New this week from Solitary Watch: 

In an article co-published by The Appeal, Solitary Watch’s Katie Rose Quandt and Maeve Brennan report on the “dangerous, barbaric conditions” at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), a federal jail in Brooklyn. Lockdowns emulating solitary confinement have become increasingly frequent in response to rising violence at the facility. The jail has held several “celebrity prisoners” in recent years, including Luigi Mangione, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Ghislaine Maxwell, and R. Kelly. However, the suffering of the nearly 1,600 other individuals incarcerated at MDC is often overlooked by the media. Solitary Watch

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In the latest Voices From Solitary dispatch, formerly incarcerated artist Sean Chaney takes readers inside his 15 months at the Metropolitan Detention Center. He describes deliberate neglect, unclean water, and extreme isolation. “The conditions inside are beyond inhumane—they are deliberately cruel,” he writes. He ends his account with a request that readers support the End Solitary Confinement Act, a federal bill to end isolation in prisons. Solitary Watch 

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Solitary Watch’s Photo Requests From Solitary project was featured in an exhibit at the Wa Na Wari, a community art project to reclaim Black cultural space, located in Seattle. South Seattle Emerald 

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

In an article published by Slate, Solitary Watch’s Katie Rose Quandt highlights an underreported story: how Trump’s policies have exacerbated the staffing issues within the Federal Bureau of Prisons, affecting over 150,000 incarcerated people under its jurisdiction. Even as he undercut protections for federal workers, Trump has pursued policies that “threaten to widen the net of incarceration”—heralding an overcrowding crisis. Since Trump entered office, BOP facilities have also increasingly employed lockdowns, during which entire units get confined for hours or days on end. Mail has increasingly been reported late or missing, and people incarcerated at BOP facilities have reported being charged for formerly-free phone calls. Slate

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In a victory for prison reform advocates, two courts in New York upheld solitary confinement reforms previously overridden by leading figures in the state. The two rulings ordered the implementation of Local Law 42, which bans solitary confinement in New York City jails and had been delayed under an “emergency order” from Mayor Eric Adams; and the resumption of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, which instated restrictions on solitary confinement in state prisons and had been in part suspended by Governor Kathy Hochul. News10 | The rulings represented a rare victory in a landscape where politicians have routinely failed to prioritize reform. Vital City | However, Federal Judge Laura Swain, who put New York City’s Rikers’ Island jail into federal receivership earlier this year, ordered New York City to hold off on implementing Local Law 42shortly after the state ruled to enact Local Law 42. Queen’s Eagle

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The Illinois Department of Corrections released its first quarterly report on the use of solitary confinement within the state’s prison system. However, advocates said the data fails to meaningfully fulfill the goals of the state’s new law mandating reporting of the practice. Our Sentinel 

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The family of Spencer Swearnger, a man who died from water intoxication at a jail in Dallas, is suing the county’s government for not taking appropriate safety precautions to prevent his death. Swearnger is the third person to die of water intoxication in the same jail since 2020. Records show that shortly before he died, authorities strapped Swearnger in a restraint chair after he consumed toilet water, severely limiting his mobility. Kera News 

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As numbers in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers have swelled, so has the use of abusive practices, including solitary confinement. Authors of a recent study found that detention centers use solitary confinement to punish immigrants for minor infractions, and that over 20,000 people were held in solitary confinement in ICE facilities between 2017 and 2023. Nevada Law Journal | Since May, the number of people held in ICE detention without any criminal charges has increased by 250%. CBS News | To learn more about ICE’s use of solitary confinement, read Solitary Watch’s Solitary Confinement and Immigration Detention fact sheet. Solitary Watch 

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As ICE detentions in Pennsylvania surge, advocates have cast wary eyes toward Moshannon Valley Processing Center, where detained immigrants are most likely to be taken. Complaints and investigations have revealed glaring problems with the Center’s operations, including its wrongful placement of immigrants into solitary confinement. Spotlight PA 

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At the George F. Bailey Detention Facility, San Diego’s largest jail, people in “administrative separation” have extremely limited human contact and spend their days in a “small cage-like metal enclosure.” One psychiatrist wrote that these conditions were “outside the norms of even the most restrictive solitary confinement units.” San Diego Union Tribune 

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Anti-solitary advocate Craig Waleed penned a letter to the editor arguing that North Carolina must comply with the United Nations’ Mandela rules by limiting the use of solitary confinement in state prisons to no more than 15 days. Waleed, who is a survivor of solitary confinement, recalls “what it does to the mind, body, and spirit.” Charlotte Observer 

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Gulf War veteran Derek Carter discusses his experience as a watcher in the Crisis Stabilization Unit at a South Carolina prison. The state prison system created the unit after about 3,500 people with severe mental illnesses filed a civil case alleging they were segregated within the prison system, including through the use of solitary confinement. Prison Journalism Project 

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