three correctional...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [2/24/20]
• The Miami Herald reported that a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of 51-year-old Cheryl Weimar, claiming two male officers attacked the psychiatrically disabled woman held at Lowell Correctional...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [4/13/20]
• The Appeal reported that the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola has reopened the notorious solitary confinement unit Camp J to house incarcerated people infected with COVID-19. The unit was known...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [4/20/20]
• The Washington Post reported that attorneys visited the DC jail unannounced last week under a court order to inspect the conditions and health care precautions being taken. Of the 1,442 people held...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [5/11/20]
• The Texas Tribune reported that of the people in prison who have been tested for the coronavirus, 70 percent have tested positive. Only one percent of the prison population, or 1,700 people, has been...
View ArticleDespite Harsh Lockdowns, Nearly Half of Women in Massachusetts Prisons Caught...
In April, as coronavirus swept through MCI Framingham, Massachusetts’ sole women’s prison, Kimya Foust said she and a group of other incarcerated women who had been exposed were moved into a large,...
View ArticleVoices From Solitary: Postcards From a Prison Pandemic
Incarcerated writer James Keown has been composing a series, “Postcards From a Prison Pandemic,” about the coronavirus’s impact on the medium-security MCI-Norfolk in Massachusetts, where he has spent...
View ArticleFourteen Days in Solitary [7/6/20]
• NPR’s Joseph Shapiro produced a piece that ran on “All Things Considered” about the use of lockdowns and solitary confinement around the country in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The piece...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [10/26/20]
• The Durango Herald reported that a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Grants County, New Mexico claimed that county jail officials failed to properly monitor Fernando Rodriguez before he apparently...
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“You Can Never Get That Time Back”: Solitary Confinement Is Devastating for...
It was May 2020, and Esther Arias was finally going to be released from prison. For years of her 14-year sentence, she had held out hope that she would win her appeal and surprise her four kids one day...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [11/23/20]
• The Boston Globe reported that the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney’s office conducted an investigation, finding “reasonable cause to believe” that the Massachusetts Department of...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [12/28/20]
• USA Today published an opinion piece by solitary survivors Johnny Perez, Jack Morris, and Pamela Winn, all of whom now advocate for the rights of incarcerated people. All three recounted their own...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [1/25/21]
• The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that the ACLU of Virginia reached a settlement with the Virginia Department of Corrections in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Nicolas Reyes. Reyes, an incarcerated...
View ArticleFourteen Days in Solitary [5/31/21]
• “It’s hard to escape the conclusion that this isn’t just a place where people do time—it’s a place where people go to be broken.” A blog post on the website of Arnold Ventures provides an in-depth...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [7/12/21]
• A hunger strike by more than 20 incarcerated men in Pennsylvania prisons over prolonged solitary confinement came to an end after ten days on July 6, reports the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. The...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [7/19/21]
• A group of more than 20 men at David Wade Correctional Center in Louisiana went on a hunger strike last week to call attention to the torture-like conditions they are experiencing. They are part of...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [8/2/21]
• Although the Virginia Department of Corrections claims to be shifting their solitary confinement practice to “restorative housing,” the Virginia Coalition on Solitary Confinement and ACLU of...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [8/18/21]
A New Yorker article by Eyal Press looks at the work of Angela Armstrong, who has spent the past decade examining conditions inside of carceral facilities in Louisiana. This past June, she launched a...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [9/29/21]
• Reporting from the Moultrie Observer draws on various investigations into conditions in Georgia prisons. At a legislative hearing last week, families spoke about the dangers their loved ones faced...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [11/10/21]
• Testimony from Black and Pink Massachusetts (MA) explains the need for a bill pending in the state legislature that increases safety for LGBTQI people and people living with HIV who are incarcerated...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [12/8/21]
• A study published in Science Advances found that largely due to high rates of incarceration, “11% of all black men in Pennsylvania, born 1986 to 1989, were incarcerated in solitary confinement by...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [3/16/22]
• The Colorado Sun reports that the state legislature rejected a bill that would have created a commission responsible for ensuring local jails follow protocol regarding health standards, food and...
View ArticleSeven Days In Solitary [4/13/22]
• Spectrum News Albany reports that New York’s HALT Solitary Confinement Act went into effect on April 1st. The legislation, which was signed into law in 2021, ends the use of solitary confinement in...
View ArticleSeven Days In Solitary [4/20/22]
• On the New York Times’ The Daily podcast, reporter Adam Liptak discusses the case of Dennis Wayne Hope, a Texas man who has spent the past 27 years in solitary confinement. Hope’s lawyers have asked...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [7/20/22]
• The Intercept reported on a complaint letter from four women in Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, who allege that a jail nurse sexually assaulted them and threatened them with...
View ArticleFourteen Days in Solitary [8/3/21]
New this week from Solitary Watch: • The Arkansas Department of Corrections has secured $75 million to add new 458 prison beds, partially funded through unused federal COVID-19 funds, reports Katie...
View ArticleMan Freezes to Death in Alabama Jail…and Other News on Solitary Confinement...
New from Solitary Watch: 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...
View ArticleHunger Strike in a Massachusetts Prison Targets Isolation and Abuse…and Other...
This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: In letters written to the Massachusetts Attorney General, a group of incarcerated men announced their hunger strike over conditions...
View ArticleU.S. Prison Deaths Increased by 77% in Covid-19 Pandemic…and Other News on...
New this week from Solitary Watch: In a recent article published in collaboration with The Stranger in Seattle, incarcerated journalist Kevin Light-Roth examines current efforts to pass legislation...
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