• Reports this week on the suicide of high-profile detainee Jeffrey Epstein at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Manhattan have been full of questions and speculation about how such a thing could have been allowed to happen. Epstein had reportedly been on suicide watch, but was taken off and was in a cell […]
This article originally appeared in them. When advocates rallied earlier this month for an end to the use of solitary confinement in New York City jails, one of the names they evoked, on signs and in speeches, was Layleen Polanco. A 27-year-old transgender woman and well-known figure in the New York City ballroom scene, Polanco was found […]
UPDATE, June 20, 11:45 pm—As New York’s legislative session was extended by one day, members of the #HALTSolitary Campaign entered the eighth day of their hunger strike, which had grown to include at least 40 people. They continued to press legislative leaders to bring the HALT Solitary Confinement Act to a vote, but leaders of the both […]
• East Bay Express reported that as of Friday, October 20, 125 out of 412 individuals incarcerated in Glenn Dyer Jail in Oakland had entered their sixth day of a hunger strike. At the forefront of the demands is an end to indefinite solitary confinement. While the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson claims isolation is […]