New this week from Solitary Watch: 

Rejon Taylor writes about the 16 years he lived in solitary confinement on death row in Louisiana before his sentence was commuted by President Joe Biden in December 2024. Less than a month later, President Trump issued an executive order calling for the increased use of the death penalty at both the federal and state levels. As a result, Taylor and 36 other men who had their death sentences commuted are now being transferred to ADX Florence in Colorado—the federal government’s only supermax prison. “A sense of doom hovers ahead as I anticipate being buried alive at ADX, cut off from the social world, existing in conditions of monstrosity,” Taylor writes. Solitary Watch

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

Under orders from the Trump Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will begin holding detained immigrants at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. The new unit, previously known as “Camp J” and recently renamed “Camp 57” after Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, was the site of one of Angola’s most restrictive units, where people were held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in dungeon-like conditions. Truthout | According to Governor Landry, the detained immigrants will be “completely isolated” from the rest of the prison population. Located on the grounds of a former slave plantation, “Angola has a particularly dark history of abuse and repression that’s almost singular in prison history in the United States,” said Eunice Cho, senior counsel at the National Prison Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. Louisiana has also been the subject of legal backlash for isolating incarcerated youth at Angola in “windowless concrete cells without air conditioning.” The New York Times 

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People incarcerated in New Jersey State Prison’s West Compound are confined in cells so small that they can touch both walls with their arms outstretched. Cells in the solitary confinement unit, called the Restorative Housing Unit, are smaller than cells in other wings of the compound, measuring just 4 x 7 feet. While New Jersey law requires county jails to have 35 feet of “unencumbered” floor space for single occupancy cells, no such requirement exists for the state’s prisons. The Office of the Corrections Ombudsperson also found that people housed in the West Compound have no access to hot water in their cells, must use toilets “directly exposed to the open bars of the cell door,” and have so little privacy while showering that many bathe with underwear on. Truthout | Originally constructed in 1836, correctional officials and advocates have called for the West Compound’s closure for over a century, citing inadequate and inhumane conditions. One incarcerated man described the cells in the West Compound as “cages for rotting men.” New Jersey Monitor

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For the second time in three years, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office was found in violation of a 2022 settlement agreement in a case dealing with the treatment of incarcerated women with serious mental illness. The original suit alleged that women with serious mental illness were placed in solitary confinement simply because of their mental illness, and later transferred to the Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC), where more than a dozen incarcerated women have died while in custody since the transfers began. In a recent court order, U.S. Magistrate Judge Regina Cannon found that Sheriff Patrick Labat routinely failed to track how many women were at ACDC and how much out-of-cell time they received. “[Labat] claims that he has invested significant resources in employing new software and fully training his staff,” said Judge Cannon. ”It is difficult to understand, then, why compliance with numerous provisions of the settlement agreement has declined recently.” WABE

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A new report from the Prison Policy Initiative highlights how youth often experience carceral conditions that are uniquely “locked and long-term.” According to the report 52% of reception/diagnostic centers and 47% of long-term secure facilities place youth in isolation rooms for four or more hours. Of the youth placed in isolation, 67% are held for more and a month and nearly a quarter (24%) are held for over six months. Youth who are subjected to solitary confinement in youth detention facilities are uniquely vulnerable to psychological damage caused by prolonged isolation. Prison Policy Initiative 

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Maximo Londonio, a Filipino green card holder who has lived in the United States since childhood, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and placed in solitary confinement after returning from the Philippines. Londonio was placed in solitary confinement for nearly a month at the Northwest ICE Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington before he was eventually released from ICE custody. NewsWeek

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In a recent article, the American Psychological Association (APA) highlighted the mental health impacts of immigrant detention and called for culturally responsive care to address chronic stress and trauma for detained immigrants. “Conditions within immigration detention can not only worsen mental health illness if someone has that diagnosis coming in, but they can also contribute to a new diagnosis,” said Dr. Altaf Saadi, a clinician investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. American Psychological Association 

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Hector—a nearly deaf man with a developmental disability, who does not speak or understand English—was sent to the Northwest ICE Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided his apartment in Oakland, California. Detained immigrants, especially those with mental illnesses or cognitive disabilities, frequently experience dangerous conditions, lack of access to medical care, and the overuse of solitary confinement. A University of Washington analysis found that Tacoma’s detention center most often confines people with mental illness and, on average, holds people in solitary confinement longer than any other ICE facility in the country. Seattle Times

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In a three-part series entitled The Boxes We Build, reporter Hannah Truby examines the system of solitary confinement in the United States. The first part explores the impact of solitary on individual lives through the story of Frank De Palma. In his recent book, Never to Surrender! 22 Years in Solitary: The Battle for My Soul in a U.S. Prison, De Palma describes the emotional, physical, spiritual, and psychological impacts of spending 22 years in solitary confinement at Ely State Prison. “To say it was torture is an understatement. It was an agony beyond words,” De Palma said. “A bullet to the head would have been more humane.” Sierra Nevada Ally Part I| The second installment examines how solitary is used in the United States, its impacts, and the state of reform. Part II | The final part of the series delves deeper into what the continued use of solitary, despite knowing its harms, says about the United States as a society. Part III

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Davey D, host of 94.1 KPFA’s podcast, spoke with Dr. Terry A. Kupers, a forensic psychologist and expert on solitary confinement, about the need to end solitary confinement and the new book Ending Isolation: The Case Against Solitary Confinement. In the interview, Dr. Kupers highlights the heavy reliance on solitary in carceral facilities, especially for vulnerable populations, and the indescribably terrible consequences on the people confined. KPFA 

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Action Alerts: 

The Journey to Justice Bus Tour is making stops in Washington state. On September 12 in Tacoma, Washington, Look2Justice and Represent Justice will be hosting a film screening of the documentary “The Strike,” which focuses on the historic Pelican Bay hunger strike. The screening will be followed by an intimate panel with the film’s subjects Jack Morris (formerly incarcerated at Pelican Bay) and activist Delores Canales. On September 13, Look2Justice and Unlock The Box Campaign, in partnership with the Journey to Justice Bus Tour, will be hosting a storytelling/panel event on the harms of solitary confinement, how to support solitary survivors, and how to aid in the fight to end the use of solitary in Washington state. On September 14, join Look2Justice, Rainier Avenue Church, and Journey to Justice for an immersive faith event on the impacts of solitary confinement at the Rainier Avenue Church. Journey to Justice. 

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