Salon.com > Solitary Confinement

DHS to review solitary confinement of immigrants

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:15:00 +0000

As Salon noted Monday, reports emerged this week that hundreds of unauthorized immigrants detained in mass civil detention centers are held in solitary confinement. The New York Times reported that on any given day in the 50 vast ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention centers, around 300 people are held in solitary.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano responded to the revelations Tuesday and said that detention policies would be reviewed. Napolitano also expressed some skepticism about the Times' report. Via HuffPo:

"I was not wild about the story," she said at an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "But I think solitary confinement should be the exception, not the rule. ... So I've asked ICE to go back and give me information on the specific cases that were referenced, when those occurred, [whether] the 'facts' -- 'facts,' I say that in quotes -- that were reported were accurate, and then looking at all of our policies with respect to solitary."

Hundreds of immigrants held in solitary confinement

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:44:00 +0000

Every day in the U.S. hundreds of individuals, held in detention centers for immigration infractions, are placed in solitary confinement, the New York Times reports. The Times reported that on any given day in the 50 vast ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention centers, around 300 people are held in solitary.

"I.C.E. is clearly using excessive force, since these are civil detentions,” Dr. Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist who studies solitary confinement at the Wright Institute, a graduate school in psychology based in Berkeley, Calif., told the Times, “And that makes this a human rights abuse.”

Via the Times:

Angola 3 prisoner ordered free for third time

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 21:27:00 +0000

Former Black Panther Albert Woodfox, one of the "Angola 3," has been in solitary confinement in Angola Prison for the murder of a guard, despite the fact that evidence strongly suggests his innocence. Although a federal judge this week overturned his conviction, Louisiana are likely to keep Woodfox locked up. He has been ordered free by a judge twice before, after all.

Earlier this week the same federal judge that ordered Woodfox’s release in 2008 again ruled Woodfox should be set free on the basis of racial discrimination in his retrial.

As Amy Goodman explained for the Guardian:

This is the third time his conviction has been overturned. Nevertheless, Woodfox remains imprisoned. Those close to the case expect the state of Louisiana, under the direction of Attorney General James "Buddy" Caldwell, to appeal again – as the state has successfully done in the past – seeking to keep Woodfox in solitary confinement, in conditions that Amnesty International says "can only be described as cruel, inhuman and degrading".

... Woodfox and fellow inmate Herman Wallace were in Angola for lesser crimes when implicated in the prison murder of a guard in 1972. Woodfox and Wallace founded the Angola chapter of the Black Panther party in 1971, and were engaged in organizing against segregation, inhumane working conditions and the systemic rape and sexual slavery inflicted on many imprisoned in Louisiana's Angola.

Jeremy Hammond speaks out from solitary confinement

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:45:00 +0000

On Thursday morning, the judge overseeing Jeremy Hammond's trial for his alleged involvement in the famed LulzSec Stratfor hack refused to step down from presiding over the case, despite a reported conflict of interest. Hammond's attorneys had filed a motion to have Judge Loretta Preska recuse herself from the case after it emerged that her husband had been a Stratfor client with data released by the hack.

The legal system is such that it was up to Preska herself to step down -- she opted against it, and Hammond will appear in court in April with the judge presiding. The same judge denied the activist bail (he has been held in a Manhattan federal prison for over a year, regularly placed in solitary confinement) and told the defendant that he could face life in jail for his alleged involvement in the hack.

On the same morning Judge Preska announced that she would not be stepping down from the case, Hammond released a statement of his own through his lawyers. The tract decries the criminal justice system's treatment of cyber activists, condemns government's persecution of dissent, and above all celebrates the work of the late Aaron Swartz.

Bureau of prisons agrees to solitary confinement review

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 22:33:00 +0000

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., announced Monday that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has agreed to a full review of the use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. An independent auditor will carry out the review on the recommendations of a congressional hearing held last year by a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee chaired by Durbin.

“The United States holds more prisoners in solitary confinement than any other democratic nation in the world, and the dramatic expansion of solitary confinement is a human rights issue we can’t ignore,” noted Durbin. As Reuters noted, prisoners in isolation often are confined to small cells without windows for up to 23 hours a day. "[M]ore than half of all suicides committed in prisons occur in solitary confinement," noted Reuters, adding that in Durbin’s state of Illinois, 56 percent of inmates have spent some time in segregated housing.

Prosecutors exhibit Bradley Manning’s noose

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 19:43:00 +0000

On Friday, U.S. government prosecutors cross-examined Pfc. Bradley Manning at his pretrial hearing at Fort Meade. Manning testified Thursday and Friday as a part of a motion brought by his defense arguing that the detained soldier suffered “unlawful pretrial punishment.”

The prosecution produced grim props in an attempt to justify Manning's stringent detainment regime as a necessary means to keep the soldier from committing suicide. The chief prosecution lawyer, according to the Guardian's Ed Pilkington's courtroom reports, held up a knotted pink bedsheet -- a makeshift noose Manning reportedly fashioned in U.S. military custody in Kuwait, just days after his arrest. "The prosecutor also produced a second noose made from sandbag ties and two metal objects that he suggested Manning may have intended to use to harm himself, though the soldier said he did not recollect those items," reported Pilkington.

