Sponsors (26)
The bill substantially reduces and constrains solitary confinement and expands procedural protections, oversight, and transparency—improving detainee health and rights—but does so at the cost of significant implementation expenses, operational and safety transition challenges, litigation and privacy risks, and potential funding and infrastructure strains for federal, state, and local systems.
People held in federal and state/local facilities would get substantially less solitary confinement and more out-of-cell time and programming, reducing severe mental and physical harms and improving rehabilitation and reentry outcomes.
People who are detained gain stronger procedural protections, independent oversight, expedited access to records, and legal remedies (notice/hearings/representation, civil causes of action, unannounced monitoring and reporting), increasing accountability and transparency of confinement practices.
The bill requires public facility-level data collection, reporting, and agency responses to recommendations, improving oversight and the likelihood of corrective action for unsafe conditions.
Federal, state, and local agencies will face substantial new administrative, staffing, programming, training, reporting, and compliance costs to meet mandated out-of-cell time, medical reviews, monitoring, expedited records, and oversight requirements.
Transitioning away from solitary and restricting certain staff tools could create short-term safety and operational risks in facilities, raising staff concerns about managing violent or disruptive individuals and complicating emergency responses.
Jurisdictions that fail to certify compliance risk losing at least 10% of Byrne/JAG formula funds, which could reduce resources for crime-prevention, public-safety programs, and rural communities.
Based on analysis of 11 sections of legislative text.
Ends routine solitary confinement in federal custody except narrow exceptions, creates monitoring and standards, and conditions Byrne JAG funds on state/local compliance.
Official title: To end the use of solitary confinement and other forms of restrictive housing in all Federal agencies and entities with which Federal agencies contract.
Introduced July 23, 2025 by Sydney Kamlager-Dove · Last progress July 23, 2025
Prohibits routine solitary confinement in federal custody, creates minimum standards for out-of-cell time and alternatives, and establishes new oversight and community monitoring to enforce those standards. It conditions certain Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) funds on state and local compliance, revises a prisoner civil‑suit damage rule, requires agencies to adopt the law into their policies, and directs Congress to appropriate funds to implement the law while barring use of those funds for new or expanded detention construction or restrictive devices. The bill sets a 60-day effective deadline, defines key terms, requires medical and mental‑health screening and periodic review for any narrow permitted isolation, creates an independent community monitoring body with broad access and reporting powers, and mandates reductions in Byrne funding for noncompliant jurisdictions while protecting specified community services from cuts.