NATIONAL — A growing body of research and legal challenges across the United States is raising renewed concerns about the widespread use of solitary confinement, with recent studies and court cases suggesting the practice harms incarcerated people and fails to improve prison safety.
Recent studies and legal developments across the United States, reported by Solitary Watch, indicate that solitary confinement “does not make prisons safer,” citing a range of harms affecting incarcerated individuals.
Investigations have documented that individuals in solitary confinement are subjected to extreme isolation, threats of violence, deprivation of leisure and conditions that violate legal protections. Legal cases have also shown that denial or delay of necessary medical care in solitary confinement can result in serious injury or death.
These findings highlight systemic injustices in the use of “prolonged isolation” across prison and detention facilities.
In a recent editorial, Jean Casella and David Cloud argued that solitary confinement practices create everlasting harm to incarcerated individuals and staff members after the rehabilitation period.
According to this study noted by Solitary Watch, studies have shown that rates of violence “[decrease] in facilities that reduce the use of solitary confinement.”
The state of Colorado was referenced as one of the facilities reporting decreased violence: “7 percent in 2011 to 1.2 percent in 2015, prisoner-on-staff assaults also decreased by over 50 percent.”
Casella and Cloud commented in a group of California publications, including the San Diego Union-Tribune, Orange County Register, San Bernardino Sun and Riverside Press-Enterprise, stating, “Solitary confinement is a matter of prison and public safety, as well as humanity.”
Solitary Watch reports that attorneys have alleged the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Re-entry is violating state law by “depriving incarcerated people with mental illness from recreation time.”
Many incarcerated individuals have said that staff “threatened them with violence, forcing them to refuse recreation time and remain in their cells.”
These conditions have been found to violate a court injunction preventing people with mental illness from being held in solitary confinement for more than 22 hours per day due to “an elevated risk of harm.”
Attorneys are requesting a “remedial plan” requiring four hours of recreation time and two hours of “tier time” in common areas.
At Arizona’s Perryville Prison Complex, 200 incarcerated women participated in a three-week hunger strike to protest prison conditions and the alleged assault of Shajiyah X Iman.
According to Iman, a staff member slammed her into a bed and pressed her face into the mattress while she cried.
In response, she and other women drafted a grievance titled “21 Polite Requests” demanding improved living conditions and treatment by staff.
Iman was placed on “suicide watch” and isolated in a mental health unit for 20 days.
The strike concluded after wardens met with her, stating that only the state legislature could address the demands.
Solitary Watch also highlighted experiences in immigration detention facilities described as “worse than prisons.”
After serving a 20-year sentence in California, Gustabo Guevara Alarcon noted that in prison he could “hug his loved ones during visitation,” and work within the facility.
In immigration detention, he reported a lack of food and medical care, and individuals who protested conditions were either pepper-sprayed or placed in solitary confinement.
Minor improvements have occurred at Arizona’s Eloy Detention Center since a 2025 report exposed “a litany of abuses, including frequent suicide attempts, preventable deaths, excessive use of segregation, especially of people living with a serious mental illness, and inhumane living conditions.”
The Kino Border Initiative received accounts of medical neglect, including a detainee who fell and received no help.
Advocate Christy Stewart stated, “I really never saw anybody receive health treatment that they needed.”
Solitary Watch noted that limited federal oversight and private contractor incentives contribute to a lack of accountability.
In New York, Manuela Morgado died by suicide at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, marking the third death at the facility within four weeks.
Her death occurred “in the midst of turmoil at the facility over continued staffing shortages” under Superintendent Michael Blot, who restricted access to showers, kitchens, phones and laundry.
Morgado’s friend Vanessa Santiago explains, “It’s very hard to keep your sanity when every little thing is scrutinized, and it feels like you’re being punished for every little thing.”
Solitary Watch continued to highlight legal cases involving solitary confinement.
In Missouri, a lawsuit alleges that the Department of Corrections and Centurion Health delayed medical care, resulting in the death of Bradley Ketcherside while in solitary.
While Solitary Watch emphasizes legal infractions related to solitary confinement across multiple states, recent studies continue to provide evidence of its harmful effects on incarcerated individuals.
Researchers are documenting and challenging these practices in hopes of promoting ethical and improved approaches within correctional facilities.
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