**YOU MUST REGISTER ON EVENTBRITE TO RECEIVE CREDIT** https://www.eventbrite.com/e/i-need-air-solitary-confinement-immigration-detention-tickets-225201282097?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=escb Since 1999, Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) has supported over 45,000 people to get out of immigration detention and borne witness to and evidenced many gross abuses of state power. Yet over the course of the pandemic we witnessed one of the most disturbing evolutions in the use of detention – the regular use of ‘solitary confinement’ and prolonged cell confinement for people detained under immigration powers in prisons. Since March 2020 many people have been locked in their cells for anything between 22 and 24 hours a day. Behind locked doors, hidden from the public eye many have suffered immense and possibly irreversible harm as a result and they recount living in a state of endless despair: ‘The days and nights blur together during confinement. I can barely sleep at night but when I do I experience nightmares. I’m afraid of sleep because I’ll go back into the nightmare but being awake is also horrible.’ The Government defends its position as a necessary response to COVID-19 but the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (The Mandela Rules) could not be clearer. Prolonged, indefinite solitary confinement is a form of torture which is prohibited. Join us on the 25th January at 6pm as we come together to expose this inhumane practice, hear from those affected and consider what the use of such punitive measures for immigration control reveals about UK society.