Immigrant detention centers nationwide are reporting placing more people in solitary confinement in 2025, sometimes for weeks at a time, according to new research.
US solitary confinement placements increasingly drag on for 15 days or longer, which the United Nations says constitutes psychological torture, according to a report by Harvard University researchers and Physicians for Human Rights.
The researchers focused on immigrant detention centers, which experts say are primarily used to hold immigrants and ensure they make their court hearings and check-ins — not to punish them for immigration violations.
Nearly 14,000 people were placed in solitary confinement in immigrant detention centers nationwide between April 2024 and August 2025, according to new data.
Researchers detailed an increase in solitary confinement placements and, for some populations, weeks-long isolation periods, in a recent report that focused on data between April 2024 and May 2025.
The report, which relies on ICE’s data collections, didn’t show the duration of solitary confinement placements for all detainees, just for those labeled as “vulnerable,” like those with mental health issues.
Those labeled “vulnerable,” who make up one-fifth of detainees between April 2024 and May, were placed in solitary confinement for an average of 38 days in the first three months of 2025.
In 2021, the average duration was 14 days, per the report.
ICE’s own directives suggest using solitary confinement on people with mental health conditions only as a last resort.
This often happened in state and county jails contracting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold detainees.
