Sanan Atou, 43, says he was placed in solitary confinement for about three weeks in January at North Lake Processing Center after sharing food with detainees who could not afford commissary items. He described poor heating in the isolation cell, saying, "I felt like I was going to freeze to death. I didn't know if I was going to wake up." A federal data analysis found North Lake recorded only 13 uses of solitary confinement in all of 2025, compared with 30 in March 2026 alone. The facility has also faced scrutiny following the death of detainee Nenko Stanev Gantchev and a hunger strike over conditions.