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

When Harold Mortis contracted COVID-19, guards forced him to continue working eight hour shifts in the kitchen; if he didn’t, they would revoke his earned time towards early release, remove him from an incentivized living program, and place him in solitary confinement. CPR News | In response, Mortis and another incarcerated person filed a class action lawsuit in 2022 alleging the Colorado Department of Corrections’ (CDOC) work requirements violated a 2018 amendment to the state constitution, which banned coercive and involuntary labor practices for incarcerated people. An initial judgment stated that the CDOC’s labor requirements did not violate the constitution unless incarcerated people were threatened with retaliation for refusing to work. However, after hearing from Mortis and other men named in the lawsuit and touring Fremont Correctional Facility in Canon City, Colorado, Denver District Court Judge Sarah Wallace ruled that the working conditions continued the practice of slavery and involuntary servitude. Courthouse News Service | “The Court’s decision makes clear that constitutional rights do not stop at prison gates,” said Kim Ray, co-chair of End Slavery Colorado. “We are committed to ensuring full compliance with this ruling and to building a system grounded in dignity, fairness, and respect for human rights.” CBS News 

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently released an action plan to end “nearly five years of emergency orders that have suspended basic jail rules” and implement Local Law 42, which significantly restricts the use of solitary confinement, at Rikers Island. The plan addresses de-escalation confinement, restrictive/solitary housing, pre-hearing detention, use of restraints, officer discipline, and housing for young adults aged 18 to 21 years old. However, many changes face drawn-out approval processes and are more than a year away from being implemented, including the use of counseling and additional programming in place of solitary confinement. The City

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Men housed in Hawai’i correctional facilities are frequently locked in their cells for extended periods of time due to staffing shortages, leading to limited programming, recreation, and family visits. As a result of this de facto solitary confinement, confirmed or suspected suicides “amounted to one-third of all deaths” in prisons statewide throughout 2024 and 2025. Christin Johnson, the oversight coordinator for the state’s prison system, acknowledged that solitary confinement has devastating effects on people. “Out of cell time is suicide prevention… time outside on the recreation yard is suicide prevention… time to sit and visit with your family… all of that is suicide prevention,” he said. Additional concerns have been raised over one proposed solution which establishes electronic monitoring for men in mental health crises instead of addressing core staffing shortages. Honolulu Civil Beat

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Detainees and advocates are continuing to draw attention to the worsening conditions inside Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers. In Newark, New Jersey, detainees published a statement describing the inhumane conditions they have observed, including solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, lack of medical care, and poor food. Another detainee in Washington state is on week two of a hunger strike after spending 10 months in solitary confinement. Many others have been sent to solitary confinement and cut off from communication with advocates for participating  in hunger strikes to bring attention to inhumane conditions in ICE facilities throughout Washington state. Advocates are calling for the closure of the Northwest ICE Processing Center, which has been the subject of criticism for its overuse of solitary confinement and multiple deaths linked to isolation.  Prism Reports

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According to a new report from Disability Rights in North Carolina, five of the state’s 13 youth detention centers lock youth in their cells for 20 to 24 hours a day. Despite claims from Deputy Secretary for Juvenile Justice William Lassiter that North Carolina does not use solitary confinement on youth, visits to the facilities and over 400 interviews revealed that youth are “locked in cells nearly all day,” with no access to education and only a seven minute shower allocated for each child. “Multiple youth repeatedly and desperately relayed that their solitary confinement was deteriorating their mental health, causing them to be severely depressed and anxious,” the report stated. NC Newsline

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For more than two years, youth incarcerated at the juvenile detention center in Shelby County, Tennessee, were often held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day or more. Although an ordinance was passed limiting the amount of time youth spend in solitary confinement, advocates are concerned by the lack of oversight from Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services (DCS). Since the facility opened in 2023, DCS conducted six inspections, yet never took action to address the observed use of solitary confinement. One blatant issue with DCS oversight of the facility is found in the definition of solitary itself. DCS, unlike state law, specified that a child is not technically in solitary confinement if they can see or hear children talking in other cells. “People talk through heating vents,” says solitary expert Dr. Terry Kupers. “They scream out, and somebody answers. That’s not meaningful human connection.” MLK50

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The “significantly decomposed” body of an incarcerated man went undiscovered for two days inside a double-occupancy solitary confinement cell at Valdosta State Prison in Georgia. Je’Vion Benham, 21, was looking forward to his release and aspiring to become a motivational speaker for youth. Instead, he was placed in a cell with a man known to be a member of the Ghost Face Gang, a white supremacist gang originating in Georgia prisons. It is suspected that Benham, a Black man, was strangled by his cellmate. “How is it that…you cannot keep a proper count on a daily basis to discover that a young man is dead for over two days?” asked civil rights attorney Ben Crump at a vigil. WJCL 

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Singer-songwriter R. Kelly, who is serving a 30-year sentence in federal prison, was recently transferred to solitary confinement after prison officials found the phone number of a retired warden during a search of his cell. Kelly’s cellmate was caught with a contraband cellphone and officials discovered the phone number in a notebook belonging to Kelly. According to his attorney, the phone number was given to Kelly through a mentorship program where he was originally connected to the warden who “left the phone number for Mr. Kelly” to remain in contact when he retired. It is unknown how long Kelly will remain in solitary confinement. Black Enterprise

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