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Solidarity and Solitary: When Unions Clash With Prison Reform
On January 4, 2013, Tamms Supermax in southern Illinois officially closed its doors. The prison, where some men had been in solitary confinement for more than a decade, had become notorious for its...
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Obama’s 2014 Budget Confirms Plans for “ADX Thomson,” New Federal Supermax...
The Obama Administration’s 2014 budget request for the Department of Justice, released this week, confirms that the federal government will open a second ultra-secure supermax prison within the next...
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GAO Report Questions Widespread Use of Solitary Confinement in Federal Prisons
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons currently holds more than 12,400 individuals in 23-hour-a-day lockdown, making it the largest practitioner of solitary and other forms of isolated confinement in the nation,...
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Under Fire, the Federal Bureau of Prisons Audits Its Use of Solitary...
Solitary confinement cells at ADX Florence, the federal supermax in Colorado. Amidst growing criticism of its abundant use solitary confinement, the federal Bureau of Prisons has quietly set in motion...
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Seven Days in Solitary [11/3/13]
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 comprehensive new report,...
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Solitary Confinement: Too Controversial for Costco
Editors’ Note: Back in October, Solitary Watch received a request from cut-rate retail giant Costco, for a 450-word essay arguing that solitary should be eliminated. The piece was to be printed in the...
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Mentally Ill in South Carolina’s Prisons Suffer Decades of Abuse and Neglect
Photo: South Carolina Department of Corrections, Trial Exhibit A court ruling out of South Carolina this week deserves the attention of anyone concerned with the use of solitary confinement and other...
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Funding Approved for Activation of ADX/USP Thomson, New Federal Supermax Prison
Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, IL (Photo: suntimes.com) Even as it touts new initiatives to reduce the number of people it holds in solitary confinement, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)...
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Civil and Human Rights Groups to Eric Holder: No New Federal Supermax Prison...
Last week, Solitary Watch published an investigation into the new federal prison in Thomson, Illinois, which is in the process of being renovated with an eye toward activation in the next year. Sources...
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New Report Documents the “Waste, Cost and Harm” of Solitary Confinement in Texas
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas and the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) have released a report arguing that “solitary confinement is dangerous, expensive and makes Texas less...
View ArticleNow Available: Collection of Written Testimony for Senate Judiciary...
Solitary Watch is building an archive of written testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, in connection with the hearing on solitary...
View ArticleReport from Senate Hearing on Solitary Confinement
Our report on today’s hearing was published by Mother Jones. It starts out this way: The cell placed at the back of the hearing room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building was a pretty accurate replica...
View ArticleCongress Unlocks America’s Hidden Shame of Solitary Confinement
The title of this post is the title of an op-ed by us, published in the Guardian on Tuesday. An excerpt follows; click through to the Guardian site to read the full piece. Imagine a place filled with...
View Article“New York’s Black Sites”: New Article About Solitary Confinement in State...
The latest issue of The Nation, which went up on the web today and hits newsstands in a week or so, includes a long story by us on solitary confinement in New York State prisons. The article includes...
View ArticleShutting Down a Supermax: An Interview With Alan Mills of the Uptown People’s...
Alan Mills is the Legal Director of the Uptown People’s Law Center in Chicago, Illinois. The Center has been involved in ongoing litigation on behalf of Illinois prisoners challenging the procedures...
View ArticleTamms Supermax Prison Closure Temporarily Halted
On September 4th, Alexander County Circuit Court Judge Charles Cavaness temporarily halted Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s plan to close the Tamms supermax prison, where hundreds of inmates have been...
View ArticleThe Other Death Sentence: Aging and Dying in Prison
The title of this post is the title of a new article by James Ridgeway that appears on Mother Jones and New American Media. It begins this way: William “Lefty” Gilday had been in prison 40 years when...
View ArticleTamms Supermax: Report Reveals More Guards Than Prisoners, Soaring Costs
The Belleville News-Democrat known for a 2009 exposé that helped rouse opposition to conditions at Tamms Supermax, has now provided new ammunition in the longstanding battle to close the notorious...
View ArticleThe End of Tamms Supermax
As the new year began, the notorious Tamms state supermax in southern Illinois closed its doors forever. The closure marked the end of a decade-long effort that combined legal and political pressure...
View ArticleNew Report Highlights 10 Destructive Myths About Solitary Confinement
As the first in a planned series of reports, the Vera Institute for Justice’s Safe Alternatives to Segregation Initiative has published Solitary Confinement: Common Misconceptions and Emerging Safe...
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