Letter Text (PDF)

Washington (May 3, 2024) - Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), along with Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) today sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to take immediate action towards ending solitary confinement entirely in BOP facilities with limited exceptions. The letter draws attention to a government accountability office (GAO) report that shows BOP use of solitary confinement as widespread and racially discriminatory and urges the BOP to implement all of the recommendations of a 2016 DOJ report on the use of solitary confinement. BOP holds 158,253 people convicted of federal crimes in 122 facilities across the U.S.   

In 2016, the DOJ issued a report that included policy recommendations for BOP on the use of solitary confinement. President Biden then issued an Executive order in 2022 directing BOP to implement the policy recommendations from the Justice Department. In the letter, the senators highlight their concerns around GAO reporting that BOP had only fully implemented 17 of 53 necessary recommendations. The senators also identify how Black individuals constituted 38 percent of the total Bureau of Prisons population, but represented 59 percent of solitary confinement placements. Conversely, white people living in BOP facilities comprise 58 percent of the population, but only 35 percent of solitary confinement placements. 

In the letter, the senators write, “DOJ... must fully comply with the president’s May 2022 executive order and implement the 2016 DOJ report’s recommendations. But DOJ should go further. We encourage DOJ to review the End Solitary Confinement Act (S. 3409/H.R. 4972), which sets forth a detailed plan for ending solitary confinement in federal facilities.”

Cosigners include Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).

To better understand BOP’s solitary confinement practices, the lawmakers requested answers to the following questions: 

• Will DOJ ensure the full implementation of the 2016 DOJ solitary confinement report’s recommendations? 
• When does DOJ anticipate the recommendations will be fully implemented? 
• Why does the February 2023 Attorney General report state that “BOP has adopted essentially all of the 2016 DOJ Report’s recommendations,” while the February 2024 GAO report found that only 17 of 53 recommendations “are fully implemented”? 
• Will DOJ commit to go beyond the recommendations of the 2016 DOJ solitary confinement report and begin to take steps to end the practice of solitary confinement in its prisons entirely, including implementing the provisions of the End Solitary Confinement Act? 

In March 2024, Senator Markey, and Senators Dick Durbin and Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Patrick Lechleitner calling for ICE to limit and phase out solitary confinement and for DHS to specifically end its misuse of solitary confinement in immigration detention. In December 2023, Senator Markey introduced the End Solitary Confinement Act, legislation that would end solitary confinement in federal prisons, jails, and detention centers, with limited exceptions. The legislation would also create minimum standards for incarceration and due process protections, such as capping the time that incarcerated people are alone at four hours and requiring staff to meet them within one hour.

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