Sponsors (134)
The bill substantially raises detention standards, oversight, legal protections, and alternatives to detention—improving conditions and reducing prolonged confinement—while imposing sizable new costs, operational burdens, and potential short‑term safety and implementation challenges for DHS, facilities, and taxpayers.
Immigrants and other people in DHS custody will face fewer harmful detention practices and better living conditions because the bill limits prolonged isolation, requires ABA-level standards, mandates regular inspections and death investigations, improves visitation spaces, and creates avenues for injunctive relief to stop ongoing violations.
Detained noncitizens will get substantially better access to legal information and counsel through standardized legal orientation programs, and confidential in-person/phone/video meetings with lawyers, improving case preparation and fairness of proceedings.
The public, Congress, and oversight bodies will gain much greater transparency into detention facilities via unannounced congressional access, mandatory IG inspections, public reporting of inspection and death-investigation results, and required advance notice and implementation plans for new or expanded facilities.
Taxpayers and DHS/facilities will face substantial new costs because implementing ABA-level standards, expanded inspections and reporting, upgraded visitation and confidential meeting spaces, owning/operating facilities (instead of contracting for‑profit), expanded transportation, and expanded hearings and services require capital, staffing, and ongoing administrative funding.
Limiting use of solitary, tightening detention-release standards (presumption of release, caps on post-removal detention), and restricting some monitoring/monitorability increases short-term safety and operational risks for facilities and communities by reducing some tools officials use to manage dangerous individuals or detention logistics.
The bill creates likely increases in litigation, administrative workload, and legal disputes—private rights of action, broader reporting and inspection regimes, ambiguous exceptions (e.g., designated sleeping time), and politically charged non-binding statements can drive more lawsuits and oversight actions.
Based on analysis of 13 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits solitary confinement, requires ABA-based detention standards, legal access and inspections, allows detainee lawsuits, and phases out for-profit detention within three years.
Introduced December 3, 2025 by Pramila Jayapal · Last progress December 3, 2025
Prohibits the use of solitary confinement for people held in Department of Homeland Security custody (except for limited sleeping arrangements) and sets new rules to expand legal access, oversight, reporting, and humane detention standards. It requires DHS to adopt American Bar Association detention standards, provide legal orientation and confidential attorney access, allow congressional oversight visits, mandate unannounced annual inspections and public death investigations, create sue-to-enforce rights for detainees, phase out for-profit detention within three years, and change arrest, bond, and custody procedures to increase presumptions in favor of release and faster hearings.