Solitary Watch

by Djamilah Diabate

February 12, 2025

New this week from Solitary Watch: Solitary Watch recently published the fact sheet “Solitary Confinement in Immigration Detention,” the ninth in a series of short publications that offer facts, analysis, and resources on a variety of topics related to solitary confinement in the United States. This fact sheet, written by Francisco Rodriguez, states: “Solitary confinement […]

by Jean Casella

February 6, 2025

Today, Solitary Watch is publishing the ninth in a series of fact sheets that offer 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 Francisco Rodriguez, is titled “Solitary Confinement in Immigrant Detention.” As the fact sheet […]

by Kilhah St Fort

February 5, 2025

New this week from Solitary Watch: Having spent more than eight years in solitary confinement, Solitary Watch Contributing Writer Kwaneta Harris was finally moved into “medium custody” in her Texas women’s prison. However, she soon discovered the practice of “23:59” lockdowns—a bureaucratic loophole that allows Texas prison officials to place individuals in solitary confinement for twenty-three […]

by Kwaneta Harris

February 4, 2025

When they promoted me to medium custody after more than eight years in isolation, I thought I was leaving solitary confinement behind. Instead, I found myself in a strange space: not quite solitary, not quite general population, but somehow managing to combine the worst aspects of both. On paper, in Texas, medium custody is supposed […]

by Francisco Rodriguez

January 29, 2025

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: On his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive order that mandated transgender women incarcerated in federal prisons be housed in men’s facilities, and also suspended their gender-transitioning-related medical treatment. The executive order, which more broadly aims to reduce the government’s recognition of […]

by Kilhah St Fort

January 22, 2025

New this week from Solitary Watch: The latest entry in our Voices from Solitary series features excerpts from the new book Unit 29: Writings from Parchman Prison. Including the work of more than 30 incarcerated individuals, the volume depicts the gritty reality of life at Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as the Parchman Farm. Following […]

by Voices from Solitary

January 20, 2025

The culmination of three years of working with incarcerated students, Unit 29: Writings from Parchman Prison is a rare and gritty portrayal of the realities of prison life. Published on December 1, 2024, by VOX Press, this collection features writings from over 30 currently incarcerated individuals housed in Unit 29 at Mississippi State Penitentiary, also […]

by Francisco Rodriguez

January 16, 2025

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: During 2024, six incarcerated men intentionally burned themselves at Red Onion State Prison in protest of the notoriously abusive conditions at the Virginia Supermax prison, which include regular placements in prolonged solitary confinement. A set of emails recently obtained by The Appeal revealed that Red […]

by Kilhah St Fort

January 8, 2025

New this week from Solitary Watch: Writing for Filter, Solitary Watch’s Sara Vogel reveals that digital mail further isolates those in solitary confinement in Texas prisons. Under a new policy, letters, photos, greeting cards, and postcards are now redirected to a digital mail processing center to be scanned and electronically sent to tablets or printed […]

by Sara Vogel

January 8, 2025

This article, written by Solitary Watch’s Sara Vogel and supported by Solitary Watch, was originally published by Filter. Kwaneta Harris was cleaning her cell when she came across a manila envelope filled with letters. Letters bearing crayon drawings from her children; letters with her mother’s signature Chanel No. 5 still emanated faintly from the paper. […]

by Francisco Rodriguez

January 2, 2025

New this week from Solitary Watch: Enormous gratitude to the hundreds of donors who responded to our annual appeal for donations. Thanks to you, we met our goal and will receive the full amount of matching funds from NewsMatch. Your support is a huge part of what keeps our vital work going throughout the year. […]

by Kilhah St Fort

December 26, 2024

To our readers: This is the final week of our annual fundraising drive. Make a donation to Solitary Watch now, and your donation will be DOUBLED by NewsMatch! Please consider supporting this vital work before the year ends. Thank you. … New this week from Solitary Watch: Kwaneta Harris, an award-winning incarcerated journalist and our […]

by Jean Casella

December 24, 2024

This is one of the first posts we ever published on Solitary Watch, fifteen 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 […]

