New this week from Solitary Watch:

In a commentary for The Word from Solitary Watch, Editorial and Project Assistant Francisco Rodriguez draws a direct line between the longstanding abuses within America’s prison system and the rapidly worsening conditions inside Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities. Rodriguez explains that decades of dehumanization within prisons have laid the groundwork for what is now unfolding in immigration detention. Over 40 people have died in ICE custody since Trump retook office in January 2025, that is one death every six days, and the use of solitary confinement has doubled from prior years. “The abuses present within the immigration detention system will continue as long as lawmakers continue to ignore the mistreatments in our own prison system,” Rodriguez writes. Solitary Watch

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

An investigation of Mississippi’s prisons found that at least 47 people died by suicide while in solitary confinement between 2015 and 2025. Among them was 21-year-old Denise Short, who explicitly asked prison staff to place her on suicide watch in March 2024, only to be locked alone in segregation cell instead. She was found dead the following day. Her attorney Jenessa Hicks said that when Short notified one prison employee of her suicidal thoughts, the employee responded, “Do what you have to do.” Forensic psychiatrist Terry Kupers described the “vicious cycle” in which acts of self-harm are treated as disciplinary violations, making it difficult for those in solitary to receive help. Mississippi Today

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Three detained men at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Southern California were transferred to solitary confinement after speaking with a congressional delegation about inhumane conditions and an ongoing hunger strike. Roughly 30 guards in riot gear removed the men one by one in the days after Representatives Judy Chu, Pete Aguilar, and Jimmy Gomez visited the facility. Rep. Chu called it evidence of “cruelty and corrupt management of a facility that is profiting off of their suffering.” DHS denied any wrongdoing. The Press-Enterprise 

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On what would have been Asaiah Washington’s 42nd birthday, family members, community organizers, and civil rights advocates rallied outside the Sacramento County Main Jail demanding accountability, transparency, and systemic healthcare reform following a series of custody deaths. Washington died in July 2024 after jail staff ignored him while he “basically was begging for his medication.” Since 2018, at least 62 people have died in Sacramento County lockups amid ongoing federal oversight and a contentious $654 million jail expansion proposal. The Observer

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Detainees at Delaney Hall, a privately-run ICE facility in newark operated by GEO Group, have filed over 531 lawsuits this year describing deplorable conditions including food infested with worms and mold, water tasting like raw sewage, and “psychological torture” including solitary confinement. NOTUS | Despite federal officials describing ICE detainees at New Jersey’s Delaney Hall facility as “the worst of the worst,” internal government data obtained by the New York Times tells a starkly different story. Of 591 people held at the facility, only 13% had criminal convictions and about 70% had been accused solely of immigration violations. As of April, nearly 90% of detainees were classified as posing no threat. The New York Times

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The Wisconsin Department of Corrections has agreed to pay $3.75 million to settle a federal lawsuit over the death of Donald Maier, a 62-year-old who died of dehydration and malnutrition in February 2024, after nine days in solitary confinement at Waupun Correctional Institution. The lawsuit accused corrections staff of “deliberate indifference” to Maier’s deteriorating condition as guards failed to deliver meals, skipped required welfare checks, shut off his water without telling him when it was restored, and withheld his psychiatric medication. His attorney described the final days of Maier’s life as a “living hell.” Wisconsin Public Radio

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On Thursday, Amnesty International released a 61-page report declaring that “the box,” a 2-by-2-foot outdoor cage at Florida’s migrant detention facility known as “alligator Alcatraz”, likely amounts to torture. Beyond the box, the report documented sewage overflow seeping into sleeping areas, insects, limited shower access, poor food and water quality, and prolonged solitary confinement. Amnesty called on the federal government to stop criminalizing immigrants, ban the use of state-owned facilities for immigration detention, and comply with international human rights standards. The Hill

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