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 […]
Month: August 2011
"Toxic Conditions": Testimony of Dr. Terry Kupers on Solitary Confinement
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 […]
Locked Up and Left Behind: Hurricane Irene and the Prisoners on New York's Rikers Island
“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. […]
Historic California Assembly Hearing on Solitary Confinement
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 […]
Voices from Solitary: "Injustice Anywhere Is a Threat to Justice Everywhere"
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 […]
Washington Post Takes a Stand Against the "Invisible Brutality That Is Solitary Confinement"
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 […]
Voices from Solitary: Welcome to Supermax
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 […]
“Give Us in Here the Strength to See This Thing Through”: A Chronicle of the Pelican Bay Hunger Strike
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) […]
New from Solitary Watch: Original Videos on Solitary Confinement
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 + […]
New Solitary Watch Print Edition (Summer 2011) Now Available
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 […]
Supermax Prisons: "21st Century Asylums"
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 […]
New York Times Heeds a Cry from the Depths of Pelican Bay Prison
As we have written before, the three-week-long hunger strike in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay–which was joined by inmates at a dozen other California prisons–may have wrung few tangible concessions from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. But it achieved something less measurable, but in some senses far more important: For a […]