Tag Archives: solitary confinement

‘Wrong Side of History’: NYC Mayor Adams Vetoes Solitary Confinement Ban

“With this veto, the mayor has condemned New Yorkers to suffer in solitary confinement and isolation, and he did so after the cameras were turned off and backs were turned,” the bill’s sponsor said.

By Olivia Rosane. Published 1-19-2024 by Common Dreams

*Solitary Cell at Rikers Island. Photo: Felton Davis/flickr/CC*

New York City Mayor Eric Adams vetoed a New York City Council bill on Friday that would have banned the practice of solitary confinement in city jails.

Also on Friday, Adams vetoed another bill that would have increased transparency and oversight of the New York Police Department (NYPD). However, both bills passed the council with more votes than is required to override a veto.

Continue reading →

‘This Is Madness’: Supreme Court Denies Solitary Confinement Appeal

Leave a reply

Rep. Cori Bush, who is leading the End Solitary Confinement Act, argues that “we are using taxpayer money to torture people.”

By Brett Wilkins. Published 11-15-2023 by Common Dreams

The U.S. Supreme Court’s three liberal justices issued a scathing dissent this week as the tribunal’s right-wing supermajority rejected the appeal of an Illinois inmate with mental illness imprisoned in solitary confinement without access to fresh air for three straight years.

The nation’s high court declined to hear the appeal of Michael Johnson, an inmate at Pontiac Correctional Center northeast of Peoria, whose attorneys argued he was being subjected to unconstitutional “cruel and unusual punishment” as he was deprived of fresh air and outdoor exercise while enduring horrific conditions in a tiny, filthy cell.

Continue reading →

Federal Judge Allows ‘Untenable’ Plan to Send Juvenile Inmates to Angola Prison

Leave a reply

“The move defies all common sense and best practices, and it will cause irrevocable damage to our youth and families,” said one children’s advocate.

By Julia Conley Published 9-24-2022 by Common Dreams

The entrance of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola and nicknamed the “Alcatraz of the South” and “The Farm” Photo: msppmoore /Wikimedia Commons/CC

Critics of mass incarceration are condemning a ruling handed down late Friday by a federal judge in Louisiana, who admitted the state’s plan to send teenage inmates at a juvenile detention center to the notorious state penitentiary at Angola was “disturbing” even as she decided the plan could move forward.

Chief U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick ruled that the Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ) can send two dozen children under the age of 18 from Bridge City Center for Youth, located outside New Orleans, to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, denying a motion brought by several law firms and the ACLU to halt the plan. Continue reading →

‘No Other Path to Redress’: South Carolina Prisoners Appeal to UN After State and Federal Officials Ignore Pleas for Livable Conditions

Leave a reply

“Beyond the basic level of terror in U.S. prison conditions, conditions in South Carolina have been specifically repressive for a few years now.”

By Eoin Higgins, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 10-23-2019

Organizers in Washington D.C. with D.C. Abolition Coalition and the D.C. Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee deliver the demands of South Carolina Prisoners to the local United Nations Office. (Image: Fight Toxic Prisons)

Prison rights activists and advocates are appealing to the United Nations Wednesday for relief of conditions under which prisoners in South Carolina are suffering—conditions that are creating a situation where all prisoners are effectively living in solitary confinement.

“For years, prisoners and their families have been decrying the notoriously bad conditions within South Carolina prisons, as the U.S. Department of Justice has demonstrated through reports and consent decrees with states in violation of basic human rights protections,” the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons said in a statement. Continue reading →

The national prison strike is over. Now is the time prisoners are most in danger

Leave a reply

Heather Ann Thompson, University of Michigan

Photo: Pixabay

Over the last few weeks men and women across the United States – and even as far away as Nova Scotia, Canada – have protested to demand humane treatment for the incarcerated.

In 2016, when prisoners engaged in similar hunger strikes, sit-ins, and work stoppages, their actions barely registered with the national media. As someone who regularly writes about the history of prisoner protests and prison conditions today, this lack of interest was striking. Continue reading →

Citing Poor Care for Mental Health in US Prisons, UK Court Refuses Extradition Request

Leave a reply

For a second time in six years, the U.K. has declined to send an accused hacker to the U.S. out of concern for his safety in the care of the Department of Justice

By Julia Conley, staff writer for CommonDreams. Published 4-6-2018

Lauri Love. Photo: HackRead

An accused hacker will not be extradited to the United States after a British appeals court ruled that detaining the man in U.S. prisons would be harmful to his health and safety.

Lauri Love, who is accused to stealing information from U.S. military agencies and private companies in 2012 and 2013, had argued that his medical and mental health conditions—including severe depression and Asperger’s syndrome—would likely be mistreated in the U.S. prison system, putting him at risk for suicide. Continue reading →

Albert Woodfox Free: Last of Angola 3, Who Spent Decades in Solitary, Released

Leave a reply

His ‘release is long overdue and undeniably just’

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 2-19-2016

Albert Woodfox. (Photo: Angola3.org)

Albert Woodfox, the last of the men known as the Angola 3, was released from a Louisiana prison on Friday.

He had spent over four decades in solitary confinement at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary known as “Angola.”

WBRZ Reporter Michael Vinsanau tweeted this photo of Woodfox as he walked out of prison: Continue reading →

Nebraska Is Torturing Incarcerated Youth for Having Too Many Books, Passing Notes

Leave a reply

By Carey Wedler. Published 1-8-2016 by The Anti-Media

Nebraska Correctional Youth Facility, Douglas County

A report released by the Nebraska American Civil Liberties Union this week reveals the state’s extensive use of solitary confinement in children across multiple juvenile detention centers. Solitary confinement is considered a form of torture by the U.N., and in recent years, has been outlawed and scaled back in the United States. In Nebraska, however, children are being forced into isolation for offenses as minor as having too many books or passing notes.

According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, in the early 19th century, the United States pioneered solitary confinement as a form of punishment. After its damaging psychological effects became apparent, however, it was discontinued. Though the practice recently regained popularity, it has once again been skewered as excessive and dangerous. Continue reading →

Occupy World Writes

The Movement Continues – Globally

Tag Archives: solitary confinement