Nearly half of all suicides in federal prisons occur in solitary confinement or other restrictive housing settings, according to a Department of Justice Inspector General investigation — a finding that has fueled renewed legislative efforts to limit the practice even as those bills face long odds in the current Congress.
The Inspector General’s Findings
The DOJ Inspector General’s investigation, which examined 187 suicides across the Federal Bureau of Prisons, found that 86 — or 46 percent — occurred in restrictive housing settings, including solitary confinement, special housing units, and administrative segregation. The disproportionate figure is striking given that only a fraction of the federal prison population is held in restrictive housing at any given time.
Mental health experts consulted during the investigation described solitary confinement as a practice that reliably produces severe psychological consequences: anxiety, depression, hypersensitivity to stimuli, hallucinations, cognitive impairment, and suicidal ideation. Research published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry has found that even short periods of isolation — as few as 10 days — can produce lasting neurological changes.
Competing Bills, Uncertain Prospects
Two pieces of federal legislation currently address the issue. The End Solitary Confinement Act, introduced in the House, would broadly ban solitary confinement in all federal facilities and entities with which federal agencies contract. Under the bill, segregation would be limited to a maximum of four hours for emergency de-escalation. Incarcerated individuals would be entitled to at least 14 hours of daily time outside their cells, including seven hours of programming addressing mental health, substance abuse, and violence prevention.
In the Senate, Senators Chris Coons and Dick Durbin have introduced the Solitary Confinement Reform Act, which takes a more incremental approach. It would limit solitary to “the briefest term and least restrictive conditions possible,” improve mental health services for people in BOP custody who are placed in isolation, and provide resources to state and local jurisdictions for their own reform efforts.
Neither bill is expected to receive a floor vote in the current session. Criminal justice reform legislation has taken a back seat to immigration and economic policy priorities, and the administration has not signaled support for restrictions on solitary confinement.
State-Level Progress and Setbacks
The states have been the more active laboratory. Between 2021 and 2022, seven states — Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, and Tennessee — enacted provisions addressing solitary confinement. Colorado, Connecticut, and New York passed comprehensive reforms that set durational limits, required mental health screenings, and mandated reporting on the use of isolation.
But implementation has been uneven. In New York, the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act, known as HALT, took effect in 2022 but has faced criticism from corrections officers’ unions and implementation challenges in several state facilities. California enacted a solitary confinement bill in 2025 that was criticized by reform advocates as “counterproductive and regressive” for including broad exceptions that they said would allow widespread continued use of isolation.
Lawsuits have also driven change. A Rhode Island case filed by the ACLU in 2024 involved a 27-year-old man with severe mental illness who spent months in solitary for nonviolent infractions before dying by suicide. In New York, a jury found for the first time that prolonged solitary confinement violated the Eighth Amendment, resulting in a $100,000 settlement in March 2025.
An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 people are held in some form of solitary confinement in American prisons and jails on any given day, according to the Solitary Watch project at Yale Law School’s Liman Center.
For more on prison conditions, see our State Prisons coverage.
