Solitary Watch

by Sophia Chang

September 5, 2024

New this week from Solitary Watch:  Kevin Sawyer, an incarcerated journalist, writes about what Black August means to him. Originating in 1979 in honor of the incarcerated activist George Jackson, Black August commemorates the legacy of Black liberation fighters, political prisoners, and revolutionary leaders, especially those behind bars. Sawyer writes that has observed Black August […]

by Voices from Solitary

August 30, 2024

The following piece, co-published with Davis Vanguard, is written by incarcerated journalist Kevin D. Sawyer. For 24 out of his 28 years in prison, Sawyer has observed Black August, a month that commemorates the legacy of Black liberation fighters, political prisoners, and revolutionary leaders. Black August originated in 1979 to pay homage to George Jackson, […]

by Maeve Brennan

August 28, 2024

New this week from Solitary Watch:  Solitary Watch published “Women in Solitary Confinement,” the eighth 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. The fact sheet states, “Solitary confinement is always harmful, but […]

by Jean Casella

August 26, 2024

Today, Solitary Watch is publishing the eighth 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 Sophie Kane, is titled “Women in Solitary Confinement.” The population of incarcerated women […]

by Sophia Chang

August 21, 2024

New this week from Solitary Watch: Jack Jackson is a transgender man currently serving a 20-year sentence in Texas prison, and has been held for the past ten years in solitary confinement. When Jackson entered the Texas prison system in 2014, he was assigned to a woman’s diagnostic unit, and faced harassment from both officers […]

by Voices from Solitary

August 19, 2024

Jack Jackson is a transgender man currently serving a twenty-year sentence in Texas prison. Jackson has served eleven years of his sentence so far, including the last ten years in solitary confinement. In 2014, he attempted suicide while on work detail by running at the guards, hoping that they would shoot him. According to Jackson, […]

by Maeve Brennan

August 14, 2024

New this week from Solitary Watch:  Solitary Watch has openings for Fall 2024 interns. We offer interns an opportunity to gain writing, research, and outreach skills while working on an important domestic human rights issue. Especially encouraged to apply are individuals with a background or interest in journalism, law, and/or criminal justice; those interested in […]

by Sophia Chang

August 7, 2024

New this week from Solitary Watch: Felix Sitthivong, an incarcerated journalist and recipient of a Ridgeway Reporting Project grant from Solitary Watch, describes the suppression of cultural awareness groups in Washington state prisons, which mislabel these organizations as gangs. Sitthivong is the former president of the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Awareness Group (APICAG), which has […]

by Felix Sitthivong

August 5, 2024

Felix Sitthivong is a journalist and organizer currently incarcerated in Washington State. He received a grant from Solitary Watch’s Ridgeway Reporting Project to write his latest story, published in Prism, in which he reports on the history, importance, and repression of cultural awareness groups in prison. As the former president of the prison’s Asian Pacific […]

by Maeve Brennan

July 31, 2024

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued an executive order that suspended parts of a new solitary confinement ban, Local Law 42. The order prevented a variety of checks on confinement, including a four-hour limit on detaining people in “de-escalation confinement” and other limits on […]

by Sophia Chang

July 24, 2024

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: Before dropping out of the 2020 Democratic primary campaign, candidate Kamala Harris took a strong position against solitary confinement. Harris was one of only three out of thirteen Democratic candidates who accepted an invitation to attend the first town hall organized by formerly incarcerated people, […]

by Maeve Brennan

July 17, 2024

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: On July 11, with unanimous bipartisab suppot, the U.S. Senate passed the Federal Prison Oversight Act, which aims to overhaul oversight of the Bureau of Prisons. The bill has already passed in the House, and now goes to President Biden’s desk. The legislation comes after […]

by Sophia Chang

July 10, 2024

New this week from Solitary Watch: For Solitary Watch readers who are inspired to take action against the pervasive practice of solitary confinement, the Resources section on our website (see top menu) now includes Resources for Action. This curated selection of national organizations and state campaigns offers a starting point for getting involved in the […]

