Solitary Watch

by Mirilla Zhu

February 2, 2023

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 […]

by Vaidya Gullapalli

January 31, 2023

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 […]

by Mirilla Zhu

January 25, 2023

New from Solitary Watch: The Unlock the Box campaign has released a report, Banning Torture: Legislative Trends and Policy Solutions for Restricting and Ending Solitary Confinement throughout the United States, billed as “the first-ever comprehensive, nationwide analysis of legislation related to solitary confinement.”  Solitary Watch | Also now available: An interactive data tracking tool on […]

by Jean Casella

January 25, 2023

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 […]

by Mirilla Zhu

January 18, 2023

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 […]

by Mirilla Zhu

January 12, 2023

New from Solitary Watch:  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 […]

by Katie Rose Quandt

January 9, 2023

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. […]

by Mirilla Zhu

January 4, 2023

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. […]

by Caitlin Konya

January 3, 2023

New from Solitary Watch: • 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 […]

by Jean Casella

December 31, 2022

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.  We have featured […]

by Juan Moreno Haines

December 29, 2022

For 27 years, I’ve lived the cruel reality that is incarceration. I’ve experienced the relentless hypervigilance it creates, the isolation, the feeling of being forgotten and not cared for.   I know that the “average American” rarely sees or hears authentic accounts of what I experience. This blindness/deafness to the toxicity of prison life—and of the […]

by Jean Casella

December 24, 2022

This is one of the first posts we ever published on Solitary Watch, thirteen 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 Mirilla Zhu

December 22, 2022

New from Solitary Watch: • Our Voices from Solitary series features a new piece by Dennis Hope, who was placed in solitary in Texas in 1994. After more than a quarter century in isolation and years of litigation, in January 2022, he asked the Supreme Court to consider the constitutionality of solitary “measured in decades, rather than weeks, […]

by Jean Casella

December 22, 2022

Dear Friends: Just ten days remain in our year-end fundraising effort. We come to you only once a year to ask for your support—and that support has never been more important than it is today.  Right now, we have the opportunity to receive $20,000 in Matching Funds from NewsMatch, but only if we succeed in […]

by Voices from Solitary

December 20, 2022

Dennis Hope was placed in solitary confinement in Texas in 1994. After more than a quarter century in isolation and years of litigation, in January 2022, he asked the Supreme Court to consider the constitutionality of solitary “measured in decades, rather than weeks, months, or even years.” The case attracted national coverage. Shortly thereafter, the […]

by Jean Casella

December 16, 2022

Dear Friends: Earlier this week, in the latest of our new monthly dispatches, we called out solitary confinement for what it is: “the largest incidence of mass torture in the United States today.” This massive assault on the minds, bodies, and spirits of tens of thousands of incarcerated human beings must be stopped—and can be, […]

by Caitlin Konya

December 15, 2022

New from Solitary Watch: • The latest in our series of monthly dispatches, The Word from Solitary Watch, addresses the question “What Will It Take to End Torture in U.S. Prisons?” The piece identifies the widespread use of solitary confinement as “the largest incidence of mass torture in the United States today,” and explores why and […]

by Jean Casella

December 14, 2022

Today, at least a dozen men incarcerated at Nevada’s Ely State Prison entered the 14th day of a hunger strike protesting “the continued and extended use of solitary confinement.” They are not the first to take a courageous and desperate stand against solitary confinement using the only means available to them, and they will surely […]

by Mirilla Zhu

December 9, 2022

• The Hill reports that four states voted last month to remove language that allows slavery as punishment for a crime from their state constitutions. Now, advocates are seeking to pass the Abolition Amendment, which would fully abolish slavery at the federal level. Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, told The Hill that incarcerated […]

by Jean Casella

December 8, 2022

Years ago, when we were down in Louisiana working on a story about the notorious plantation prison called Angola, a man who had served nearly 20 years shared with us 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 Caitlin Konya

November 30, 2022

New from Solitary Watch:  • In an essay for our Voices from Solitary series, Tashon Burke, a 30-year-old Black man with psychiatric disabilities, writes about the more than eight years he has spent in solitary confinement during his incarceration in Pennsylvania. In this anguished essay, Burke describes the mental and emotional trauma caused by his years […]

by Jean Casella

November 29, 2022

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 this context, even the smallest human connection can make a difference—and […]

by Mirilla Zhu

November 23, 2022

• A Data for Progress poll found that a bipartisan majority of voters favor placing strict limits on solitary confinement. Voters indicated that they would support banning all forms of solitary confinement beyond four hours per day by a +32 point margin, with 78% of Democrats, 61% of Independents, and 51% of Republicans expressing support. […]

by Voices from Solitary

November 23, 2022

A Note to Our Readers: Since its founding, Solitary Watch has maintained a correspondence with thousands of people in the deepest, 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 […]

by Jean Casella

November 18, 2022

Dear Donors, Readers, and Friends: This year, Solitary Watch has a chance to raise up to $20,000 in matching funds through NewsMatch, a collaborative fundraising movement to support independent, public service journalism like ours. We come to you once a year—and only once—to ask you to support the unique and vital work we do. With […]

by Caitlin Konya

November 16, 2022

New from Solitary Watch:  • On November 16th at 6 PM EST, join Solitary Watch Director and Langeloth Grantee Partner Jean Casella in a discussion of new initiatives from Solitary Watch during the last Live with Langeloth of 2022.  • Solitary Watch has released a new fact sheet that documents the psychological effects of solitary confinement. According […]