Facts

  • Facts

What is SOLITARY CONFINEMENT?

Solitary confinement is the practice of isolating and/or confining a person for 22 hours or more per day. Isolation is being kept alone with no meaningful human interaction. Confinement is restricting a person’s mobility by holding them in a limited physical space. Prolonged solitary confinement is holding someone in solitary confinement for more than 15 days at 22 hours a day.

United States correctional facilities commonly use solitary confinement for many purposes but under a variety of pseudonyms, including administrative segregation, segregated housing units (SHU), restrictive housing, disciplinary segregation, protective custody, medical stay-in-place or lockdown, room confinement, safe cells, or suicide watch.

PBS Frontline tells the history of the United States’ criminal justice system and how the U.S. became a world leader in solitary confinement and mass incarceration.

HISTORY OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

The United States began using solitary confinement in the late 1700s. Early in its use, solitary confinement proved harmful and could even lead to death. Until the late twentieth century, the use of solitary confinement was rare. But, beginning in the 1970s, solitary confinement increased with mass incarceration. By the early 2000s, solitary confinement was a routine practice in U.S. prisons and jails.

THE MANY NAMES OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

United States correctional facilities commonly use solitary confinement for many purposes but under a variety of pseudonyms, including administrative segregation, segregated housing units (SHU), restrictive housing, disciplinary segregation, protective custody, medical stay-in-place or lockdown, room confinement, safe cells, or suicide watch.

  • Restrictive Housing and Administrative Segregation are common general terms for solitary confinement.
  • Disciplinary Segregation is the use of solitary confinement as punishment.
  • Room Confinement is the term used when children are held in solitary confinement.
  • Protective Custody can be voluntary or involuntary. People who identify as transgender are often placed in solitary under this name due to facility units often being split by the gender binary of male and female.
  • Medical Stay-in-Place is for medical emergencies such as an outbreak of a communicable disease. However, correctional facilities used COVID-19 to hold people in prolonged solitary confinement.
  • Safe Cells are “suicide prevention cells” for people who are experiencing mental health crises and suicidal ideation. However, they are the antithesis of therapeutic spaces necessary for recovery.

HOW IS SOLITARY CONFINEMENT USED IN DC?

The Department of Corrections uses solitary confinement for many purposes in the DC Jail under many pseudonyms, including administrative segregation, disciplinary segregation, protective custody, medical stay-in-place, and Safe Cells.

According to a 2025 report commissioned by the Office of the District of Columbia Auditor found, 11.1 percent of jail residents were in a form of solitary confinement ( restrictive housing) during the audit period (July 1st, 2023 to June 1st, 2024) – a rate twice that which is reported nationally. Second paragraph content here.

The Department of Corrections uses Safe Cells in the DC jail for people experiencing mental health crises and suicidal ideations. Court cases and audits have reported that individuals are left alone in safe cells with no mattresses, no pillows, lights on 24 hours a day, no access to writing or reading material, and no running water. One resident in a safe cell was denied a shower for a week, and another spent a month in a safe cell and lost their personal property.

READ THE UTB-DC REPORT ON SOLITARY IN DC

WHY IS SOLITARY CONSIDERED TORTURE?

Solitary Confinement by anonymous solitary survivor. From Drawing Alone: Making Art in Solitary Confinement and Art and Art Therapy with the Imprisoned: Recreating Identity

  • Solitary confinement leads to irreversible psychiatric harm and brain damage and reduces the likelihood of a successful reentry after incarceration.
  • People in solitary confinement often experience sensory deprivation.
  • Solitary confinement decreases access to medical care and mental health care.
  • Solitary confinement increases a person’s likelihood of committing violence.
  • Solitary confinement can cause long-term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

You can check the Events section for upcoming actions and register directly through the event pages. Each listing includes time, location, and how to get involved.

Our goal is to make quality healthcare affordable and accessible for all, reducing costs and expanding services.

We will invest in schools, support teachers, and provide equal opportunities for every student to succeed.

We are committed to safer communities through responsible policing, crime prevention, and emergency preparedness.

We will address climate change, promote clean energy, and safeguard natural resources for future generations.

The effects of Solitary Confinement

EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN

  • Solitary confinement can lead people to experience hallucinations and psychosis. Social and sensory deprivation can cause memory loss and depression and impair cognition.
  • Studies show that solitary confinement shrinks the part of the brain that helps store memories.
  • Thirty-three percent of people in solitary confinement for at least 15 days become psychotic and/or suicidal.
  • Solitary increases the likelihood of self-harm.
  • Common symptoms of solitary confinement include panic attacks, paranoia, and sensitivity to sound.

LONG TERM DAMAGE

  • People who spend any time in solitary confinement have an increased risk of dying from opioid overdose, cardiovascular disease, homicide, or suicide.
  • People with more than one stay in solitary confinement are 129 percent more likely to commit suicide than those who have never spent time in solitary.
  • People can lose their sense of self, become unable to connect to reality or have difficulty controlling their behavior.
  • People held in solitary confinement, for any amount of time, are more likely to return to prison shortly after their release than those who were never held in solitary.

the IMPACT

In the spring of 2023, a formal group within the Unlock the Box Coalition convened in DC. This group consists of individuals who have experienced incarceration, have family members directly impacted by it, or have been affected by solitary confinement. In August 2023, some people from this group sat down and recorded their perspectives for the community on why they think the ERASE Bill should be enacted. Here are some highlights from this 35-minute recorded discussion on how solitary confinement impacted them, why the practice does not increase safety, and underscored the importance of the ERASE Bill ending this practice in DC

HERBERT’S STORY

Herbert Robinson is an outreach team member for More than Our Crimes, and he is a co-facilitator of the Unlock-the-Box DC coalition. Herbert was released from prison in 2022 after serving 20 years in D.C. shelter homes, jail, and federal prisons.

THE WHOLE FACILITY CAN EXPERIENCE SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IF IT IS ON LOCKDOWN.

When I went to DC jail in 2003, the entire facility was 22 hours in the cell and two hours out. This was the general population, and they said this was because of security measures. The institution used this as their excuse. How is this a security measure when you are fully staffed to run the whole jail?

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT DID NOT MAKE ME FEEL SAFER.

When you went to whatever form of solitary confinement that was operating, the hole, the Special Housing Unit (SHU), the Special Handling Unit, whichever name you call it, you only showered every two or three days. You didn’t get recreation, but every two or three days. You have to get handcuffed to leave your cell to go to the shower. And now you’re walking to the shower down a tier, and people can assault you through the bars, throwing their feces and any other item they wish. The worst part about it was not being able to defend yourself.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT WORSENED MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES IN THE JAIL.
If you have a mental health issue, you are housed in solitary confinement. They are not getting the help needed for their troubles. These mental issues impact everyone in the unit: At two or three in the morning, these individuals are banging on the door and yelling because their medication wore off or now they’re hungry. Imagine that I’m two cells down or the cell right next to them. And they are banging on the wall. That’s when it becomes torture for real.

SOLITARY: A VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE

The national Unlock the Box campaign to end solitary confinement collaborated with The Guardian, Solitary Watch, and survivors of solitary confinement to create the “6×9: A Virtual Reality Experience.”

A mobile app allows you to experience ”6×9” on your own, with or without a VR viewer. If you don’t have a smartphone, scroll down to watch the 360° video.