Earlier this month, people detained in California Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities went on a hunger and work strike to protest their conditions, including the use of solitary confinement.
According to the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), Recent research has documented the profound physical and psychological harm caused by the use of solitary confinement in U.S. immigration detention centers.
According to the description, detention centers in the United States hold more than 122,000 people in solitary confinement for 22 or more hours a day every day. In the past five years, ICE alone has used solitary confinement more than 14,000 times, and the detention has often lasted for months.
Human Rights Watch condemned the practices of solitary confinement in the United States, even in immigration detention centers.
The use of solitary confinement in the US has been condemned by the United Nations and human rights organizations for its severe psychological effects, and yet private architects, engineers, and contractors continue to design and build these spaces.https://t.co/ juijW6V5KA
— Worth Rises (@WorthRises) July 18, 2023
From 2018 to 2023, the average length of solitary confinement in ICE detention centers was 27 days. In hundreds of cases, solitary confinement lasted at least 90 days, and a total of 42 cases lasted for more than a year. This violates international standards prohibiting prolonged or indefinite solitary confinement, which are considered torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and are prohibited.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Méndez, specifically concluded that solitary confinement for more than 15 days constitutes a “form of torture.” The use of solitary confinement, whatever its duration, on children and people with psychosocial disabilities also meets these criteria.
Solitary confinement, or segregation as it is officially known, was intended to separate the most dangerous prisoners from others. and keep the vulnerable safe temporarily, but it is more widely used in the United States.
As an example, for people detained for immigration reasons in the United States, solitary confinement often aggravates the effects of traumatic experiences they have had in the past.
According to specialistssolitary confinement can deteriorate people’s mental health, and they are unlikely to receive adequate or timely mental health care. Isolation is linked to anxiety, depression and psychosis. Even a few days in solitary confinement significantly increases the risk of death by suicide.
A recent report documented dozens of preventable deaths in ICE detention facilities, including many people who died by suicide after spending time in solitary confinement.
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