Seven Days in Solitary [1/25/15]

by | January 25, 2015

The following roundup features noteworthy news, reports and opinions on solitary confinement from the past week that have not been covered in other Solitary Watch posts.

• A judge has ruled in favor of releasing Marichuy Gamino, a transgender asylum seeker who was raped in immigration detention and subsequently held in solitary confinement “for her own protection.” Gamino – who has been held at Eloy Detention Center in Arizona for more than a year – will be freed once her bond is paid.

• Five Rikers guards and one captain have been fired for a physical assault they committed in 2012. Robert Hinton, then 27, was beaten by the guards after he refused to be escorted to a now-closed isolation unit for prisoners with mental illness.

• Scott Frakes, currently the deputy prisons director in Washington state, will next serve as Nebraska’s corrections commissioner. Over the course of Frakes’ tenure in Washington, the state decreased the use of solitary confinement by 35 percent.

• Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed a conditional pardon for Reginald “Neli” Latson, a man diagnosed with autism who had been in solitary confinement for more than a year. Latson will now be moved to a residential facility.

Aviva Stahl

AVIVA STAHL is a Brooklyn-based reporter who writes about science/health at the intersection of mass incarceration, national security, and trans rights. She’s written for the New York Times, Wired, Buzzfeed News, Solitary Watch, and other outlets. Find her @stahlidarity and at stahlidarity.com.

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