New this week from Solitary Watch: 

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In the most recent article produced by the Ridgeway Reporting Project, incarcerated journalist Steve Brooks examines how water restrictions in California lead to incarcerated people being punished for showering. As climate change worsens California’s water shortage, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has responded by limiting the number of days incarcerated people can shower to three. Attempting to shower outside the designated times can result in disciplinary action that may lead to restrictions or affect an individual’s ability to gain parole. Truthout 

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

A recent report from the Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate found that people ages 18 to 21 who are incarcerated in adult prisons frequently face prolonged solitary confinement, strip searches, and a lack of access to programming and mental health care. Christina Ghio, the state’s child advocate, estimates that there are between 400 and 500 late adolescents held in Connecticut adult prisons at any given time. The report’s findings have led Ghio to call for a ban on holding late adolescents in adult prisons. CT Insider | Many of the youth in adult facilities are held in solitary due to their classification as “security risks” for suspected gang affiliation. Despite a 2022 law requiring incarcerated people with this status to receive de-escalation programming that encourages disaffiliation, the report found that youth were often held in solitary for years without ever being provided such programming. Additionally, the report found that youth in solitary were not allowed access to pillows, adequate clothing, writing tools, or photo albums. CT Mirror 

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Severe medical understaffing at Jefferson County Correctional Center (JCCC) in Missouri has forced incarcerated people to go without care for chronic and life-threatening medical conditions. Interviews with over 40 people who worked or lived at JCCC revealed months-long wait times for appointments, lack of medical care in solitary confinement units, and many who have had to go without or ration their medications. Incarcerated people at JCCC can request medical attention through forms collected during “sick call”—a designated time for staff to attend to patients. Interviewees reported that “sick call” was repeatedly canceled in solitary units for months at a time. Missouri Independent | Lack of medical care due to staffing issues is not limited to Missouri. A recent investigation revealed that incarcerated people often face barriers accessing care across the country, especially for treatable illnesses and conditions, either due to understaffing, high caseloads, or staff not taking complaints seriously. One man in solitary in Washington state died after staff misattributed his symptoms, coughing and sneezing blood, to drug use. The Marshall Project 

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A recent Congressional shadow hearing on the Trump administration’s abuse of immigrants highlighted the overuse of solitary confinement in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers. One speaker at the hearing testified that her husband, Rodney Taylor—a double amputee—was placed in solitary confinement and prevented from showering for over two weeks. When he was finally provided with a shower stool to remove his prosthetics, he was forced to crawl through mold and human bodily fluids to reach the actual shower. America’s Voice

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Eleven women incarcerated at FMC Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, have filed lawsuits against staff for sexual abuse and retaliation. The federal medical facility has been the subject of ongoing investigations into rampant abuse and misconduct, with allegations resulting in 13 staff members being fired since 1997. One plaintiff told investigators that she was placed in solitary confinement in retaliation for filing a complaint against the prison’s therapist who had repeatedly sexually assaulted her for more than a year.  The Guardian 

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Despite legislation limiting the use of solitary confinement in Virginia, a recent report found that most of the state’s jails hold 4 to 7 percent of incarcerated people in isolation for 22 to 24 hours per day. Only one jail held less than 1 percent of its population in solitary-like conditions and another told researchers that 69 of the 238 people held at the facility were in administrative segregation (approximately one-third of the jail’s total population). Researchers who collected the data for the report recommend that officials establish standards for regular reporting to increase oversight and compliance with state laws. Virginia Mercury

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Earlier this year, Professor Natalie Pifer of the University of Rhode Island co-published a multi-institutional study examining the physical and psychological impacts of solitary confinement. The study, which examined five maximum or super-maximum security facilities in Washington state, determined that the number of times a person was sent to solitary confinement in a single incarceration was just as important as the length of solitary confinement in contributing to the adverse effects of isolation. As a result of their findings, Pifer and the other researchers recommend reformers focus on efforts to disrupt the systems that send people to solitary repeatedly, not just limits on the amount of time one can be placed in solitary. Rhody Today 

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Campaigns to end or reform the use of solitary confinement depend on the pro bono work of law firms to represent incarcerated people in class action lawsuits. While some small firms have the ability to take on these cases, oftentimes this work falls on a few large nonprofit organizations or private firms. From fighting against solitary as retaliation to preventing over-reliance on youth isolation, these groups frequently take on cases with tens of thousands of plaintiffs. Financial Times

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