On Monday morning, after our story on Rikers Island and Hurricane Irene, highlighting the lack of any evacuation plan for New York City’s island jail, was widely circulated on websites, Facebook, and Twitter, we were contacted by Sharman Stein, Deputy Commissioner for Public Information at the New York City Department of Corrections. She wrote: “Every single one of the […]
Dr. Terry Kupers, a clinical psychiatrist, professor at the Wright Institute Graduate School of Psychology, and expert in forensic mental health, spoke before the California Assembly Public Safety Committee on August 23rd, 2011 addressing the issue of solitary confinement and the need for reform of California’s Security Housing Units (SHUs). The document is also available […]
“We are not evacuating Rikers Island,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a news conference this afternoon. Bloomberg annouced a host of extreme measures being taken by New York City in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, including a shutdown of the public transit system and the unprecedented mandatory evacuation of some 250,000 people from low-lying areas. […]
In response to the statewide prison hunger strike in July, the Public Safety Committee of the California State Assembly, chaired by State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, met on Tuesday to discuss the conditions in California’s Secure Housing Units. The hearing began at approximately 1:30 PM. Assemblyman Ammiano  opened his remarks saying, “Recent events brought these units […]
The following letter was written by an inmate at the California Correctional Institution at Tehachapi, California, who had been placed in solitary confinement in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) after being “validated” as a gang member. Written on July 31st, the letter highlights institutional problems at CCI and makes various recommendations. It also declares support for the […]
An editorial in Sunday’s Washington Post decries widespread use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and jails. This is the second Post editorial on the subject (the first appeared in 2009) and follows close upon a similar editorial in the New York Times. Both of the recent editorials are direct responses to the hunger strike […]
Pornchai Moontri was sent to Maine State Prison at the age of eighteen and has served the first 20 years of a 45-year sentence. Born in rural Thailand, he was brought to the United States at the age of eleven by his mother and American stepfather and endured years of abuse. His early life, as well […]
In March 2010, Julie Tackett, a Seattle-based activist inspired by her religious faith, began exchanging letters with Bryan, an inmate in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison in northern California. Neither could have anticipated the astonishing direction their correspondence would take. Bryan has been in solitary confinement in the prison’s Security Housing Unit (SHU) […]
Today marks the launch of a Solitary Watch video channel on YouTube. The channel will feature original video interviews with former prisoners, family members, and advocates, as well as a collection of other videos on solitary confinement. We begin with three short video interviews shot by Valeria Monfrini, a student at Corcoran College of Art + […]
The latest Solitary Watch print edition features an article on the Pelican Bay Hunger Strike as well as a letter from a California hunger striker, along with excerpts from an interview on solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and jails. The four-page publication can be downloaded in PDF format here: Solitary Watch Print Edition Summer 2011 […]
While taking some vacation time, we missed this powerful opinion piece by Helen Redmond, which appeared last week on Al Jazeera English. It describes in visceral detail the brutality of life in America’s supermax prisons. “People walked by and asked: ‘How are you doing?’ I answered: ‘How am I supposed to be doing? That’s the […]