• Judge Esla Alcala, a member of Texas’ Court of Criminal Appeals, filed an opinion expressing “great concern” about the use of the death penalty in the state, including automatic placement in solitary on death row. “I have gone to death row and I have seen those cells, and I can’t fathom living in a […]
• A Bronx woman is suing New York City for $10 million after spending more than two years in solitary confinement on Rikers Island. Candie Hailey, 32, also alleges she was subject to physical and sexual abuse by guards before eventually being acquitted on attempted murder charges and released. • In its continuing coverage of […]
• A coalition working to end solitary for children held a series of kick-off events in Washington DC. Supporters include Venida Brower, whose son Kalief committed suicide after spending time in isolation on Rikers Island as a teenager. • New York’s Mayor Bill De Blasio announced that the number of people held in solitary has […]
• A Nebraska outlet profiled the experiences of Jacob Rushner. As a teenager, Rushner was kept in solitary confinement for 41 days at the Douglas County Youth Center in Omaha. • A prison captain who was fired in the wake of Michael Kerr’s 2014 death cannot get his job back, a North Carolina Court of Appeals had […]
• A report written by a Los Angeles volunteer probation department monitor found deplorable conditions inside the city’s Central Juvenile Hall, with conditions similar to a “Third World country prison.” According to the LA Times, the report alleges that children were sent to solitary for reasons that violated departmental policy, including in one instance for sharing […]
• The Crime Report published a report from a two-day colloquium about the use of segregation that occurred last fall and involved corrections agencies, academic experts and advocates. The colloquium aimed to “further a national consensus on ending the over-use of extreme isolation in prisons.” • A Colorado statistician who accused state prison officials of manipulating statistics […]
Passing notes, talking in the hallway and having too many books in your room are among the reasons children in Nebraska detention facilities have been locked in solitary confinement, according to a report released last week. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska found widely varying policies governing the isolation of juveniles in the nine detention […]
• An op-ed published in the New York Times by legal scholars Michele Deitch and Michael Mushlin called for independent oversight of New York’s prisons, which would be an addition to the two years of monitoring required in the recent settlement to reduce and restrict the use of solitary confinement. “If harm is to be prevented […]
The following roundup features noteworthy news, reports and opinions on solitary confinement from the past week that have not been covered in other Solitary Watch posts. • The Chronicles of Social Change published an article, called Holding on to Humanity, about “a social worker’s visit with youth offenders at Pelican Bay State Prison.” • Fresno County has […]
The following roundup features noteworthy news, reports and opinions on solitary confinement from the past week that have not been covered in other Solitary Watch posts. • A student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison wrote a piece for the Huffington Post calling for the end of youth solitary in prisons across the country. A bill to end […]
The following roundup features noteworthy news, reports and opinions on solitary confinement from the past week that have not been covered in other Solitary Watch posts. • Federal investigators have concluded that Baltimore City illegally placed teens in solitary confinement. One youth spent 143 days in isolation. • The New York Times Magazine published an in-depth article about […]