EL PASO, Texas — A lawsuit filed against the companies operating the Camp East Montana immigration detention center has renewed scrutiny of the use of solitary confinement in ICE facilities, with a recent Solitary Watch report arguing that the case reflects broader patterns of abuse, medical neglect and systemic failures in detention centers and prisons across the country.
In a report published last Wednesday, the nonprofit Solitary Watch examined the Texas lawsuit filed against the companies behind the Camp East Montana immigration detention center, alleging negligence in the treatment of people held in solitary confinement.
According to Solitary Watch, the suicide deaths of several individuals held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody support the argument that confinement in “windowless isolated cells” constitutes a “violation of mental health protocol.”
ProPublica reported that the lawsuit was filed by the three children of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban immigrant who had complained about inadequate treatment for his “depression, anxiety and hallucinations,” attempted suicide, and died following an “altercation with guards over his medication.”
Solitary Watch also cited the case of Timothy Rantila, a paralyzed individual who “suffered several falls” in his solitary confinement cell and felt “dehumanized” by the lack of accommodations at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Faribault.
Within the same detention center that held Campos, there were “at least three other suicide attempts,” Solitary Watch reported. The attempts involved detained men “swallowing unknown objects, biting their wrists, and hanging themselves,” according to the report.
The report quoted a medical adviser with Physicians for Human Rights, who said the “conditions” at Camp East Montana “signal that it is not a safe place for any detained individual.”
In St. Louis County, Missouri, a specialized school held a 9-year-old student “in a small, padded seclusion room 66 times over two school years,” Solitary Watch reported. The nonprofit also referenced a U.S. Department of Justice investigation of specialized schools that documented incidents of “injury, self-harm, and mental anguish” related to student seclusion.
Solitary Watch reported a potential correlation between solitary confinement and deaths in ICE detention, noting that “at least 10 of 53 deaths in ICE custody have been ruled suicides.” The report also referenced a protest at the Prairieland Detention Center ICE facility that resulted in the detention of the accused protesters in “administrative segregation” and “10×10 foot cell(s).”
The report added that one of the detained individuals, Autumn Hill, was held for “23 hours a day” with “one hour of recreation” and subjected to “humiliating strip searches by male guards.”
According to Solitary Watch, the Trump administration sentenced the protesters to “30 to 100 years each in prison.” A sister of one of the accused said, “If you show up to protest an ICE facility, expect to go to jail for decades.”
New York and Wisconsin state prison systems have also faced accountability for alleged systemic neglect and “unlawful isolation,” with New York paying “$25.7 million across 170 lawsuits” and Wisconsin entering into a “$500,000 contract…to reform the state’s prison practices,” including the use of solitary confinement, according to Solitary Watch.
The report also stated that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to close Rikers Island, a jail with a history of allegations involving “beatings,” “denied medical care” and “solitary confinement.”
More recently, Solitary Watch reported that Mamdani reached the “milestone” of closing the North Infirmary Command section of the jail and appointed the “formerly incarcerated” Stanley Richards as commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction.
Despite those developments, the report argued that abuses continue. According to The City Reporter, former inmate Antoine Galloway was “sexually harassed,” “physically assaulted” and “moved to an isolation unit” at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. After his release, Galloway reportedly expressed frustration that correction officers were never held accountable, according to The City Reporter.
Galloway said, “I’ll never be satisfied…I know they (corrections officers) are doing this to so many people and still getting away with it.”
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