We are witnessing the geometric expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in the community, the crowding of correctional facilities with ICE detainees, and the rapid construction of large immigration detention facilities. ICE has a long and ugly history of heavy reliance on solitary confinement in detention.
As a forensic psychiatrist who testifies in court about the research-proven harm of solitary confinement, and a law professor who has studied the human rights of incarcerated individuals, we are quite concerned about this massive increase in the use of solitary confinement in ICE detention facilities.
Research shows that solitary confinement has devastating effects on the health and safety of individuals and communities alike. In addition to inducing severe anxiety and panic, disturbed thinking including paranoia, great difficulty concentrating, impaired memory, and despair, solitary confinement also exacerbates all forms of mental illnessand often leads to self-mutilation, heart disease, anxiety, depression, psychosis, and a very high prevalence of suicide.
Research also proves that solitary worsens safety, and that people who spend time in solitary are more likely to be re-arrested and have a higher mortality rate after returning to the community. Solitary confinement inflicts long-lasting psychological and neurological harm similar to post-traumatic stress disorder. Brain imaging technologies show that the prolonged anxiety and anger in solitary lead to structural changes in the brain, which makes the emotional problems more severe and long-lasting.
But what exactly is happening inside ICE detention facilities? The U.S. detains nearly 60,000 people in immigration detention daily, the most in the world. And from April 2024 to May 2025, ICE placed more than 10,500 people into solitary confinement. During the first nine months of 2025 the population in solitary confinement in ICE facilities grew by leaps and bounds. Among detainees with mental illness, disabilities, or other vulnerabilities, solitary use in 2025 rose by 56% compared to 2022, and the average length of placements more than doubled.
The detained population is especially vulnerable. There are many more individuals with serious mental illness in jails, prisons, and immigration detention facilities than there are in psychiatric facilities. ICE detention facilities utilize solitary confinement much more frequently than it is used in jails and prisons, and individuals with serious mental illness are disproportionately consigned to solitary. And ICE facilities contain relatively inadequate mental health services. In other words, the expansion of ICE policing and detention during the Trump Presidency together with ICE’s overreliance on solitary confinement have dreadful negative effects on public mental health.
Correctional authorities claim solitary confinement is necessary to control “the worst of the worst.” This is false. The vast majority of people in solitary are not there because they engaged in violent behavior, and this is especially true of people held in ICE detention. Paradoxically, because of the severe psychiatric damage solitary causes, individuals being released from solitary (as most are) have much reduced capacity to settle disputes peacefully and their subsequent rule infraction and violence rates increase over time. And then 95% of prisoners and detainees are eventually released to the community, where the decimation of life skills caused by solitary confinement makes successful reintegration much less likely.
Meanwhile, viable and humane alternatives exist. Programs that separate individuals but allow full days of out of cell time with group programming and constructive activity – such as the RSVP program, Merle Cooper program, and CAPS/PACE programs – have been proven to dramatically reduce violence and improve health and safety outcomes for both incarcerated people and staff.
Rightfully defined as torture under international law, the use of solitary confinement must be halted. The United Nations as well as the National Commission on Correctional Health Care call for a limit of solitary confinement to fifteen days and require basic amenities and programs. Over the last three decades, community and prisoner activism, lawsuits, and human rights campaigns have steadily limited solitary confinement in state prisons. But with the rapid expansion of I.C.E. activity in 2025 and the widespread reliance on solitary confinement in I.C.E. detention facilities, those gains are being erased. We need to address this crisis directly, including an end to solitary confinement in jails, prisons, and I.C.E. detention facilities.
Terry A. Kupers, M.D., M.S.P., is emeritus professor at The Wright Institute in Berkeley, and Deborah Zalesne, J.D., LLM, is professor of law at CUNY School of Law. Dr. Kupers and Prof. Zalesne are co-authors, along with Christopher Blackwell and Kwaneta Harris, of the just-released book, “Ending Isolation: The Case Against Solitary Confinement” (Pluto Press).