Richard Nelson spent three and a half years isolated in solitary confinement in Michigan. Without access to the phone, his closest reminder of humanity was the eternally present “hysterical yelling and incoherent babbling” that echoed through the halls. Even as a self-described “outgoing and optimistic” individual, he struggled with intense detachment from reality. 

“I began to forget what human touch and contact was. I only knew the cold feel of handcuffs,” said Richard.

For the past 13 years, advocates at Citizens for Prison Reform and its Open MI Door campaign have been working to reform solitary confinement in Michigan and support impacted families. They have sought to increase government transparency surrounding the practice and raise awareness around the conditions of confinement, taking on unconventional campaign methods that expose legislators to the harsh realities of solitary. Recently, they also introduced legislation to expand public data released by the Ombudsman’s office and have worked on legislation to protect visitation rights for families.

According to a report by Solitary Watch and the Unlock the Box Campaign, the number of people being held in solitary confinement in Michigan prisons in 2019 was 1,629, representing 4.2 percent of the total prison population of 38,370. 

While the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) does not publicly release how many individuals are held in solitary confinement each year, they report to the legislature the total number of days spent in administrative segregation, the most common form of solitary. This number has increased in the past two years, especially among incarcerated individuals with serious mental illnesses or developmental disabilities. Notably, from 2022 to 2023, the amount of days spent in administrative segregation by these populations increased by 341 percent. (In the past two years, the prison population has also increased, marking a significant departure from previous years of decline.) 

Lois Pullano, executive director of Citizens For Prison Reform and the coordinator for Open MI Door, argues that the MDOC’s solitary numbers are underreported. Separate from administrative segregation, she says, “there are numerous other categories where people are held for 23 hours a day or more, and the department has never had to report out this data.”

She also says that the conditions of confinement are worsening. “It’s just gotten much worse because of the staff shortages. And since COVID everyone across the board is getting less outdoor time.” She continued, “it’s just become the new norm.”

Isolation has devastating consequences for mental health and psychological well-being. Multiple studies have shown that those held in solitary confinement face permanent traumatic psychological deterioration and suffer from high rates of mental illness. Many of those placed in segregation already deal with some form of mental illness, making them especially vulnerable to the consequences of isolation. 

These conditions can also drive those held in solitary to suicide. Earlier this year, the U.S. Justice Department’s inspector general released a report finding that over half of the incarcerated individuals who died by suicide in federal prisons were being held in single-cell confinement.

Richard Nelson echoed how desperation and despair breeds in solitary. In written communications from prison, he said, it was “common for individuals to flood their cells with toilet water or swallow batteries and razors just so they could take a ride to the hospital where they would temporarily be treated in a humane way.”

“Some men would instigate ‘cell rushes,’ because experiencing pain and human touch even by violence reminded them that they were alive,” Nelson recalled.

Citizens for Prison Reform has sought to expose the public and Michigan legislators to the hidden mental health crisis occurring in solitary confinement cells throughout the state. 

Lois Pullano has adopted a daring method of advocacy, carrying with her a binder of graphic photos. Each page shows a different individual restrained in solitary confinement or the body of someone who has died due to the conditions in segregation. One shows the body of Tim Sauders, a 21 year old who died of dehydration in solitary in the Southern Michigan Correctional center, another, Anthony McManus, who died of starvation in Baraga Correctional Facility, both of whom dealt with mental illness.

“Our strategy is to utilize the stories of individuals who have lived in and died in solitary confinement throughout history,” said Pullano. She and her campaign allies hope that these jarring photos can help families with loved ones held in solitary share their stories and fight for change. She received similar photos of her own son, who has mental illness and endured solitary confinement.

Pullano and Citizens for Prison Reform have shared this binder with numerous state legislators and at advocacy events across the nation for years. “We utilize these photographs, because we feel that legislators are not exposed to the truths of what is going on inside the system,” she said. “They have to be awakened to just how severe it is, particularly when so many of these people have some level of mental illness.” 

As another campaign method, Citizens for Prison Reform has constructed model solitary confinement cells. These standard-size cells have been open to state legislators and the public, highlighting just how claustrophobic solitary can feel. The model cells also feature noise recordings from inside solitary confinement units.

“In solitary confinement, you are isolated and alone, but the noise is deafening,” said Pullano. Unless they experience it, she added, “I think that’s really hard for legislators to grasp.” 

A Pressing Need for Transparency and Oversight

Citizens for Prison Reform say that their work has been hindered by MDOC’s lack of oversight and transparency. They believe expanding the Legislative Correction Ombudsman’s office could be a step in the right direction to address these issues. SB493, introduced in September of 2023 by state Senator Sylvia Santana, is part of this recent effort. The bill passed the Senate in November of 2023 but advocates are still waiting for a comparable bill in the House.

At Citizens for Prison Reform’s Legislative Education Day in May, Senator Santana said that the bill aims to “enhance the transparency, accountability and accessibility within the legislative corrections system.” 

If passed, the bill would enable family members and prisoner advocates to file complaints with the Ombudsman’s office and allow the office to consult with experts. It would also expand publicly available data released by the Ombudsman’s office, requiring the publication of some complaint data, recommendations issued by the office, and MDOC responses on a monthly and annual basis. 

