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

A recent investigation revealed that children incarcerated at the Youth Justice and Education Center in Shelby County (Memphis), Tennessee, are being held in solitary confinement for months at a time. For eight months, one young person was isolated in a concrete cell less than half the size of a parking space for up to 71 hours at a time with no school, fresh air, or time with other people. County records show a 16 percent increase in suicide crisis calls at the detention facility. Additional records show that both the county’s juvenile court and the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services are aware of the center’s use of solitary confinement, but have made no attempt to bring the unit into compliance with state law. MLK50

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A federal court has ordered officials at the Mary Davis Detention Home (MDH) in Galesburg, Illinois, to stop subjecting young people to abusive, extended solitary confinement. The court also ordered MDH to develop a plan within 30 days for emergency health intervention for young people identified as being at risk for self-harm. This ruling comes from ongoing litigation challenging the conditions at MDH, where children as young as 11 years old await sentencing. “The youth we represented at MDH spent days, weeks, and even months at a time in solitary confinement,” said Kevin Fee, Legal Director at the ACLU of Illinois. ACLU of Illinois | The ruling makes clear that young people cannot be placed in solitary confinement and must instead receive prompt, appropriate care. “Like the Mary Davis Home, other facilities should take care to ensure that young people are not forced to spend long periods of time in a concrete box. The consensus is clear: this practice causes immense and lasting harm to young people and has no place in Illinois,” Fee said. Tri States Public Radio

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A recent report found that Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake, two youth detention facilities in Wisconsin, have complied with court-ordered reductions in the use of solitary confinement, strip searches, and mechanical restraints, as well as a ban on using pepper spray. “While the Defendants’ progress is substantial, it is essential that they avoid complacency and remain committed to sustaining these reforms and pursuing ongoing improvement,” wrote a court-appointed monitor. However, according to ACLU of Wisconsin Senior Staff Attorney Tim Muth, Wisconsin needs a more community-based youth justice system rather than relying on reforms to the two youth prisons. Wisconsin Public Radio

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Activists with the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Campaign filed a complaint with two United Nations special rapporteurs over widespread abuse and human rights violations occurring in New York state prisons. The complaint cites “egregious practices” across New York regarding the usage of solitary confinement, staff abuse, long sentences, and deaths while incarcerated. “New York’s prisons and jails have always been sites of racism, brutality, and torture […] local officials are directly flouting their own laws to continue, cover-up, and distract from their regimes of torture and abuse,” the complaint reads. City & State New York | Despite widespread issues enforcing the HALT Act’s 15-day limit on solitary confinement and other provisions, the state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) recently proposed a list of reforms to allow solitary to be used for protective custody and in cases of “repeat offenders, sexual harassment, gang activity, or other heinous misconduct.” However, New York’s Democratic lawmakers remain adamantly against changing the HALT Act. “HALT does not need to be changed; it needs to be implemented by DOCCS,” said Senator Julia Salazar, who co-sponsored the HALT Act. Spectrum Local News | In an editorial, the Albany Times Union advocates for the need to implement the limits on solitary confinement mandated by the HALT Act, which DOCCS has struggled to implement or ignored completely. The Editorial Board implores the New York Legislature to not retreat from HALT’s principles. Times Union 

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is giving private prison operator CoreCivic a new contract to operate the California City Immigration Processing Center (CCIPC), a 2,560-bed center that previously operated as a state prison until early 2024. As California’s largest ICE detention center, the contract is expected to generate $130 million in revenue for CoreCivic. At least one immigrant detained at CCIPC tried to take his own life in the first weeks of the facility’s opening. In late September, over 100 people detained in the facility conducted sit-ins and refused meals to protest the conditions, with some being placed in solitary confinement as punishment for their participation. Fresno Bee

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In a recent op-ed, educator Paula Kaufman writes about the overuse of solitary confinement in West Virginia and argues for its abolition across America. Indefinite solitary confinement is used frequently in West Virginia prisons, with one incarcerated person at Mount Olive Correctional Complex spending over 12 years in solitary confinement. Although a judge ordered him to be transferred to a mental health facility, the order was ignored. Only after two suicide attempts was he temporarily transferred to a medical facility last month, but he will likely be placed in long-term solitary confinement again when returned to prison. West Virginia Watch

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In an excerpt from their new book, Ending Isolation, icarcerated journalists Christopher Blackwell and Kwaneta Harris, along with CUNY law professor Deborah Zalesne and psychiatrist Terry A. Kupers, explore the use of solitary confinement in the United States. Their analysis of the history of the practice and its impacts is supplemented by the testimonies of solitary survivors at Washington State Correctional Facility and a facility in Idaho. Jewish Currents

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Action Alerts: 

This week, the Journey to Justice (JTJ) Bus Tour is traveling to Chicago, Illinois. The tour stop on Tuesday October 7, 2025, will involve a conversation with Christopher Blackwell, Stanley Howard, and Renaldo Hudson at Haymarket House. The tour will also stop at Undercover Books on October 8th and DePaul University on October 9th. On October 10th the tour stop feature a performance by Mud Theatre Project and the premier of These Walls Do Talk, a stop motion film by formerly incarcerated artists who experienced solitary. Journey to Justice Tour | On Sunday, October 12, 2025, the bus tour will stop at the JTJ Faith Solitary Symposium in Madison, Wisconsin, where solitary survivors and advocates will discuss how to end the practice of solitary confinement in Wisconsin prisons. Visitors can walk through several exhibits inside the bus, including a model solitary confinement cell, and meet with local social justice and community resource organizations tabling in the area. Journey to Justice Tour

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