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

A whistleblower at Baker County Detention Center, an ICE facility near Jacksonville, Florida, reported a trend of systemic human rights violations. The whistleblower’s testimony recounted staff routinely refusing incarcerated individuals basic medical care, fabricating reports to save face, and fostering a culture of racial and sexual abuse. A young woman named Ana’s federal civil rights complaint was released alongside the whistleblower’s testimony. The complaint alleges that Baker staff forced Ana into an extended period of solitary confinement for failing to understand their English commands. Once in isolation, she reportedly suffered various mental health emergencies, and staff allegedly responded by forcing her into an exposed suicide smock, strapping her in a restraint chair, and mocking her. Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

New York City’s Department of Corrections Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie denied any knowledge about the “deadlocking” of individuals on Rikers Island during a meeting of the Board of Correction, a citizen oversight body. Deadlocking is the practice of indiscriminately placing individuals with mental illnesses into solitary confinement for prolonged periods, restricting their access to health care services. While the commissioner denied knowing about the practice’s use at Rikers, she also shut down the possibility of a DOC investigation into the allegations, instead rerouting them to the Department of Investigations, which can notoriously take years to issue findings. Despite this, various attorneys testified to the BOC that the practice is in use. “This is an ongoing issue, it’s still happening and it’s extremely widespread,” said Dorthy Weldon, a special litigation attorney with New York County Defender Services. “I’m flabbergasted that the commissioner could not be aware of these things going on.” Queens Eagle

An investigation by the U.S. Justice Department found that the culture and conditions at Fulton County Jail in Georgia violate incarcerated individuals’s constitutional rights. The investigation began after Lashawn Thompson, an individual incarcerated at the jail, was found dead and malnourished in a bed-bug-infested cell in 2022. The DOJ’s report found that the jail routinely placed individuals suffering from mental illness into solitary confinement, where they were neglected and unmonitored. The investigation also found that incarcerated individuals were often left unprotected from physical and sexual abuse by other individuals, with over 300 stabbings reportedly occurring in 2023 alone. NBC News

Riverside County reported its highest number of deaths of incarcerated individuals in decades in 2022, with jails across the county accused of routinely neglecting people and placing them at risk of violence. An investigation by the New York Times and the Desert Sun found that the county’s sheriff’s department often left incarcerated individuals unmonitored and failed to step in when they tried to kill themselves. The report also found that individuals suffering from severe mental health disorders were usually placed in solitary confinement. In 2013, a federal judge ordered experts to investigate allegations of inadequate care within the county’s jails in four lawsuits. One expert stated that those with mental illness were “placed at a greater risk of harming themselves under these conditions.”   San Bernardino Sun

Prisoners Legal Services, a Massachusetts-based advocacy group, called on Governor Maura Healy to enact various reforms that would improve incarcerated individuals’ conditions at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center. One proposed reform seeks to end harmful conditions in the prison’s Behavior Assessment Unit and Secure Adjustment Units. Originally designed as alternatives to solitary confinement, these units continue to place individuals in outdoor cages or shackle them in chairs during their three hours of allotted out-of-cell time, according to PLS. “True public safety requires meaningful rehabilitation opportunities, humane conditions, and accountability—not more isolation and punishment,” said Jesse White, PLS’s policy director. “These reforms are not just morally necessary; they’re essential for the safety of everyone inside SBCC and our Massachusetts communities.” MassLive

Action Alerts for this week:

On Tuesday, November 19, from 8:00 – 9:30 pm EST, No Kids in Prison and the Unlock the Box Campaign will host a virtual panel on the various challenges young people experience while traversing the criminal legal system, including solitary confinement. The event will feature artistic performances and personal anecdotes from a myriad of panelists to aid audiences in understanding these disturbing topics. The event is free, but registration is required via Eventbrite Unlock the Box

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