Torture Archives - Solitary Watch

Torture

This essay contains discussions of suicide and self-harm. It is published in partnership with Scalawag, who works in solidarity with oppressed communities in the South to disrupt and shift the narratives that keep power and wealth in the hands of the few. Lynne (a pseudonym) jolts awake at 2 a.m. to a corrections officer banging […]

News & Features

Torture

The Weight of Watching: How Prisons Turn Traumatized Women Into Unpaid Crisis Workers

New Book Makes a Powerful Case for Ending Solitary Confinement

Voices from Solitary: Dread of Day, Terror by Night

5 Stories We Were Able to Tell in 2025 Thanks to You

Voices from Solitary: Postpartum in a Cage

The Shape-Shifting Face of Solitary Confinement: A Prison Hospital’s Dark Truth

Eight Incarcerated Journalists Awarded Grants to Report on Solitary Confinement

After Biden’s Clemency, Trump Has Condemned Us to a Life Worse Than Death

When Isolation Became the Supreme Punishment

Remembering Black August from Prison: The Struggle Continues

Voices from Solitary: An Elusive Victory

ICE Detainees Deported to El Salvador Report Dark Isolation Cells, Beatings, and Rape… and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week

Voices from Solitary: Inside the Hole

The Jailhouse Lawyer: Fighting Abuse and Forced Medication at Angola Prison

How Solitary Confinement Kills

Voices from Solitary: Fighting for Everyone’s Liberation

Voices from Solitary: The Crisis at Brooklyn’s “Dangerous, Barbaric” Federal Jail

Beyond The Rainbow: Remembering Our Most Forgotten

Alabama Voters Banned Prison Slavery—But Prisoners Say It Hasn’t Stopped

Voices from Solitary: Crawling Out of the Darkness, Part 2

Voices from Solitary: Crawling Out of the Darkness, Part 1

Migrants Face Inhumane Conditions, Abuse, and Solitary at El Paso ICE Facility…and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week

“Mama’s in the Hole”

Witnessing the Solitary-to-Cemetery Pipeline

Pope Francis Condemned Solitary Confinement as Torture…and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week

Voices from Solitary: Imagine This

Trump’s New Director of Federal Prisons Brings a Horrific Record on Prison Conditions…and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week

When Freedom Still Feels Like Prison

Surviving Solitary