Your inmate wrote to you and told you he is in the Hole. What this means is that he has been removed from the jail's general population and placed either in solitary confinement or in a special area with only a few inmates and lots of guards. He may be there for a few days or a few months, depending on the jail rules and the reasons he is there. This is Administrative Segregation. What Are the Causes for Administrative Segregation? He felt unsafe: Arguments and disagreements occur in jails and for the most part the inmates work them out in the POD. In some cases, though, it can escalate to the point where the guards realize an inmate is not safe in general population. If your inmate's safety is endangered they may place him in AD SEG. He asked to be removed: Your inmate can ask to go into administrative segregation if he feels he is under physical threat by other inmates. They might first try moving him to a different POD, but if he still feels unsafe and requests segregation, he will sometimes get it. Most inmates enjoy the social aspect of general population so the guards take an inmate’s request to be confined seriously. He’s being punished: Different jails have different rules about how long inmates can be kept in solitary confinement for punishment. If the jail has no limit on the number of days an inmate can be isolated if it is “for his safety,” a few guards might get together and conspire to claim your inmate is not safe and they’ll keep him separated from others for months on end just to show him whose boss. Final thoughts: In most cases your inmate has the right to periodic reviews of why he is in administrative segregation and when he can be released back to general population. If he did not request to be segregated, he should write out on a regular basis asking for a review.