by Maeve Brennan

July 3, 2024

New this week from Solitary Watch: For Solitary Watch readers who are inspired to take action against the pervasive practice of solitary confinement, the Resources section on our website (see top menu) now includes Resources for Action. This curated selection of national organizations and state campaigns offers a starting point for getting involved in the […]

by Sophia Chang

June 26, 2024

New this week from Solitary Watch: The most recent fact sheet in our series covers children in solitary confinement. “Solitary confinement causes serious physical, neurological, and psychological harm to adults, and has even more dire effects on children, whose minds and bodies are still growing and developing,” the fact sheet states. “The United Nations classifies […]

by Jean Casella

June 21, 2024

Today, Solitary Watch is publishing the seventh 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 Ella Whittaker, Abigail Gorman, and Ashanti Bruce, is titled “Children in Solitary Confinement.” […]

by Maeve Brennan

June 19, 2024

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: After spending more than 22 years in solitary confinement, Frank De Palma is advocating for an end to the practice. He co-wrote a memoir about his experiences, “Never to Surrender!” and testified before the Nevada Legislature on solitary’s damaging effects on his mental health, self-perception, […]

by Sara Vogel

June 12, 2024

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: Of the nearly one in six transgender people who report experiencing prison or jail, most will also face violence and solitary confinement while incarcerated. Despite knowing the disproportionate harm faced by transgender incarcerated people, their voices often go unheard. “People are the experts of their […]

by Phoebe Holman

June 5, 2024

New from Solitary Watch:  Incarcerated writer and Ridgeway Reporting Grant recipient Kwaneta Harris shares her experience with women’s solitary confinement in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Harris highlights the rampant sexual abuse against women and girls inside TDCJ prisons perpetrated by staff and maintained through threats of solitary confinement. Beyond intimidation, Harris exposes how […]

by Kwaneta Harris

June 3, 2024

The gifted and prolific incarcerated journalist Kwaneta Harris received a grant from Solitary Watch’s Ridgeway Reporting Project to write her latest piece, just published by Scalawag. Harris, who wrote this scathing expose from inside a solitary confinement cell, reveals how solitary units become fertile ground for the sexual abuse and exploitation of women and of […]

by Phoebe Holman

May 29, 2024

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: At a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a panel of experts urged Congress to support legislation or a constitutional amendment to reform the use of forced prison labor. Prison labor is used nationally for farming, fighting wildfires, and other high-risk jobs. Over three-quarters of […]

by Phoebe Holman

May 22, 2024

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: Testimonies of people incarcerated all over Texas reveal horrifying conditions, long stays in solitary, and evidence of widespread abuse from correctional officers. Incarcerated people describe being kept in solitary confinement cells no bigger than a bathroom 22 to 24 hours a day in extreme heat. […]

by Phoebe Holman

May 15, 2024

New this week from Solitary Watch: Writing in the American Prospect in an article supported by Solitary Watch, our senior writer Katie Rose Quandt explores the continued use of solitary confinement by the federal Bureau of Prisons despite its numerous proven negative impacts, and the BOP’s continued failure to meet recommendations for reform from its […]

by Juan Moreno Haines

May 13, 2024

After some time off, we are reviving “The Word from Solitary Watch,” our monthly series of dispatches by Solitary Watch staff and contributors. • The mainstream media has traditionally gotten most of its information about what goes on inside prisons from corrections officials—government employees who feed stories to journalists, aimed at protecting the institution’s image. […]

by Ella Goldblum

May 12, 2024

For Mother’s Day, we are reposting this article, originally published in November 2020. 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 by picking them […]

by Katie Rose Quandt

May 10, 2024

This investigative feature story, written by our Senior Writer Katie Rose Quandt and supported by Solitary Watch, appeared earlier this week in The American Prospect. Visit TAP’s website to read the full piece. • • • • • • • • • • At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in April, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) noted that […]