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

A man who was shot by ICE in New York City last week still has a bullet lodged in his neck, according to his attorneys. The man, Oscar Belgal, is a 28-year-old immigrant from the Dominican Republic who was shot in his car by ICE while driving with his five-year-old son. Since the shooting, Belga has been held in solitary confinement at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after a short stint at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital. According to his legal team, Belgal has been denied proper food, been forced to drink water from the bathroom sink, and has lost feeling in the left side of his face. Harold Solis, an attorney with Make the Road New York, said, “It’s not clear to us why a person with a bullet in their body is in solitary confinement and hasn’t been seen by medical specialists that apparently even the hospital told him he needs.” A statement by Belgal’s legal team said the “deliberate indifference” from ICE agents and Belgal’s mistreatment at the jail represent “further examples of the cruelty and disregard for basic human dignity that have long defined this agency.” Gothamist

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A 29-year-old man, Emil Encarnacion, died last week in an apparent suicide in the “behavioral assessment unit” (BAU) at MCI-Norfolk, a medium security prison in Massachussetts. The Massachusetts Department of Corrections claims that the BAUs are an alternative to solitary confinement. However, individuals in the BAU are held in their cells alone for up to 21 hours a day, which is only one hour less than the 22 hours of in-cell time in the solitary confinement “restrictive housing” unit. Prisoners often refer to BAUs as “the hole” and say the promised access to services like recreation, phone calls, and case management are not available as advertised. If officially ruled a suicide, Encarnacion’s death would be the fourth suicide in a Massachusetts BAU since April 2025. MassLive

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A U.S. Air Force Major who called for President Donald Trump’s impeachment has been imprisoned in solitary confinement since August, according to his attorney. Major Jason Watson was originally arrested on July 1 for standing on the steps of the U.S. Capitol holding a sign that read “Impeach. Convict. Remove.” on the grounds that his action violated the “rarely used” Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which prohibits military personnel from using “contemptuous words” against the president. After criticizing Trump in an interview with CNN on August 18, Watson was placed into military pretrial detention, where his lawyer says he has been held in solitary confinement for 24 hours a day. Watson’s lawyer says the U.S. government is preparing to try him in a general court martial, the military’s most serious form of trial. Military.com

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Idris Makhmudov, a lead organizer of a hunger strike with over 500 participants at an immigration detention center in Georgia, was placed in solitary confinement this week. Makhmudov and dozens of participants began their strike October 6 after spending an average of 20 months at the Folkston D. Ray James ICE Processing Center, the nation’s largest immigration detention complex. Detained immigrants, the majority of whom are confined for merely seeking asylum, have written a report of conditions inside the facility, including gravely inadequate medical and dental care; moldy, spoiled food; undrinkable water that causes rashes; cramped sleeping areas; and “xenophobic treatment” from staff. Advocates say Makhmudov’s move to solitary confinement is an act of retaliation for his role organizing the hunger strike. Another man, Andrei Gerdiukov, was also placed in solitary for participating in the strike, according to his wife. The detained immigrants’ report also alleged that detention center staff “frequently threaten detained immigrants with solitary confinement.” Latin Times | The Guardian  | The Current 

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The trial for a class-action lawsuit alleging abuse in solitary confinement at Virginia’s supermaximum Red Onion State Prison was canceled this week, after both sides reached a proposed settlement. The suit was filed by the ACLU on behalf of over a hundred incarcerated plaintiffs held in solitary confinement for as long as 24 years, alleging plaintiffs were subjected to physical abuse, racist harassment, recreation in feces-covered cages, and extended stays in solitary confinement through a program allegedly meant to “transition” them out of solitary. WJLA

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A mother in Alabama, Tanisha Thomas, is suing the state Department of Corrections after her son died in August 2026 from complications resulting from a suicide attempt in solitary confinement three years earlier. Thomas says she was only notified that her son William Andrell Thomas was found hanging in his cell from another incarcerated man, not from prison officials at St. Clair Correctional Facility. While William survived the hanging attempt, he sustained severe brain injuries that took away his ability to speak and walk. He was moved from the hospital back to prison seven months after regaining consciousness, while still in critical condition. After finally returning home on a medical furlough, William passed away from his injuries in August. WHNT

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Martin Soto has been released from Delaney Hall immigration detention center in New Jersey after four months in solitary confinement. A judge ordered his immediate release after Soto’s attorney argued that holding Soto in solitary—and the ensuing severe psychological damage, including suicidal thoughts—constituted unconstitutional conditions, especially considering his deportation was not “reasonably foreseeable,” or imminent. Soto’s petition for release also alleged the unconstitutionality of involuntary servitude at the detention center, where detained immigrants are forced to work 12 hours a day for $1—or less, if they do not reach the 12-hour mark. Soto was placed in solitary as retaliation for organizing a hunger strike at Delaney Hall against the unsanitary conditions, according to his lawyer. Soto, originally from Peru, was detained while picking up diapers for his two children. NJ.com

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Three transgender women allege mistreatment—including physical abuse from staff, verbal harassment from both staff and other detained people, medical neglect, isolation, and invasive strip searches—at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana. New Orleans-based attorney Mich González said, “There is nothing in the system that is built to recognize their full humanity as trans people, and now there’s no mechanisms in place to protect them from transphobic violence, from abuse of solitary confinement,” referring to the Trump administration’s 2025 executive order blocking protections and care for trans people in prisons and detention centers. Though ICE claims their placement in solitary is for their own protection, Sofia, one of the detained trans women, said, “[Solitary] isn’t protection, it’s torture.” The three women were seeking asylum in the United States and have no active criminal charges. Verite News New Orleans

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Children in Connecticut can be kept in rooms for “ED [Emergency Department] boarding” in a practice that is “more than simply dehumanizing; the experience is tantamount to solitary confinement,” writes child advocate Larissa Pitts in an opinion piece. Pitts describes visiting one of her 16-year-old clients in a room with no windows and limited human connection, where she was held for three days awaiting foster care placement. Faced with the trauma of returning to ED boarding, the child chose to stay at the first foster care placement offered to her, despite the family’s teenage son sexually harassing her in her room at night. The practice of isolation is often used on children in the state’s foster care system, like Pitts’ client. Connecticut Mirror

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