Did you know that Native American people are incarcerated in state and federal prisons at four times the rate of their white counterparts?
Solitary Watch
@solitarywatch.bsky.social
Shining light into the darkest corners of the U.S. punishment system. http://solitarywatch.org | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/swdispatch | Support: http://bit.ly/givesw
"The moment a visit is approved, I begin building a version of myself that won’t give them a reason to take it away. I stop rolling my eyes. I stop sighing when an order makes no sense." My latest for @solitarywatch.bsky.social:
The Things They Quietly Steal from Us—and the Things They Can’t - Solitary Watch
Two Solitary Watch colleagues describe what love, solidarity, and resistance look like in a prison visit when the state does everything in its power to prevent them.
solitarywatch.org
“A 2020 report by the #HALTsolitaryCampaign analyzed suicides in New York City’s jails from 2015 to 2020 and found that individuals in solitary were 12 times more likely to die from suicide than prisoners held in general population.”
Adelanto ICE detention centers in California are routinely placing detainees who are suicidal and have mental health conditions in solitary confinement.
Guantanamo Dispatch: Another Confession Is Ruled Inadmissible in 9/11 Case -- due to brutal treatment, including four years in solitary confinement www.justsecurity.org/159740/anoth...
Guantanamo Dispatch: Another Confession Is Ruled Inadmissible in 9/11 Case
A military judge has thrown out the confessions of Mustafa al-Hawsawi, a capital defendant in the 9/11 case at Guantanamo Bay.
justsecurity.org
Trans detainees allege abuse, medical neglect at Jena immigration detention center in Louisiana lailluminator.com/2026/10/06/t...
Trans detainees allege abuse, medical neglect at Jena immigration detention center • Louisiana Illuminator
Three transgender women who have been detained for months at a male-only central Louisiana immigration detention center allege that they have faced abuse and transphobia at the hands of staff and othe...
lailluminator.com
Following an officer assault at Gainesville Juvenile Correctional Facility, youth prisons across Texas were placed on lockdown. Records document disturbing conditions, including youth swallowing vent screws, urinating on themselves, and engaging in other acts of self-harm.
The last hours in Cell 24: How a young man’s suicide unfolded in Massachusetts’ max-security prison masslive.com/news/2026/09... After this young man hanged himself from the bars of his cell window, staff armed themselves with riot shields and handcuffed him before beginning CPR.
masslive.com
The Florida Department of Children and Families is being sued for taking an average of 124 days—8x the legal limit—to transfer people with mental illness to state psychiatric hospitals. Some jails allegedly also place defendants in solitary confinement, worsening their mental health.
Federal judge orders Texas to air condition all prisons by the end of 2029 www.texastribune.org/2026/09/22/t...
Texas ordered to air condition all prisons by the end of 2029
High temperatures violate the Constitution’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment, the judge ruled. Just over a third of Texas prisons are fully air conditioned.
texastribune.org
In “Moving Day,” Joesph Patri Brown offers a glimpse into the relentless reality of life on death row in Mississippi, where frequent cell transfers mean repeatedly moving into unsanitary living conditions. Read his full piece here: solitarywatch.org/2025/03/27/v...
New York Will Pay $24 Million to Family of Inmate Beaten to Death www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/n...
New York Will Pay $24 Million to Family of Inmate Beaten to Death
The state reached a settlement with the family of Robert L. Brooks, who died after being beaten by prison guards in 2024.
nytimes.com
Women of color are vastly overrepresented in solitary confinement. A new report from the Yale Law School Liman Center, examining 32 jurisdictions, found that Black women make up less than 24% of the general prison population but nearly 40% of women held in solitary confinement.
Seven Journalism Grants Awarded for Reporting on Solitary Confinement solitarywatch.org/2026/09/18/s...
Seven Journalism Grants Awarded for Reporting on Solitary Confinement - Solitary Watch
For Immediate Release: September 18, 2026Contact: Jean Casella, jcasella@solitarywatch.org, (917) 974-0529 WASHINGTON, DC—Solitary Watch today announced the first group of recipients to receive suppor...
solitarywatch.org
After 30 years in solitary confinement, Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, is scheduled to be executed Sept. 30. Read the full story and other news on solitary confinement here: solitarywatch.org/2026/09/16/c...
“Solitary confinement, as currently practiced in the United States, is torture,” writes EA writer @kwanetaharris.bsky.social in @solitarywatch.bsky.social, and incarcerated women, who have already survived abuse, are suffering.
