New this week from Solitary Watch:

When JD was arrested and placed in solitary confinement, her body was “still healing from a difficult labor, still bleeding, still adjusting after birth, still overwhelmed by the hormonal storm that every mother endures in those first fragile weeks.” Despite exhibiting signs of postpartum depression and aggravated symptoms of her chronic illness, it was ten days before staff took her pain seriously enough to transfer her to a hospital. In her essay for our Voices from Solitary series, JD discusses the excruciating experience, the trauma she still carries, and its impact on her work as an advocate. Solitary Watch 

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

Interviews with more than a dozen women at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities in Louisiana and Georgia revealed disturbing accounts of pregnant people being placed in solitary confinement, denied medical care for miscarriages, and shackled in four-point restraints during medical transport. Although the detention of pregnant women violates ICE guidelines, several of the women were arrested after seeking law enforcement intervention for domestic disputes. In response, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and several other organizations sent a letter to ICE leadership calling for the release of all pregnant, postpartum, and nursing people alongside the implementation of measures to ensure adequate and timely access to gynecological care. ACLU | One woman told advocates that she was placed in solitary confinement when staff “did not believe her when she informed them of her pregnancy.” She went on to describe how the experience caused such psychological distress she developed eclampsia and was hospitalized for weeks after giving birth due to risk of organ failure. NBC News | Until March 2025, ICE was required to issue biannual reports on the number and circumstances of pregnant people detained. Jezebel | Now, the Trump administration’s immigration campaign no longer reports to Congress, forcing nonprofit organizations to fill in the information gap. A report by the Women’s Refugee Commission describes pregnant women “begging to bring an apple or a carton of milk into their cells and being denied.” Some women experienced malnutrition so severe that their bodies stopped producing milk. El País

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Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian former professional soccer player, has returned to his home country after spending more than ten years in solitary confinement. Trabelsi was incarcerated after being forcibly extracted from Belgium to face terrorism-related charges in the United States. Those charges were dropped in 2023; yet, the federal government kept Trabelsi in solitary. “My family has been waiting so long,” said Trabelsi. “We can now be together and start a new chapter in our lives.” ACLU

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Each year, on the anniversary of the assault that left him unconscious and bleeding in the shower of an ICE detention facility, Douglas Menjivar experiences horrific nightmares that set him punching and kicking in his sleep. The second time he was in ICE detention, Menjivar became sleep deprived and suicidal from fear that he would be assaulted again. Facility staff responded by sending him to solitary confinement. “I personally invite any U.S. citizen, or any person who says this is easy [or] that they treat us well, come to a detention center,” said Menjivar tearfully in an interview days after being released from solitary. Texas Observer 

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A recent lawsuit filed against several members of the Sheriff Jose Quiroz Jr. of Arlington County, Virginia, alleges that staff violated the Eighth Amendment rights of a deaf woman at the Arlington County Detention Center by denying her access to an interpreter. The plaintiff claims that she was subjected to extended periods of solitary confinement and argues that she would not have been sent to solitary if Sheriff Quiroz properly trained staff on the needs of deaf people and supplied an interpreter to explain facility rules. VA Lawyers Weekly

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Lawyers in a class-action lawsuit have requested that a federal judge issue an injunction to limit the use of solitary confinement in San Diego County jails. The request was accompanied by over a dozen sworn declarations attesting to the horrific conditions and treatment inside San Diego’s administrative separation cells. Reports from incarcerated people describe having no access to mental health care while being confined to cells smeared with feces, infested with rodents, and filled with trash. San Diego Tribune

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Each person on death row in Texas is confined to a 60-square-foot cell. Although they are allowed two-hour no-contact visits, the short time with loved ones through thick glass does little to mitigate the profound psychological effects of their isolation. In 2023, four men sued the state claiming that they did not receive adequate recreation time or access to mental health and medical care. NBC DFW 

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U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles issued an order allowing a class-action lawsuit challenging the use of solitary confinement to cover all youth incarcerated at Cabarrus Juvenile Detention Center in Concord, North Carolina. Attorneys in the case originally sought to extend class-action status to all youth incarcerated in North Carolina; however, Judge Eagles rejected their request. The lawsuit claims that youth subjected to prolonged isolation suffer “devastating and long-term effects” and seeks to appoint a neutral monitor to ensure compliance with court orders.  Carolina Journal

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In a press conference at the Journey to Justice Bus Tour stop in Buffalo, New York, advocates and survivors of solitary urged the state to uphold the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act. “We fought under the harshest of conditions to get this law passed,” said Donna Robinson, a formerly incarcerated administrator with New York State Jails Justice Network. “You will not implement it, you will circumvent it.” WAER | The conference was held the same day that two officers were found guilty for their role in the beating death of Robert Brooks at Marcy Correctional Facility. Two other officers charged in the case were acquitted. New York Public News Network 

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The General Government committee of Shelby County, Tennessee, recommended an ordinance to codify existing administrative practices intended to limit the use of solitary confinement and provide reentry-focused programming. Director of Corrections Anthony Alexander stated that the county’s Behavioral Compliance Review Board has established a tried approach to increase out-of-cell time in adult solitary confinement units and to end the “draconian” use of solitary against youth. Sponsors and presenters told commissioners that the ordinance is essential to ensure continuity of standards between administrations. Citizen Portal

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Action Alerts: 

The Journey to Justice Bus Tour will conclude this week with two days in Washington, D.C. On Thursday October 30, 2025, activists and speakers will gather for a press conference at 10 AM at the John A. Wilson Building to urge the DC Council to pass the local ERASE bill to limit solitary in DC’s jails. A subsequent press conference at 12:30 PM at the Capital House Triangle will support the federal End Solitary Confinement Act to limit the use of solitary in federal prisons. Journey to Justice | On Friday, October 31, 2025, the bus will stop at American University where students and community members can visit the bus and meet with local organizers. Journey to Justice 

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