The report, published jointly by Unlock the Box and Solitary Watch, which is trying to end solitary confinement in the USA, compiled data on prisoners held in solitary confinement in prisons across the country.
The report said the data was based on the most recently released data from the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, as well as state data not included in bureau reporting, and the Vera Institute of Justice’s investigations of local prisons.
The report noted that it is difficult to obtain the exact figure, since there is no single institution in the country that collects data on the situation in prisons, and it was stated that 122,840 detainees were held in solitary confinement for 22 hours or longer in 2019 alone.
The report noted that 122,840,000 detainees found to be held in solitary confinement constitute just over 6 percent of the total prison population in the United States.
The report called for the suspension of solitary confinement, as it negatively affects hundreds of thousands of people across the country each year, and pointed out that different alternatives should be used as punishment.
Jean Casella, Director of Solitary Watch, noted that solitary confinement in prisons across the United States is a “humanitarian crisis”.