A new report by Harvard University researchers and Physicians for Human Rights reveals that immigrant detainees in Massachusetts jails have been subjected to solitary confinement for weeks—sometimes for more than a month at a time. According to the United Nations, isolation lasting longer than 15 days meets the threshold for psychological torture.

This is happening right now, inside Massachusetts jails that contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain immigrants—not because they’ve committed crimes, but because they’re awaiting court hearings or check-ins. In just one facility, Plymouth County Correctional Facility, there were 117 recorded placements into solitary, with an average duration of 25 days between 2018 and 2023.

The report documents that immigrants were isolated for reasons ranging from minor infractions—like kicking a cell door or requesting a shower—to filing grievances or reporting abuse. Nearly half of all solitary placements involved people with documented mental health conditions, despite ICE’s own rules stating this should only happen as a last resort.

Officials at the Plymouth facility claim this is "administrative segregation," not solitary confinement. But people who’ve experienced it describe it as the same: confined in a cell alone, for 22–23 hours a day, cut off from meaningful human interaction, and subjected to lasting psychological damage.

This is not a matter of semantics. It’s a human rights crisis—happening in our state, under our watch.

We’re calling on the Massachusetts Department of Correction, state legislators, and ICE to immediately suspend all contracts allowing the use of prolonged solitary confinement for immigration detainees. These practices violate both U.S. and international law and have no place in a system that claims to value justice, safety, or dignity.

Immigration detention is not supposed to be punishment. Yet what’s happening in these facilities is inhumane by every measure.

Add your name to demand an end to solitary confinement in ICE detention—and call on Massachusetts to lead with compassion, not cruelty.