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

President Trump announced via Truth Social that he has selected William “Billy” Marshall to lead the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Marshall, who was appointed as the commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation in 2023, will inherit a severely overcrowded and understaffed prison system that houses more than 150,000 people (over 11,000 of whom are in solitary confinement) and has been enveloped in numerous recent scandals. Similarly, West Virginia’s prisons and jails have faced allegations in the past few years, with a 2022 lawsuit alleging dreadful conditions, including broken, maggot-infested toilets, a single shower shared amongst 70 people, and people left to sleep on “cold, wet floors in the winter without heat.” In response to these allegations, Marshall said incarcerated people made up and had relatives spread claims of cruel treatment. Under Marshall, West Virginia corrections officials destroyed evidence in the lawsuit, resulting in the firing of two agency staffers. “I’m concerned that he comes from a past where the culture is to use force to gain control as opposed to considering less violent alternatives,” said Lydia Milnes, an attorney involved in several lawsuits against the WV Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “He has continued to foster a culture of using excessive force.” West Virginia’s record on solitary confinement use is unknown, since it was the only state that failed to report numbers of people in restricted housing to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics during its most recent census of state prisons. The Marshall Project

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A North Carolina man’s death while in solitary confinement is part of a larger trend of solitary confinement suicides within NC prisons. While in solitary last year, 29-year-old Erik Ramsey, who had schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, was barred from communicating with his family by phone. According to the state medical examiner’s report, Ramsey had told a correctional officer he needed to speak with somebody an hour before he hanged himself with a sheet. Ramsey was one of 13 people to die by suicide in North Carolina prisons in 2024, eight of which transpired within solitary confinement, making it the tied for the highest year for suicides within the prison system. Since 2016, 81 people have taken their lives in the state’s prisons. Nearly 60% of those deaths occurred in solitary confinement. In January, three people died by suicide over four days, two of whom were in solitary confinement. “When people are dying inside prisons by suicide, I think that’s a signal of a failing system—a broken correctional system that relies on punishment instead of rehabilitation,” said Craig Waleed, project manager for the NC Unlock the Box campaign. Queen City Nerve

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Care, Not Control, an organization seeking to end youth incarceration in Pennsylvania, is calling on lawmakers to approve the Care Package, a series of ten bills that aim to reform the state’s juvenile justice system. One of the package’s goals is to restrict solitary confinement’s use on children. The Care Package also looks to grow and regulate juvenile diversion programs, ban placement of vulnerable children in detention facilities, limit probation terms, remove most court fees and fines, and strengthen oversight within juvenile detention facilities. KYW News Radio

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A South Carolina firing squad executed Mikhail Mahdi, marking the second such execution in the state this year. Mahdi, who was convicted of multiple crimes, including the murder of a gas-station clerk and an off-duty police officer, had been held in solitary confinement as a child. Between the ages of 14 and 17, Mahdi spent over 75 days isolated in solitary confinement. By the time he turned 21, he had spent around eight months in isolation in addition to being placed on suicide watch. “Mikal desperately needed mental health care,” said his attorneys in a press release. “Instead, he languished in juvenile prison, where he spent thousands of hours in solitary confinement. We now know that punitive isolation is deeply damaging to children.” USA Today | In an opinion piece, Randy Poindexter speaks on the irreparable damage he suffered during 16 years of solitary confinement in the South Carolina prison system. The piece outlines how prolonged isolation caused his mental health to deteriorate as each day passed, nearly destroying him. Despite not personally knowing Mahdi, Poindexter understands the irreversible damage done to him by solitary confinement. “At 21, Mikal was finally released from prison. But the anger, severe depression and mental illness that he entered prison with, worsened by solitary and never treated, only culminated in more tragedy,” he wrote. The State

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Action Alerts for the week: 

On Thursday, April 24, at 6 pm ET, Social Workers & Allies Against Solitary Confinement (SWASC) will host a webinar detailing solitary confinement’s history, use, impacts, how the practice relates to issues like racism and mental health, and the measures being taken to put an end to it. In addition to video, personal accounts, and reflection, the event will feature a panel of SWASC leaders to guide the discussion. The event, which qualifies for CE credits, costs $60, but the organization invites those unable to attend due to financial burden to contact them. SWASC

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