Solitary Watch
Shining Light Into the Darkest Corners of the U.S Punishment System
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Latest posts
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“Unbroken Pattern” of Sexual Abuse and Retaliation in California Women’s Prison Includes Months in Solitary…
This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: A KQED investigation revealed a pattern of sexual abuse and retaliation against incarcerated women at the Central California Women’s Facility—one of the largest women’s prisons in the world. Hundreds of…
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New Survey Finds Bipartisan Support for Limits on Solitary Confinement…
This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: New survey data from University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation (PPC) shows an increase in bipartisan support for a number of justice issues, including policing, sentencing, solitary confinement,…
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Man Shot by ICE in NYC Held in Solitary Confinement in Notorious Federal Jail…
This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: A man who was shot by ICE in New York City last week still has a bullet lodged in his neck, according to his attorneys. The man, Oscar Belgal, is a 28-year-old immigrant from the Dominican Republic who was shot…
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Suicidal ICE Detainees Routinely Put in Solitary…
New this week from Solitary Watch: This month’s edition of “The Word from Solitary Watch,” a series of dispatches from Solitary Watch staff and contributors, is a collaboration between Kwaneta Harris, a senior writer and editor with Solitary Watch, and Valerie Kiebala, Solitary…
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The Things They Quietly Steal from Us—and the Things They Can’t
This commentary is the latest in The Word from Solitary Watch, our series of dispatches by Solitary Watch staff and contributors. This month’s edition of The Word is a collaboration between Kwaneta Harris, a senior writer and editor with Solitary Watch, and Valerie Kiebala,…
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Kids Endure Neglect, Abuse, and Self-Harm During Lockdown at Texas Youth Prisons…
New this week from Solitary Watch: In a piece originally published in The Progressive and supported by the Ridgeway Reporting Project, incarcerated journalist Kevin Light-Roth explores the impact of solitary confinement on the loved ones of incarcerated people. “Powerless to…
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Getting Out of the Hole
The following article was written by incarcerated journalist Kevin Light-Roth with support from the Ridgeway Reporting Project, managed by Solitary Watch with funding from the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation and the Vital Projects Fund. The article was originally…
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Florida Jails People with Mental Illness in Solitary for Months Pre-Trial…
New this week from Solitary Watch: Tomorrow, October 24, at 1 pm ET, Solitary Watch will host “Investigating Solitary Confinement,” the second in a series of roundtables by journalists and for journalists. The one-hour roundtable will include a moderated discussion with three…
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Seven Journalism Grants Awarded for Reporting on Solitary Confinement
For Immediate Release: September 18, 2026Contact: Jean Casella, jcasella@solitarywatch.org, (917) 974-0529 WASHINGTON, DC—Solitary Watch today announced the first group of recipients to receive support through a new Solitary Confinement Reporting Grants program. The grants…
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Christa Pike Faces Execution in Tennessee After 30 Years in Solitary…
New this week from Solitary Watch: The latest piece supported by Solitary Watch features the stories of Rahkeem Brown and Jayquan Griffin—two men incarcerated in New York suspected of ingesting contraband and forced to spend days in isolation while providing officers stool…
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“Losing My Mind”: New York Prisons Are Holding People in “Shit Rooms” With No Running Water
This article was written with the support of a Solitary Confinement Reporting Grant from Solitary Watch. It was originally published by New York Focus. . . . In late May, guards at Green Haven Correctional Facility, in Dutchess County, locked Rahkeem Brown in a room in the…
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When Silence Becomes a Weapon
Women have been disappearing into America’s darkest rooms since long before anyone had the courage to call it torture. As legal journalist Jessica Pishko traced in her history of women’s prisons, the earliest institutions built to house women weren’t designed around…
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Women in Solitary Face the “Everyday Violence” of Strip Searches by Male Guards…
New this week from Solitary Watch: The Lifelines to Solitary 2026 Match has successfully wrapped-up! Donors old and new stepped up to the challenge, and we reached our goal of $25,000, which will be doubled thanks to a very generous matching grant. To all the supporters, donors,…
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Proponents of Solitary Confinement Attempt to Stifle Reform
This article originally appeared in The American Prospect, where it was published with support from Solitary Watch. When Jerome Wright hears from people incarcerated in New York prisons, they describe a system in crisis. “I can tell you, unequivocally, from people in maximum,…
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Gravely Ill Man Died Alone in Oklahoma Jail After Being “Ignored, Ridiculed, and Tormented”…
New this week from Solitary Watch: This is the third week of our Lifelines to Solitary 2026 Match—we are lucky and thrilled to be able to highlight the work we do connecting people in solitary with people outside. Our latest discussions have reinforced the understanding that…
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You Don’t Know Me, But I Get the Mail for Lifelines to Solitary
In our third week of the Lifelines to Solitary 2026 Match—where every donation is doubled—and we still need your help! Below is a word from Lizzie, who works at the center of the Lifelines universe: retrieving and forwarding the mail. Over… and over… and over. We love her…
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The Impact of Mary’s Letters Didn’t End at My Cell
Four and a half years ago, a volunteer on the outside reached out to an incarcerated woman being held in solitary—Kwaneta Harris, now a senior writer and editor at Solitary Watch. The volunteer’s only goal was to offer a window to the outside world, as seen through her own life.…
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Transgender Immigrants Face Isolation and Abuse in ICE Detention…and Other News on Solitary Confinement This Week
New this week from Solitary Watch: In this month’s installment of The Word from Solitary Watch, Lifelines to Solitary Project Manager Marlies Talay describes the significance of letter writing for people held in solitary. Talay explains how solitary confinement strips away…
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Solitary Stops Time. I Run the Program That’s Fighting Back.
A few days ago, I wrote about what it means to experience time in solitary confinement—or more accurately, what it means when your sense of time is taken away. There’s one thing I’ve found that has the power to make a difference. For people in solitary, so much of life becomes…
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The Word: The Radical Humanity of Prison Correspondence
“Prison is a strange place. A very lonely place. My experience is it’s a place designed to make people locked in it incommunicado. Surely, being able to correspond with someone would brighten my days.” —Letter from someone in long-term isolation in Green Haven Correctional…