solitary

WASHINGTON — Use of solitary confinement in immigration detention is soaring under the Trump administration, according to a report published Wednesday by Physicians for Human Rights using federal data and records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed at least 10,588 people in solitary confinement from April 2024 to May 2025, the report found. Contributors also included experts from Harvard University’s Peeler Immigration Lab and Harvard Law School.

The use of solitary confinement during the first four months of the current Trump administration increased each month, on average, at twice the rate found between 2018 and 2023, researchers found, and more than six times the rate during the last several months of 2024.

“Every month from February through May, which are the full calendar months of the new administration, the number of people placed in solitary in ICE [custody] increased by 6.5%,” said Dr. Katherine Peeler, medical advisor for Physicians for Human Rights, and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. “That was really dismaying.”

Solitary confinement, in which detainees are held alone for at least 22 hours a day, is used in ICE detention facilities as a form of punishment or to protect certain at-risk immigrants.

In a statement Thursday, assistant Homeland Security secretary Tricia McLaughlin said ICE prioritizes the safety and security of people in its custody.

Detainees are placed into disciplinary segregation “only after they are found guilty by a disciplinary hearing panel,” she said.

Any detainee scheduled for removal, release, or transfer is also placed into administrative segregation for 24 hours, she added. According to ICE’s National Detention Standards, “such segregation may be ordered for security reasons or for the orderly operation of the facility.”

The United Nations has called solitary confinement longer than 15 consecutive days a form of torture.

ICE defines vulnerable detainees as those with serious medical or mental health conditions, disabilities, and those who are elderly, pregnant or nursing, at risk of harm due to sexual orientation or gender identity, or victims of abuse.

Among those categorized as vulnerable, the report states that solitary confinement lasted twice as long, on average, during the first three months of 2025 compared with the first fiscal quarter of 2022, when the agency started reporting those statistics.

This year, vulnerable detainees spent an average of 38 consecutive days in isolation, compared with 14 days in late 2021, according to the report.

The report notes that use of solitary confinement in immigration detention has risen “at an alarming rate” over the last decade, and that billions of dollars authorized earlier this year by Congress to expand detention will likely exacerbate the issue. It calls on the federal government to end the practice against immigrants who are detained for civil deportation proceedings, and for states and members of Congress to exercise oversight.

Nearly 59,000 immigrants were held in ICE custody as of Sept. 7, according to TRAC, a nonpartisan data research organization.

The researchers at Physicians for Human Rights analyzed individual cases in New England and found “systemic use of solitary confinement for arbitrary and retaliatory purposes,” such as requesting showers, sharing food or reporting sexual assault.

In California, detainees were placed in solitary confinement 2,546 times from September 2018 to September 2023, said Arevik Avedian, a lecturer and director of empirical research services at Harvard Law School.

Last year, ICE changed the way it reports that data. Instead of placements, in which the same person could be counted multiple times for different stints in solitary confinement, ICE now reports the number of individuals.

In California, ICE reported that 596 people were placed in solitary confinement from April 2024 to May 2025, she said.

During the period of 2018-2023, two California facilities ranked in the top five with the highest number of solitary confinement placements, she said — the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County, and the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.

This year, the data reflect ICE’s investment in Republican-led states. According to the report, facilities with the most solitary confinement stints included Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, Montgomery Processing Center in Texas, Buffalo Service Processing Center in New York, South Texas ICE Processing Center, and Eloy Detention Center in Arizona tied with Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center.

A previous report by the same authors found that ICE had used solitary confinement more than 14,000 times between 2018 and 2023, including one Otay Mesa detainee who was held for 759 days.

In solitary, it was almost always freezing. Prisoners would wrap themselves in sheets and extra clothes and walk back and forth just to stay warm. Some days, I could see my own breath.

I suffered in silence, but some inmates would rip up their blankets, stuff them into their toilets and start flushing, flooding the unit.

One night, prisoners on the top portion of the unit started to “flood” together. Filthy water poured down from the upper floor to the lower level, flooding the cells there. My cell filled with water up to my knees. Later, as the pipes were clogged, the toilets started to flood, including mine, adding to the mess. Horrified, I jumped onto my bed, but the dirty water started to rise until it lapped at the edge of my mattress.

I yelled for the officers to help, but no one came. After some time, the water stopped rising and began to recede, but the damage was done – my cell was filthy. An hour or two later, an officer came by, and I pleaded with him to open the door.

He smiled. “It’s third shift” – meaning the unit had to stay locked up – “I’m not opening any doors.”

“It’s nasty in here, bro. Please let me at least get the water out,” I begged.

“You’ll be alright,” he said, then walked away.

There was faeces all over the floor. I felt like an animal in a cage.

‘Please no, not again’

My trial began in December 2004 and lasted until my conviction in April 2005. I was kept in isolation until August 2005 when I was sent to NJSP. It had been two years of solitary confinement.

At NJSP, I was immediately placed in a general population unit. I could now go to the mess hall to have three meals a day, access religious services and be put on work detail in the kitchen, laundry or other areas in the prison. I could go to the yard and gym and have regular visitors.

I learned that the only way you ended up in isolation was by getting in trouble. So I made it my business to stay clear of any.

But 17 years later, I ended up in lockup for having an unauthorised USB wire. I was sent to a “temporary” holding cell for prison-related infractions. The tiers above held prisoners doing AdSeg time. Unlike the county jail lockup, this place was loud – ear-shatteringly loud.

Some prisoners were cursing at each other. Others were cursing the cops who, in turn, were cursing and yelling at the inmates. And then there were the door bangers kicking the metal doors of their cells like donkeys. It was a zoo.

The previous occupant had evidently been disturbed. The mattress was in tatters. There was decomposing food. A dried pile of faeces sat in the stainless-steel toilet.

Still, I wasn’t a fresh-faced newcomer anymore. I was now a middle-aged man with nearly 20 years of experience in one of the country’s most notorious prisons.

I mustered my strength and joined the chorus of prisoners, calling on the unit officer for some cleaning supplies and a “night bag” – soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, clothing, toilet paper, a spoon, cup, bedsheets and a blanket.

“What you want?” a young officer, overworked and disheveled, asked me.

I pointed to the faeces on the toilet. He simply shrugged and told me to use the water from the sink to clean it.

“What am I supposed to clean that with?” I asked, agitated.

“Use your hands,” he said and walked away.

It took two decades of patience and self-control for me to hold onto my rising anger.

The next two days, I paced.

It was the third night when I heard the kid next door starting to flush. I knew what was coming, but I had no blankets or sheets to block the door. Dirty water started to pour into my cell. As the water level kept rising, I hopped on my metal bed and prayed that the toilet wouldn’t start overflowing. “Please, no, not again,” I begged.