When Silence Becomes a Weapon - Solitary Watch
The overwhelming majority of women in solitary have survived intimate partner violence. This means prisons are torturing abuse survivors.
solitarywatch.org
Fighting for the Rights of Trans Women in Prison prisonjournalismproject.org/2026/09/15/f...
The Bittersweet End of My Fight for Trans Women From Prison
I secured preliminary injunctions and created new legal precedents for transgender women in prison. But in 2025, I had to settle before the Trump administration took office.
prisonjournalismproject.org
In “When Silence Becomes a Weapon,” Kwaneta Harris examines how solitary confinement deepens the trauma of women who are survivors of abuse, creating conditions that hinder healing and rehabilitation. Read her full piece here: tinyurl.com/whensilenceb...
@chrisgelardi.bsky.social and I wrote for @nysfocus.com about the allegedly cruel and punitive use of defecation rooms in New York State prisons. Grateful for funding from @economichardship.bsky.social and @solitarywatch.bsky.social’s grants program. nysfocus.com/2026/08/17/n...
‘Losing My Mind’: Inside New York’s Prison ‘Shit Rooms’
New York prisons hold people suspected of ingesting contraband items in “special watch” cells with no running water for days or weeks.
nysfocus.com
Research shows: Solitary confinement damages mental health and doesn't make prisons safer. But there's a rising movement to stop reform that aims to end overuse of solitary confinement @solitarywatch.bsky.social
➡️ Prisons & jails still use solitary confinement, an inhumane tactic that has lethal consequences. According to @solitarywatch.bsky.social, 122,000 people are in solitary on any given day.
"That damage falls on everyone who enters isolation. But it does not fall equally. Women bear a disproportionate share, and the reasons why begin long before any prison sentence." - a thought-provoking piece by Kwaneta Harris for @solitarywatch.bsky.social
9/11’s Unlearned Lessons www.bostonreview.net/articles/9-1... @jeannetheoharis.bsky.social reminds us that the the forms of torture which became normalized after 9/11 included use of extended solitary confinement under draconian "Special Administrative Measures."
9/11’s Unlearned Lessons
The anti-terrorism cases that garnered little outrage should have concerned us all.
bostonreview.net
Weekly News Roundup: An investigation into the now-closed Dublin federal prison in California found that women were threatened with solitary confinement for refusing invasive strip searches. Read this story and more on solitary confinement: tinyurl.com/7daysSept10
ICE Moved Hundreds of Detainees from Delaney Hall as Protests Raged Outside www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/09/10/d...
ICE Moved Hundreds of Detainees from Delaney Hall as Protests Raged Outside
According to new data, more than 700 people were transferred out of the Newark detention facility in what advocates say was an attempt to break a strike by detainees.
thecityreporter.nyc
🚨 Breaking News: After Terral Ellis, 26, died alone in an Oklahoma jail in 2015 after being “ignored, ridiculed, and tormented,” his family was awarded $33 million. County residents may now pay through higher taxes. But the highest cost of jail abuse is human life. tinyurl.com/7DaysinSolit...
Solitary confinement is cruel and unusual for everyone | Opinion www.sun-sentinel.com/2026/09/03/s...
Solitary confinement is cruel and unusual for everyone | Opinion
Condemning solitary confinement doesn’t mean supporting the Tate brothers, writes journalist Chandra Bozelko. “A right that dissolves when applied to the despised was never a right at all.”
sun-sentinel.com
NEW: 23-hour solitary confinement. 115-degree heat. Even now, Jimmie Duncan is haunted by the 27 years he spent on death row. Despite his overturned conviction, Louisiana could force him to go back. with @veritenews.org
He Spent 27 Years on Death Row as a Wrongfully Convicted Man. What Comes Next?
23-hour solitary confinement. 115-degree heat. Jimmie Duncan is haunted by the decades he spent in Louisiana’s Angola prison — and how, even after being released, he still isn’t truly free.
propublica.org
In "The Solace I Found in Mail," Karl ChuJoy reflects on how letters and literary materials helped him survive years of solitary confinement. Read his full piece: solitarywatch.org/2026/08/20/f... ✉️ Support someone in solitary, one letter at a time: tinyurl.com/lifelinestos...
‘Unbearable’ heat in uncooled Alabama prisons www.newsfromthestates.com/article/unbe...
‘Unbearable’ heat in uncooled Alabama prisons
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.ELMORE — Tiffany...
newsfromthestates.com