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

No fewer than six incarcerated men at Red Onion State Prison in Virginia burned themselves with makeshift devices in recent months, according to the Virginia Department of Corrections. Red Onion is a supermax prison many formerly incarcerated people describe as physically and racially abusive, with individuals regularly subject to prolonged periods of solitary confinement. The ongoing reports of burnings prompted the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus to release a statement stating that 12 individuals at the prison had set themselves on fire since September 15 in response to prison conditions. Virginia DOC Director Chadwick Dotson responded to criticisms of prison conditions, stating, “The recent round of stories about Red Onion are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to try to score cheap political points by advocacy groups who pursue prison abolition and policies that would make Virginians less safe.” New York Times

Solitary Watch director Jean Casella appeared this week on Charlotte, NC, public radio to discuss solitary confinement in North Carolina youth facilities and beyond, along with renowned psychologist Craig Haney and North Carolina Health News reporter Rachel Crumpler. A report released last year revealed that children in some North Carolina facilities were being locked in small, cell-like rooms, sometimes for days or weeks on end. They say they are denied education, are poorly fed, and have maggots in their toilets. Subsequently, a local firm filed a lawsuit pushing for an end to the practice of isolating minors in the state’s juvenile justice system, and they have now applied for class-action status. Charlotte Talks, WFAE

The California Mandela Campaign, an organization of immigration, disability, and criminal justice advocates, has called for Governor Gavin Newsom to stop blocking solitary confinement reform. In the past two years, Newsom vetoed one anti-solitary bill and pledged not to sign another. Both bills would have limited the practice to conform with the United Nations’s Nelson Mandela Rules for the treatment of prisoners. Despite Newsom’s refusal to cooperate, activists continue organizing rallies and forums calling for regulations over solitary confinement. “It’s designed to kill you,” stated solitary confinement survivor Jessica Solis at a rally outside the California State Capitol. “If you want to make a change, Governor Newsom, then you can stop this torture that’s still going on every single day.” The Appeal

Four incarcerated individuals in Hawaii’s state correctional system have died this year in confirmed or suspected suicides, the system’s highest annual suicide count since 2020. The state prison system, which currently faces a class-action federal lawsuit over failure to provide individuals with adequate mental health services, has seen over a dozen individuals commit suicide since 2020. Eric Seitz, the Honolulu lawyer who is behind the lawsuit, said the staff in Hawaii prisons are not sufficiently trained to deal with individuals with mental illness, leading staff to place them in solitary confinement, which increases the likelihood of suicide. Civil Beat

State prison systems across the U.S. increasingly are utilizing prolonged prison lockdowns amid severe staff shortages. Incarcerated individuals are essentially subjected to solitary confinement during these periods as they lose access to various structured activities, the ability to contact their loved ones, and other freedoms outside their cells. Depending on the facility, these lockdowns can last for weeks to months, with a Wisconsin state prison enforcing a lockdown for over a year in 2023. “People are not in that situation because of disciplinary reasons,” said Michele Deitch, the director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. “They’re in there for the convenience and management of the institution.” Stateline

Paul Hammel, a former senior reporter at the Nebraska Examiner, calls for an end to double bunking in a new opinion piece. Double bunking is the practice of placing more than one individual in a solitary confinement-designated cell. The state Inspector General noted that the use of the practice results from inadequate staff training and severe prison overcrowding, and stated that it should end. At least three individuals in the Nebraska state prison system have died as a result of double bunking in recent years. The Clay County News

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Banner photo: Interior of Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison, from the 2016 documentary film Solitary by Kristi Jacobson.