New this week from Solitary Watch: 

Incarcerated journalist Antoine Davis, supported by Solitary Watch’s Ridgeway Reporting Project, recently published a piece on the experiences of two custodial workers who clean solitary confinement cells. Dennis Repp and Durrell Jackson provide a firsthand account of the horrors they witnessed while cleaning solitary cells and the mental trauma they suffered. In the solitary confinement tier, they could hear individuals kicking and screaming, often because people were in severe mental distress or being denied basic necessities. “It’s very disturbing to see human beings locked in concrete boxes for 23 hours a day,” Repp said, noting that many desperately needed mental health care. “One night I came to work and we had to clean a cell after a prisoner slit his wrist with a razor,” Jackson said. “There was blood all over the bed, floor, and hallway.” Both men resigned after being forced to work in intolerable conditions without adequate compensation. Slate / Solitary Watch

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“There Are No Monsters,” a new poem by Kwaneta Harris focuses on women in solitary confinement. Describing the experiences of various women, the poem highlights the horrors of solitary confinement and how they are uniquely traumatizing for women. Currently incarcerated in Texas and a survivor of eight years in solitary, Harris is a Senior Writer and Editor at Solitary Watch, whose career focuses on covering the lives and experiences of other incarcerated women. “Close [solitary confinement] down and give us what we always needed: each other, the earth, and a chance to remember we were never monsters at all,” Harris writes. Solitary Watch

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

Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff (GA) and Dick Durbin (IL) are investigating reports of people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention being held in extreme solitary confinement in conditions that equate to torture. The Florida detention center named “Alligator Alcatraz” by President Trump and his allies is known for its brutal conditions. In a letter to Homeland Security and ICE leadership, the senators highlighted instances of people being placed in an outdoor isolation cage known as “the box,” where they are “held in stress positions with hands and feet tightly shackled… in direct sunlight with no access to food or water.” Senators Ossoff and Durbin are demanding that ICE discontinue use of the box and any other solitary measures for punishment or discipline. MS NOW

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Rodricus Lewis, 47, was found dead in a solitary confinement cell after losing more than 50 pounds over his 10 months in pre-trial detention at Union County Jail in El Dorado, Arkansas. The severe weight loss likely worsened Lewis’s heart disease, which led to his death. Upon investigation, Lewis’s son discovered that dozens of others around the country had died after losing a significant amount of weight while incarcerated. Individuals suffering from severe mental health disorders are particularly at risk; however, many jails lack basic medical equipment and staff needed to prevent starvation or dehydration. “It was almost like his outcome was predetermined,” Lewis’s son said. “When he got arrested, that was pretty much his sentence right there.” News From The States

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In 2025, 40,483 phone calls were logged to New York City’s 311 nonemergency line, raising concerns about conditions on Rikers Island. One woman called to notify officials that her son needed a medication change because he was hallucinating while incarcerated, but nothing happened and her son died by suicide two weeks later. These complaints often go unresolved because they are routed to the Department of Corrections (DOC) as “customer comments,” rather than publicly accessible service requests like all other calls. People in solitary confinement have an especially difficult time calling the line, often only having access to make phone calls for six minutes a day. The City

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Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed a new law intended to reduce the use of restraints and solitary-like isolation practices in public schools. The law targets the use of pepper spray, sedatives, and handcuffs against students, with the goal of “promoting safe and healthy school environments.” While the new law does not explicitly ban isolation, schools will be unable to build or remodel rooms for that purpose. The legislature has also signaled an intent to end isolation practices by 2031. Seattle Times

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President Trump is seeking over $150 million in funding to restore Alcatraz Island, a National Park site, into a maximum security prison. Located on an island in the San Francisco Bay, the prison has been inactive for more than 60 years, and currently lacks running water and a sewage system. Still, Former Attorney General Pam Bondi described the facility as “terrific” during a visit last July. However, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie dismissed the plan as “not a serious proposal,” while local Member of Congress Nancy Pelosi called it “a stupid notion that would be nothing more than a waste of taxpayer dollars and an insult to the intelligence of the American people.”  New York Times

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Utah attorneys will sue the Trump administration on behalf of an unnamed immigrant who was unlawfully transferred to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). There, he was placed in solitary confinement, experienced regular beatings, and was shot with a rubber bullet. Attorneys also criticized plans for a new Salt Lake City facility modeled after CECOT. “We need to stop this terrible experiment,”said former U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division Chief Richard Lambert. “We need to stop what will be a monstrous monument to the inhumanity of man to man.” Deseret News

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The Adelanto ICE facility near Los Angeles has the third-highest rates of solitary confinement, increasing from 14 people in solitary in June 2026 to 74 in January 2026. As ICE arrests have increased, so has the use of solitary in detention facilities. People are also spending longer in solitary, with the average stay in isolation rising to more than seven consecutive weeks.  ICE stated that people are “segregated” in solitary for disciplinary reasons and protective custody.  However, other reports reveal people who speak out against unsafe living conditions and abusive treatment are punished with solitary. LAist

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Action Alerts:

The new feature film Newborn, which will be released in theaters on Friday, April 10, tells the story of Chris Newborn, played by David Oyelowo, who spent seven years in solitary confinement. The film, directed by Nate Parker, follows Newborn’s journey as he tries to rebuild his life, reconnect with his family, and process the psychological traumas caused by solitary. Solitary Watch is serving as an educational partner for the impact campaign accompanying the film’s release. Visit the Newborn website to learn more about plans to use the film for education and advocacy efforts around solitary confinement. Newborn 

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