New this week from Solitary Watch:

Solitary Watch Editor-in-Chief Juan Moreno Haines, who is currently in his 28th year of incarceration at San Quentin, examines the 2024 presidential election and what election day means to the approximately 4 million American citizens like him who are barred from voting over felony convictions. His commentary analyzes the ways in which disenfranchisement dehumanizes the majority of current and formerly incarcerated individuals, citing a quote from the Supreme Court’s monumental Wesberry v. Sanders decision, which states, “No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined.” Solitary Watch

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

A two-year investigation by the Associated Press into prison labor found that current and formerly incarcerated women nationwide are subject to systemic sexual violence and abuse at the hands of prison officers and other correctional staff. AP found cases in all 50 states of correctional staff luring incarcerated women into areas isolated from security cameras while they are on shift for their work assignments and abusing them. The piece highlights how incarcerated women are reluctant to report their abuse out of fear of retaliation such as losing their jobs, being denied contact with their children, or placement in solitary confinement. In one case, a woman named Bonnie Hernandez felt she had no choice but to report her abuser, an officer named ​​Lenton Hatten, and was swiftly placed in solitary confinement and transferred to a maximum security prison for doing so. Associated Press

The Black Alliance for Just Immigration obtained data in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that revealed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been intentionally “whitewashing” their race data to evade repercussions for disproportionately mistreating Black immigrants. For example, various ICE detention facilities categorize just 50% of Gambian immigrants as Black, despite approximately 98% of Gambians self-identifying as Black, according to the American Community Survey. The piece cites how Black immigrants are more likely to be placed in solitary confinement within ICE detention facilities, according to a report by Human Rights First. Jesse Franzblau, a senior policy analyst for the National Immigrant Justice Center, states that ICE’s negligence in accurately collecting racial data “makes it more difficult to track the abuses that are carried out along racial lines.” Prism Reports

A person suspected of a 2017 double murder in Indiana spent 13 consecutive months in solitary confinement, which may have exacerbated his mental health problems. The suspect, Richard Allen, was diagnosed with a serious mental illness months after arriving at Westville Correctional Facility in late 2022. According to the Indiana Department of Corrections’s policy, nobody diagnosed with a serious mental illness should be isolated for more than 30 days. After his diagnosis, Allen would allegedly confess to the murders to the prison’s officers and psychologists. Dr. Deanna Dwenger, a defense witness at Allen’s trial, stated that she’d witnessed people experiencing psychosis make sincere confessions while others made things up.  ABC News

A new analysis from Vera assesses the negative effects of prison lockdowns, which confine incarcerated people to their cells for nearly 24 hours a day for days to weeks on end. Despite lockdowns being intended as a short-term measure for safety emergencies or to curtail prison violence, prisons nationwide will frequently utilize to deal with “chronic staffing and budget shortages.” Extended lockdowns are a form of solitary confinement, which is known to instill and accentuate mental illness in individuals while increasing their risk of suicide or self-harm. “Confining people to cells 23 hours a day is cruel and counterproductive,” the article states. “Investing in opportunities for incarcerated people to grow and gain skills that will help them break the cycle of incarceration will mean safer prisons and a safer society.” Vera Institute of Justice 

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