New Report Shows Devastating Impact of Solitary Confinement on Incarcerated People with Physical Disabilities

January 12, 2017January 12, 2017 Joshua Manson

The American Civil Liberties Union today released an extensive report on people with physical disabilities in solitary confinement. Caged In: Solitary Confinement’s Devastating Harm on Prisoners with Physical Disabilities provides both statistical and anecdotal evidence that people with physical disabilities, who are dramatically overrepresented in prisons, are subject to abysmal and flagrantly illegal treatment while […]

Officials, Advocates Call for Restrictions on Solitary Confinement in Wisconsin

March 30, 2015October 16, 2015 Lisa Dawson

Advocates Call for Changes to Segregation Practices in Wisconsin

In January of this year, the Wisconsin prison system implemented new policies which will revamp the way in which solitary confinement is used as a correction measure against prisoners violating prison rules. While the Legislature endorsed the changes, guards, people in prison, and prison activists say that it remains unclear whether the adjustments means fewer people will […]

Audit of Solitary Confinement in Federal Prisons: An Inside Job Reaches Foregone Conclusions

March 2, 2015October 19, 2015 Jean Casella and James Ridgeway

ADX Florence in Colorado, where more than 400 men are held in extreme isolation.

A long-awaited audit of the use of solitary and other forms of isolated confinement in the federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) recommends minor reforms while affirming the overall legitimacy and efficacy of a system that holds more than 10,000 people in extreme isolation. At 242 pages in length, the Federal Bureau of Prisons: Special Housing Unit Review […]

Voices from Solitary: "I Am Somebody's Daughter"

February 24, 2015March 21, 2016 Voices from Solitary

The following account is by Nicole Natschke, who was incarcerated at Illinois’s Logan Correctional Facility, where she spent significant time — including one year straight — in segregation. Logan, which is about three hours south of Chicago, was repurposed from a men’s prison to imprison women from the shuttered Dwight and Lincoln Correctional Centers. The prison, […]

Voices from Solitary: "Mind Blowing Because I'm a Kid"

April 7, 2014October 19, 2015 Voices from Solitary

The following comes from Joe (pseudonym), a minor who has been incarcerated since last summer, held in solitary confinement for over six months. In his letter to Solitary Watch, he describes his life on 23-hour-a-day lockdown in a jail where he has no access to any rehabilitation or other programs, classes or church. He recounts in detail in his letter […]

California Prison Hunger Strike: “It’s an Absolute Madhouse"

July 22, 2013October 21, 2015 Sal Rodriguez

California prisoners in over a dozen prisons are entering their third week on hunger strike, which began on July 8th with 30,000 prisoners across the state participating. This is the third hunger strike since June 2011 that California prisoners in the Security Housing Units (SHU) have participated in, demanding the same five core demands, with […]

Virginia Prisoners in Solitary Confinement Launch Hunger Strike

May 24, 2012November 1, 2015 Sal Rodriguez

Red Onion Prison in Pound Va. the department of corrections shows off theiur newest Prison.Exterior of the front of the prison from the guard tower.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that four dozen inmates at Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison have launched a hunger strike in protest of their long-term solitary confinement. In a letter to Solitary Watch written before the hunger strike, one Red Onion inmate held in isolation reported that the prison was “absolutely primitive…they have me next to […]

Women Prisoners in Virginia Segregated for Having Mental Illness or “Looking Butch”

February 11, 2010October 20, 2015 Jean Casella and James Ridgeway

A recent article in the Charlottesville, Virginia, weekly C-Ville exposes conditions at the nearby Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women. The report is based in part on statements from representatives of the Virginia Insitutionalized Persons Project of the Legal Aid Justice Center. Project director Helen Trainor and long-time volunteer Cynthia Neff have talked to inmates and read hundreds of letters […]

By Brian Sonenstein | February 13, 2020