Solitary persists in Washington prisons despite promises to end it
In 2021, the Washington Department of Corrections pledged to end the use of solitary confinement as punishment, but a 400-page report based on an independent investigation finds otherwise. The report states that solitary is still widely used for administrative purposes, finding that over 3,000 currently incarcerated individuals have spent more than 45 days in solitary since July of 2022.
DR Congo: 2 Who Criticized ‘State of Siege’ Arrested
Two human rights defenders who held a news conference to criticize the Democratic Republic of Congo’s “state of siege” in eastern provinces have been held without charge since August 1, 2024, Human Rights Watch. These arrests occurred at a time when armed conflict in eastern Congo has intensified as Rwandan-backed M23 continue to seize territory around the eastern city of Goma.
Venezuela passes “anti-NGO law” that punishes efforts to assist victims and defend human rights
The Venezuelan National Assembly has passed the “Law for the Control, Regularization, Operations and Financing of Non-Governmental and Related Organizations”, known as the “anti-NGO law”, in a continued effort to clamp down on human rights and civil society organizations in the country.
ICE Severely Undercounts Number of People in its Custody
A new report finds ICE failed to count 203,350 individuals as part of its total detention population between 2019 and 2022 — nearly 42% of the total people detained.The faulty and inaccurate data is the focus of the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s latest report, which found that Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s current reporting methodology did not account for the population of individuals who were initially held in certain temporary facilities before being moved to an ICE detention facility.