New this week from Solitary Watch:

Sara Kielly, an investigative journalist, jailhouse lawyer, recipient of a Ridgeway Reporting Project grant from Solitary Watch and with support from Empowerment Avenue, provides coverage from the inside of New York State’s resistance to implementing the groundbreaking HALT Solitary Confinement law at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women. Despite the law’s provisions, officials at Bedford Hills have systematically violated the Act by denying incarcerated individuals, mostly people of color, their rights to fair representation and subjecting them to extended periods of isolation. Advocacy efforts have led to some reversals, but enforcement of the HALT Act remains inconsistent. Kielly identifies as “an Irish-American transgender woman” who “works to change conditions of confinement for minority prisoners.” New York Focus

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This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement:

A U.S. appeals court has ruled that Roy Lee Williams can sue Pennsylvania prison officials for alleged cruel and unusual punishment. Despite prison officials possessing knowledge of his history of mental illness, Williams has spent 26 years in solitary confinement. In addition to claiming his prolonged isolation violates the Eighth Amendment, the lawsuit also argues that prison officials have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to accommodate his mental health needs. As many states reevaluate their use of solitary confinement due to its severe mental health impacts, Williams’s case could influence ongoing legal challenges to solitary in Pennsylvania and beyond.  AP News

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Activists from Stop Solitary CT, an advocacy group aiming to end the use of isolation within Connecticut’s carceral systems, organized a news conference to draw attention to the state’s failure to enforce the PROTECT Act. Signed by Gov. Ned Lamont (D) in 2022, the law limits prison staff from holding an individual in solitary for more than 15 straight days or more than 30 days within a 60-day period. The law also includes provisions that strengthen incarcerated individuals’ connections to friends and family outside and improve employee wellness programming. Resistance to the Act has resulted in the continued traumatization of numerous incarcerated people and staff.  Greenwich Time

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Since its ratification in 2018, portions of Massachusetts’s criminal justice reform bill have not been implemented in the state’s prisons. State Sen. Jamie Eldridge (D) specifically pointed out officials’ failure to act on mandated reforms surrounding solitary confinement. The Department of Corrections claims that it does not use solitary confinement, but instead has “Secure Adjustment Units” that provide the people housed there with visitation and technology privileges. Advocates are doubtful of this claim. Citing conditions at Souza-Baranowski prison, a maximum-security facility, Eldridge reports that men spend most of their time handcuffed to a table or in a small outdoor cage. “Is that actually following the law, or is that just continued solitary confinement?” Eldridge posited.  MassLive

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In an opinion piece, re-entry program director and solitary survivor Jack Morris highlights California’s resistance to various anti-solitary legislation. First, the California Mandela Act, which would have limited solitary to 15 days, was blocked in the legislature by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who vetoed the same bill last year. Then, under pressure from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), legislators “gutted” a bill aimed at banning the use of solitary against pregnant people by limiting its scope only to state prisons (not local jails) and including a loophole that allows CDCR to place a pregnant person in solitary for five days under the guise of protection. The bill makes no mention of required consent from the pregnant individual, oversight by a medical provider, or processes for documentation, appeals, or due process, and there is nothing to prevent someone from being cycled in and out of solitary. Despite setbacks, advocates continue to push for the abolition of solitary confinement, with Morris emphasizing that “there are few forms of torture worse for the human soul than isolation.” San Diego Union Tribute

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The latest federal report on Federal Correctional Institution Lewisburg has criticized the Pennsylvania facility for failing to adequately prevent suicides among individuals incarcerated there. Despite written policies by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that discourage placing incarcerated people in solitary cells, the prison continues this practice, exacerbating mental health issues. From January 2022 to March 2024, seven out of 16 suicide attempts occurred in these restrictive conditions. NPR

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