New this week from Solitary Watch: 

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Solitary Watch has updated and published its Ethics Statement, which confirms our adherence to values of journalistic integrity, transparency, and of the respect for human rights and human dignity on both sides of prison walls. By publishing this statement, we hold ourselves to account, just as we do the institutions we report on. About Solitary Watch : Ethics Statement

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In the most recent dispatch in our Voices from Solitary series, Russell Kerr shares a poem and painting. He says he has one goal in mind with his artwork and writing: to expose and bring awareness to the injustices that remain unchecked in prisons within and beyond Texas. Currently incarcerated in Texas, Kerr has spent 23 years in “super seg”—high-security housing areas where incarcerated men spend up to 23 hours per day in solitary confinement. Kerr attributes his survival through what he calls “Hell visited upon Earth” to the community he built within the Texas prison system.  Solitary Watch 

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

Children and young adults incarcerated in New York are frequently kept in solitary confinement for days or weeks at a time. According to a recent lawsuit, solitary confinement is used by juvenile detention centers as both a punishment and a way to mitigate understaffing. Some of the rooms used for confinement lack sinks and toilets, forcing youth to defecate in plastic bottles, food containers, and trash cans. Although state law requires incarcerated youth to have at least seven to eight hours of educational, vocational, and recreational activities per day, lockdowns prohibit youth from accessing such programming. “If [parents] were doing the same things these facilities were doing to their children, they would have their children removed from their care,” said a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society which filed the lawsuit last week against the state’s Office of Children and Family Services, which runs the detention facilities. NY Focus

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A judge has thrown out the Missouri Department of Corrections’ (MDOC) defense against a wrongful death lawsuit in the case of Jahi Hynes, who died by suicide while in solitary confinement. Hynes died less than 24 hours after being placed in administrative segregation for allowing the food slot door on his cell to hit the hand of a guard. The lawsuit, brought by Hynes’s mother, alleges that the MDOC and third-party contractors ignored his mental health needs as well as department safety rules for people in segregation. Missouri Independent

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Advocates are applauding New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recent Executive Order giving the city’s Department of Corrections 45 days to develop a plan to bring Rikers Island Jail into compliance with the City Council’s Local Law 42. The law, which was originally passed 2024 but repeatedly blocked by former Mayor Eric Adams, places a four-hour limit on the use of solitary confinement. The Tablet | “I was elected because of my values, and my promise to always be honest with New Yorkers—and now is a moment for blunt truths. The previous Administration’s refusal to meet their legal obligations on Rikers has left us with troubling conditions that will take time to resolve,” said Mamdani. NYC Mayor’s Office

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A year-long investigation into allegations that racism and retaliation led incarcerated men to self-immolate at Red Onion State Prison in Virginia, has been deemed inconclusive. Investigators interviewed some of the men who burned themselves and all involved officers, conducted three site visits, and reviewed 553 complaints, 77 incident reports, and hours of video footage. However, the investigation was unable to substantiate claims that the men’s placement in prolonged solitary confinement is what led them to burn themselves in protest of their conditions and treatment. While state officials continue to assert that solitary is no longer used in Virginia prisons, the men and their families argue that it has been repackaged under a new name—”Level S” housing. VPM 

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A study of Wisconsin prisons concluded that the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC) needs to improve mental health services and conditions inside solitary confinement units. Four in ten (44%) of men and 91% of women incarcerated in Wisconsin have a mental health condition. As a result of the study, the state is working to improve mental health care services, implement more out-of-cell programming, and reduce solitary. The DOC Secretary Jared Hoy called the results of the report “informative and invaluable,” but said “the true measure of our agency’s success will be determined by how thoughtfully and effectively we act upon the recommendations that follow.” Wisconsin Examiner | The “Conditions of Confinement” bill package introduced in the state legislature would reduce the isolation and increase access to supportive programming for people in solitary confinement in Wisconsin. One of the bills, AB-740, would place a ten-day limit on solitary and require a 60-day gap between solitary sentences. ACLU of Wisconsin 

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Rapper Lil Durk claims he has spent over 131 days in solitary confinement without access to commissary or visitors. A motion filed by his legal counsel alleges he was confined “without process” in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Additionally, they claim that the Bureau of Prisons and Los Angeles’ Metropolitan Detention Center have given conflicting reasons for why he was placed in solitary. Complex 

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Former Member of Congress Marjorie Taylor Greene has again spoken out on the use of solitary confinement against January 6th rioters. In a post on X, Green recounted her visit to the DC Jail where those arrested “were being held over 22 hours a day in solitary confinement even though they had not been convicted and were pretrial.” The Independent | As Solitary Watch has reported, any anti-solitary advocacy on the part of Greene and others on the right has not extended to people who do not share their political agenda. Solitary Watch

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