New this week from Solitary Watch:

The Society of Professional Journalists and the Prison Journalism Project recently announced the winners of the second annual Stillwater Prison Journalism Awards. Among the winners are Solitary Watch contributing writer Kwaneta Harris, who won Prison Journalist of the Year and Best Op-Ed for “Menopause in a Prison Cell,” published by In These Times, as well as Ridgeway Ridgeway Reporting Project recipients Xandan Gulley and Sara Kielly, who both won third place in their respective categories of Best Reported Essay and Best Op-Ed. Additionally, Harris and Gulley came in second place in Best Collaboration for “Cooked in custody: Four incarcerated people describe dangerous conditions in Texas state prisons,” published by Prism. Society of Professional Journalists

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

In a new report, Amnesty International discovered that the El Paso Service Processing Center (EPSPC), an ICE detention center in Texas, was committing several human rights violations against migrants detained at the facility. Through speaking with 27 detained migrants, in addition to legal, humanitarian, and social service providers and local organizations, the organization found that migrants at the facility lacked access to legal resources and due process. The report also reveals that migrants were subject to regular physical abuse from guards and inhumane living conditions, such as unsanitary, overcrowded living spaces, expired food, and solitary confinement. It also found that, due to the Trump Administration’s implementation of the Alien Enemies Act, the facility’s guards disproportionately target Venezuelan migrants with abuse and solitary confinement. Amnesty International 

Four prisons within Missouri’s Department of Corrections have no air conditioning in any of their housing units. A heat index of 110 degrees Fahrenheit was registered outside of Algoa Correctional Center, one of the four prisons without air conditioning, on various days last summer. According to the report, it was likely much hotter within the facility itself, putting individuals in solitary confinement at serious risk of heat exhaustion. Individuals incarcerated in these prisons recall conditions worsening in the extreme heat, with beds rusting and cockroaches appearing more frequently. “If you want to know what Hell feels like, it is summer at Algoa,” said Arnez Merriweather, a person incarcerated at Algoa. The Marshall Project/Missouri Independent | A new lawsuit filed by attorneys at the MacArthur Justice Center, an advocacy group, alleges the conditions at Algoa Correctional Center are violating the rights of those isolated in solitary confinement. According to the lawsuit, individuals in solitary confinement have restricted access to showers and are often unable to safely alert guards when they experience an emergency. The Beacon News

A federal judge ruled against Oklahoma’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the Great Plains Correctional Facility violated various incarcerated people’s constitutional rights by using  3-by-3-foot shower stalls for solitary confinement. According to the lawsuit, incarcerated people were locked in the shower stalls for 24 hours or longer without access to fresh drinking water, hygiene products, and even bathroom breaks. An internal Oklahoma Department of Corrections investigation found that staff started moving individuals to the stalls after the facility’s restrictive housing unit amassed a backlog. The Duncan Banner

Michaela Romero, a behavioral researcher at the University of Washington, found that solitary confinement may induce genetic and neurological damage by replicating the conditions of solitary confinement and group housing for a bumblebee colony. Isolating some of the bees within the restrictive housing and placing others, in groups of four, in the group housing, Romero found that the bees in solitary confinement were twice as likely to die compared to the group housing. The research exposed a stark double standard between the ethical guidelines for lab animals and the treatment of people in solitary confinement. “I have to provide day and night lighting to octopuses,” Romero said. “If I did not, they would take them away immediately, yet they are not having a problem with the fact that humans in solitary confinement in our state are exposed to 24-hour light and have for decades.” The Charlotte Post

Get this weekly roundup in your mail every Wednesday, covering the past seven days of solitary confinement news and commentary. Subscribe today.

The work we do is made possible by your support. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation—large or small—today.