Bradley Manning testifies

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:59:00 +0000

Pfc. Bradley Manning testified Thursday on the third say of his pretrial hearing at Fort Meade. In his first public speaking appearance in two years, the soldier appeared in his dress uniform and "appeared nervous," according to an AP report. Meanwhile Kevin Gosztola, who has followed Bradley Manning's case more closely than perhaps any other reporter, tweeted that Manning was "smiling," "energetic" and "intelligent" while testifying about his detainment conditions.

Manning answered questions from his defense attorney as part of a pretrial motion arguing that the detained soldier suffered “unlawful pretrial punishment” and should thus have his charges dismissed for his time spent in what amounted to solitary confinement. According to reports, Manning described in detail his conditions while detained in Kuwait and then at Quantico when he returned to the U.S.

Marine commander: Quantico wasn’t prepared for Manning’s long detention

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:49:00 +0000

Retired Col. Daniel Choike, who served as the Quantico Marine brig commander while Pfc. Bradley Manning was imprisoned there for nine months, testified Tuesday in the soldier's pretrial hearing at Fort Meade.

"I didn't feel that Pfc. Manning should be detained more than 90 days in the brig," Choike told the hearing, recounting that he had conveyed the same view to his superior at the Pentagon when the accused whistle-blower arrived at the brig.

As Firedoglake's Kevin Gosztola reported from Fort Meade:

Choike gave over three hours of testimony from the witness stand. The most critical testimony probably came during Judge Army Col. Denise Lind’s line of questioning. She asked him about the Sanity Board that was to determine whether Manning was mentally fit to stand trial or not. It was having problems meeting and completing its work. Lind asked if he believed Quantico was adequately resourced to house someone of Manning’s stature.

Other maximum custody (MAX) detainees, the inability to predict the number of incoming detainees, downsizing and the fact that the Brig did not have “dedicated medical support” all made it difficult. Choike answered “no.” The Brig was not a place for long-term confinement. It was adequate for 90 days.

U.S. to hand over emails about Bradley Manning’s detention

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:08:00 +0000

The judge at Pfc. Bradley Manning's Fort Meade pretrial has ordered that prosecutors hand over hundreds of emails from officers overseeing the alleged whistleblower's detention at a military brig.

According to Raw Story, "Judge Denise Lind said more than 600 emails withheld by prosecutors should be handed over to the defense, though she did not explain the reason behind her decision." Manning's attorneys requested the emails as evidence for their argument that their client was subjected to cruel and illegal treatment while detained at Quantico Marine base. Manning was held in a solitary cell, stripped naked and could wear only a suicide-proof smock to bed.

Raw Story reported that the officers' emails "discuss the military’s plans to respond to queries from reporters about Manning’s detention, preparing for protests, changes to Manning’s list of visitors and other details, according to the judge."

Glenn Greenwald took to Twitter to note that what comes from the email handover "should be very interesting."

Rights groups: Ban solitary confinement of youths

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:55:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) — State governments should abolish the use of solitary confinement for offenders under 18, whether as a punitive or protective measure, two of America's leading advocates for prisoners' rights said in report Wednesday.

Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union said brief periods of isolation may be needed as a security measure. However, they contend that longer spans of solitary confinement can cause serious psychological and physical harm to young people, including heightened risk of suicide.

Solitary confinement of adults also can be harmful, the report said. "But the potential damage to young people, who do not have the maturity of an adult and are at a particularly vulnerable, formative stage of life, is much greater."

The report, "Growing Up Locked Down," said lack of detailed state data made it impossible to estimate the number of juveniles subjected to solitary confinement and other forms of isolation at any given time. But it described the practice as widespread, notably among juveniles held in adult facilities.

One in four New York prisoners put in solitary

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 15:46:00 +0000

One in four inmates in the New York state prison system is put in solitary confinement, a report released Tuesday by the NYCLU revealed (pdf). The study, titled "Boxed In," found that between 2007 and 2011, New York issued more than 68,100 sentences to extreme isolation for violations of prison rules. The average sentence was five months, although many prisoners are held in extreme isolation for years. Report authors noted:

Every day, nearly 4,500 prisoners across New York live in extreme isolation, deprived of all meaningful human interaction or mental stimulation, confined to the small, barren cells where they spend 23 hours a day. Disembodied hands deliver meals through a slot in the cell door.

... New York’s use of extreme isolation is arbitrary and unjustified. Extreme isolation is too frequently used as a disciplinary tool of first resort. Corrections officials have enormous discretion to impose extreme isolation as a disciplinary sanction. Prisoners can be sent to [isolation cells] for prolonged periods of time for violating a broad range of prison rules, including for minor, non-violent misbehavior. As a result, the [solitary confinement units] sweep in a wide swath of prisoners, including those uniquely vulnerable to conditions of extreme isolation, such as juveniles, the elderly, and people with mental illness or substance abuse issues.