Lois Pullano and Citizens for Prison Reform hope that greater transparency and a more comprehensive complaint process will enable efforts to reform solitary confinement.

“We have to have greater oversight in order to change the use of solitary,” Pullano said.

Seeing oversight as key, Pullano also hopes to work on growing publicly facing data on solitary itself. Currently, the Ombudsman’s office only provides a report to the legislature once a year detailing only the total number of days spent in administrative segregation and the daily average—not the number of individuals held. This data also excludes temporary segregation, punitive segregation, and other units where incarcerated individuals are isolated for 22 hours a day or more. 

Pete Martel was in solitary confinement for ten years and incarcerated for fourteen. He is now a law school graduate and advocate with the American Friends for Service Committee (AFSC). Martel also argues that solitary confinement takes on many names in Michigan, making it difficult to track with the currently available data that only touches on administrative segregation.

“Now they’ve got a bunch of things that they don’t call segregation, that still feel very much like segregation,” said Pete.

“Cut Off from All Living People”

In addition, Citizens for Prison Reform’s recent legislative efforts seek to improve the conditions for those held in solitary by protecting their visitation rights.

In 1995, Michigan adopted a controversial visitation policy that enabled visitation rights to be taken away from incarcerated individuals indefinitely or permanently if they received two substance use tickets. A 2023 report secured by Citizens for Prison Reform revealed that roughly 93 percent of visitor restrictions that year were due to these “substance abuse” violations, which can include possession of tobacco products like cigarettes.

According to Lois Pullano, for those prescribed medication to treat mental illnesses, it can also include “dropping their medication on the floor” or “cheeking,” the practice of hiding your medication within your mouth. MDOC stated that they issued this policy in response to overcrowding and alleged drug smuggling in prisons.

Citizens for Prison Reform works with families who have lost visitation rights, sharing their stories on a project titled “forgotten families.” They argue that “the importance of family contact during incarceration cannot be overstated. Studies consistently demonstrate that maintaining strong family ties plays a crucial role in rehabilitation, reduces recidivism, and fosters mental and emotional well-being. Visit restrictions create unnecessary barriers that sever these vital connections.”

People who lose access to visits and phone calls are often simultaneously placed in solitary confinement, where they are additionally impacted by the removal of these rights. With such extreme isolation, visits and phone calls are the sole connections people held in segregation maintain to the outside world—and their only means of securing advocates if they are enduring abuse.

In his ten years in segregation, Pete Martel was held in five different facilities. At one point, he said, he asked the assistant deputy warden if he could be transferred to a different facility to have a better prospect at being released from solitary. “His words were, literally, ‘No Mr. Martel, you don’t give us any problems. You don’t catch any tickets, you’re not tearing up our cells or anything like that, you do good time, so we’re just gonna keep you here.’” He was finally transferred only after his family members’ repeatedly contacted the state government.

Nelson says that he was isolated for three years before receiving a hearing to address his placement in segregation—and only after he issued a formal complaint. The MDOC segregation standards require a hearing within seven days following placement in temporary segregation and an in-person review every 30 days in administrative segregation. With no in-person hearing, no end in sight to his isolation, and no access to phone calls, Nelson described solitary confinement as “cut off from all living people.”

Michigan Government Resists Reform Efforts

Despite the efforts of Citizens for Prison Reform and other advocates throughout the state of Michigan, legislation to address these issues is now stalling. While Democrats have held a legislative trifecta in Michigan for two years, advocates argue that little has been done to address reforms to the prison system.

Although Pullano expressed support for the recent introduction of some vocational and educational opportunities in low-security facilities, she believes that there is “no real innovative model being created to address the needs of this vulnerable population.”

“We need legislators to be aware of how people in solitary confinement are being held and how they are being treated,” she said.

For Nelson, solitary created a subculture of inhumanity and isolation unlike anything else. Between the deafening silence and the screams of those around him, he sought any escape from reality.

“I can recall, in trying to avoid this noise, tearing a string from my mattress and attaching it to a pen so that I could go ‘fishing’ in my toilet. So engrossed was I in this fantasy that I even imagined feeling a tug on my line.”

Advocates and survivors of solitary argue that conditions of segregation do not just impact those within the prison system, but also dictate how equipped formerly incarcerated individuals are to rejoin society.

William Walker spent 35 years incarcerated, and roughly half of that in segregation. He now works with Citizens for Prison Reform. After his release, he initially believed that his time in solitary confinement had no effect on him. 

“Then one day, I realized I have a two bedroom house, outside spaces, a motorcycle… and I spend most of my time laying in my bed in a small room—the bedroom. Probably about 12 feet by about 10 feet. I’ll watch TV there. I go and fix up my food and bring it up there and eat. Suddenly I realize that’s the size of a segregation cell.”

Pullano says that this is why Citizens for Prison Reform continues to fight—to push Michigan’s prison system to rehabilitate incarcerated people, rather than simply damaging them.

“Not allowing opportunities for growth is not going to help our communities when they return home,” she says.

For more firsthand accounts, visit Silenced: Voices from Solitary in Michigan.