Dear Friends:

Earlier this week, in the latest of our new monthly dispatches, we called out solitary confinement for what it is: “the largest incidence of mass torture in the United States today.”

This massive assault on the minds, bodies, and spirits of tens of thousands of incarcerated human beings must be stopped—and can be, given the right amount of public awareness and engagement, and the political will.   

As we noted yesterday, the idea of solitary as torture—a concept absent from the public consciousness just a decade ago—has been steadily gaining ground, propelled by evidence-based information, investigative journalism, and firsthand accounts of life in solitary.

All of these advances were pioneered in large part by Solitary Watch. Will you help us keep going?

Recent poll numbers and legislative and policy victories suggest that this change in public consciousness, along with dedicated activism, is having a real impact. But we still have a long, long way to go.

In the coming year, Solitary Watch will continue its unique and vital work, providing the information, analysis, and narratives that change hearts and minds—and laws and policies and lives. 

In 2023, Solitary Watch will release the first comprehensive report showing the shockingly high use of solitary confinement on all people held behind bars in the United States, including local jails as well as state and federal prisons. We’ll also release the first in a groundbreaking series of reports on alternatives to solitary. And we’ll publish more work than ever before by incarcerated writers and journalists. 

Your support will make all of this work—and more—possible.

Donations from individuals make up a significant and irreplaceable portion of our yearly income. Solitary Watch is run with virtually no overhead, and has always had an outsized impact relative to our small size and budget—so you can be sure that your generosity is being put to good use. 

If you make your gift before December 31, it will be doubled by NewsMatch, up to $1,000 per donation. And if you choose to make your gift recur monthly, every one of your donations throughout the year will be doubled.

Before the year ends, please give what you can to help us end the torture taking place, today and every day, in prisons and jails across the country.

With gratitude,

Jean Casella

Director