by Juan Moreno Haines

December 23, 2024

Dear Readers and Friends: Before you enter full holiday mode, we hope you’ll take just a moment to consider those who will be spending this time of year alone in a solitary confinement cell. For many, this means not only the extreme isolation and loneliness that comes with being deprived of all meaningful human contact. […]

by Christopher Blackwell

December 22, 2024

The latest piece supported by Solitary Watch’s Ridgeway Reporting Project is written by Christopher Blackwell, an award-winning journalist and grassroots organizer incarcerated in Washington State. Below is an excerpt from his piece exposing the state‘s manipulation of a victim protection policy to censor his freedom of expression and that of other incarcerated individuals. Read an […]

by Jean Casella

December 20, 2024

Years ago, when I was down in Louisiana working on a story about the notorious plantation prison called Angola, a man who had served nearly 20 years shared with me what he thought to be a common misconception about prisons. He knew that most people looked at the wall around the perimeter of a prison, […]

by Kwaneta Harris

December 19, 2024

Solitary Watch is honored to announce that the acclaimed incarcerated journalist Kwaneta Harris has joined us as our newest Contributing Writer. Stay tuned to our site for frequent articles and updates from Harris. • • • • • • • • • • After eight and a half years of living in solitary confinement, I […]

by Francisco Rodriguez

December 18, 2024

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: Numerous transgender women incarcerated in New Jersey and Florida prisons say they are subject to discrimination and solitary confinement. One woman incarcerated in a New Jersey men’s prison reportedly castrated herself while in protective custody, a form of solitary confinement she was forced into out […]

by Jean Casella and Juan Moreno Haines

December 13, 2024

Last week, we reported on a group of at least six men incarcerated at Virginia’s notorious Red Onion supermax prison who have burned themselves with makeshift electrical devices in a protest against the isolation in which they had been held for months or even years. Earlier, we reported that two men had lit themselves on […]

by Kilhah St Fort

December 11, 2024

New this week from Solitary Watch: In the latest entry in the Voices from Solitary series, Dwayne “Bim” Staats and Jarreau “Ruk” Ayers co-author a piece about witnessing the mental destruction of two men—Kelly Gibbs and Keith Gibson—behind the torturous walls of solitary confinement. While awaiting trial, the two men were housed indefinitely in solitary, […]

by Voices from Solitary

December 6, 2024

Dwayne “Bim” Staats and Jarreau “Ruk” Ayers co-authored, in alternating sections, the following piece about witnessing the mental destruction of two men—Kelly Gibbs and Keith Gibson—behind the torturous walls of solitary confinement. Staats and Ayers both grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, and were both serving life sentences when they were indicted—along with fifteen others—for their […]

by Francisco Rodriguez

December 4, 2024

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: No fewer than six incarcerated men at Red Onion State Prison in Virginia burned themselves with makeshift devices in recent months, according to the Virginia Department of Corrections. Red Onion is a supermax prison many formerly incarcerated people describe as physically and racially abusive, with […]

by Jean Casella and Juan Moreno Haines

December 3, 2024

Dear Friends: For tens of thousands of people locked away in U.S. prisons and jails, the extreme deprivation and isolation of solitary confinement causes unimaginable suffering. One person living in solitary described his existence to us as “a soul-destroying loneliness that never ends.” In these conditions, even the smallest human connection can make a difference—and […]

by Kilhah St Fort

November 27, 2024

New this week from Solitary Watch: Marking Native American Heritage Month, our Voices from Solitary series features an essay by Charles Longshore, is a Skokomish Tribal member serving time in the Washington State prison system. A fierce advocate for his people, Longshore points out that Native Americans are underrepresented in nearly every segment of U.S. […]

by Jean Casella and Juan Moreno Haines

November 26, 2024

In the United States, the fourth Thursday in November is when we take a moment to reflect on the things we’re thankful for. There’s power, both profound and humbling, in putting words to the things that get us through the tough times. But not everybody’s tough times are the same, and not all gratitude carries […]

by Voices from Solitary

November 26, 2024

The author of this piece, Charles Longshore, is a Skokomish Tribal member who is nearly 13 years into a 35.8 year sentence in the Washington State Department of Corrections. Longshore is a founding member and board of directors chair at the Judicial Second Look Coalition and one of the key authors of the Judicial Discretion […]