New this week from Solitary Watch:

In “The Weight of Watching,” Solitary Watch Senior Writer and Editor Kwaneta Harris writes of the women in her Texas prisons who are assigned the job of monitoring other women placed on “suicide watch.” Harris writes: “Tonight, like so many nights before, Lynne will be escorted to the segregation unit to perform what prison administrators euphemistically call ‘Continuous Direct Observation.’ She will sit in a metal chair outside a bare cell and watch another human being contemplate ending their life. The Texas women’s prison where Lynne is incarcerated calls her a ‘life coach,’ a title that suggests training, credentials, and choice. The reality is far different. Lynne is performing the fundamental duty of correctional officers while those same officers sit in climate-controlled control centers, eating their meals, and scrolling through their phones.” Their unpaid work as crisis counselors visits upon these women a heavy dose of secondary trauma, for which they receive little to no support. Solitary Watch

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

A new report from the Center for Reproductive Rights provides horrific details on how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has departed from its own protocols by detaining pregnant, postpartum, and nursing women, forcing them to endure inhumane conditions. One pregnant woman, Marie, was placed in solitary confinement for three days, where she suffered from psychological trauma and developed eclampsia, a life-threatening pregnancy complication. Other women report being shackled, separated from their breastfeeding children, denied prenatal care, and withheld basic necessities like food, causing them to be too malnourished to breastfeed. Conditions led some women to lose their children to miscarriage. While these stories provide a rare glimpse into ICE detainment, it remains unknown how widespread such systematic abuses are, because Congress let lapse a requirement that ICE report even the basic data on how many pregnant and postpartum women it is detaining. Center for Reproductive Rights

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A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to transfer 20 individuals formerly held on federal death row to a notorious supermax prison in Colorado. In the waning days of the Biden administration, the men had their sentences commuted to life without parole. But under an executive order by President Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi attempted to hasten the process of moving the men to live “in conditions that match their egregious crimes.” Due to this pressure by the administration and evidence of a predetermined decision, US District Judge Tim Kelly blocked the attempt, arguing it obstructs the constitutional right of these men to due process. “It is likely that the process provided to Plaintiffs was an empty exercise to approve an outcome that was decided before it even began,” wrote Kelly. Politico | The federal supermax prison that the Trump administration wants to send the incarcerated men to is ADX Florence, sometimes called the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” which holds incarcerated persons in extreme solitary confinement for at least 23 hours a day in 7-by-12-foot concrete cells. Solitary Watch | Rejon Taylor, one of the men subject to the transfer order to ADX, wrote for Solitary Watch’s Voices from Solitary series that after Biden’s clemency, Trump’s plans were condemning him to “a life worse than death.” Solitary Watch

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In the Super Bowl tunnel in Santa Clara, California, New England Patriots wide receiver Mack Hollins entered wearing shackles and a prison-style jumpsuit with “Range 13” printed on the back, an apparent reference to a unit at ADX federal supermax prison in Colorado. Hollins did not comment on the significance of the outfit. New York Times | In the midst of the media attention Hollins’s outfit has received, Chris Blackwell, an incarcerated journalist, took to X to criticize the media response: “The outfit is the point,” he wrote. “@mackhollins walked into the Super Bowl wearing what millions are forced to live in every day of solitary confinement. The media will break down a $5,000 suit but won’t confront the violence of mass incarceration even when it’s right in front of them.” @ChrisWBlackwell 

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A second lawsuit was filed against Sheriff Garry McFadden of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, over Renny Mobley’s overdose and death while in solitary confinement. According to the lawsuit, Mobley missed 412 doses of his prescribed antipsychotic medication and was “repeatedly segregated,” forcing him to spend months in mania. Despite his deteriorating condition, Mobley’s requests for help were ignored by staff. When Mobley was found unresponsive in his cell by other incarcerated people, he was not immediately taken to the hospital and suffered permanent brain damage from prolonged deprivation of oxygen. In a testimony to lawmakers in Raleigh about jail deaths, Sheriff McFadden stated that “people die every day across America.” Charlotte Observer

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U.S. District Judge William Hayes ruled that a lawsuit may proceed over the death of a developmentally disabled woman at Las Colinas Jail in San Diego County, California. The lawsuit alleges that Roselee Bartolacci died due to “unconstitutional medical neglect” by sheriff’s deputies, jail medical staff, and health contractors. Deputies’ failure to notify jail staff of Bartolacci’s schizoaffective disorder diagnosis and active mental health crisis resulted in her immediate placement in solitary confinement for being “uncooperative” during intake. Although she was eventually moved to a psychiatric stabilization unit under medical staff observation, the rapid and “life-threatening deterioration” of her mental and physical health resulted in two hospitalizations. When Bartolacci was found unresponsive in her cell, she had lost 41 pounds over her 53 days at the jail. San Diego Union-Tribune

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In a recent press release, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oklahoma praised the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for ending the use of indefinite solitary confinement for the majority of people on death row. Previously, people on death row were held in the H-Unit at Oklahoma State Penitentiary, an underground, “concrete tomb” where people are held in total isolation for 22 to 24 hours per day. Many people with death sentences have now been moved to A-Unit, where they are able to visit with family members, obtain jobs within the prison, and participate in group outdoor recreation time and religious services. “These men have been able to touch grass and feel the warmth of the sun for the first time in ten years,” said ACLU of Oklahoma Legal Director Megan Lambert. “One man was able to hold his grandchild for the first time.” However, despite this win, the ACLU continues to seek justice for those still in H-Unit. ACLU of Oklahoma

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University of Notre Dame researchers found that providing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for incarcerated people produces safer jail environments. According to the study, incarcerated people in CBT experience a “49 percent drop in behavioral incidents and a 50 percent drop in physical assaults.” These changes are attributed to CBT’s focus on emotional regulation helping incarcerated people reflect on their emotions and reinterpret events to prevent angry reactions. The article argues that facilities should rely on CBT as an alternative to solitary confinement, which causes further physical and psychological harm. Not only is CBT cost effective and proven to reduce violence, but it also helps treat common psychiatric conditions among incarcerated people, such as Substance Use Disorder and other serious mental illnesses. Notre Dame News

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Newborn, a thriller about a survivor of solitary confinement, is set to be exclusively released by AMC Theaters on April 10th. Directed by Nate Parker and starring David Oyelowo, the psychological thriller tells the story of Chris Newborn as he struggles with rebuilding his life and reconnecting with his family following seven years in solitary confinement. Deadline

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