New this week from Solitary Watch:

Across the country, progressively minded individuals have struggled to hold on to hope following the re-election of Donald Trump. In the wake of last week’s election, Solitary Watch Director Jean Casella and Editor-in-Chief Juan Moreno Haines provide insight on their vision of the path forward for the fight to end solitary confinement. Although Americans may be deeply opposed to most national policies in the coming years, there is still much hope for change on the state and local levels—where most people in the country are incarcerated. This presents a unique opportunity to refocus the fight against solitary confinement and rally support throughout our communities. Solitary Watch 

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This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement:

At Red Onion State Prison in Virginia, incarcerated journalist Kevin Rashid Johnson reported that on September 15, two men, Ekong Eshiet and Trayvon Brown, lit themselves on fire in the prison’s solitary confinement unit, demanding an end to the unbearable isolation, racism, and brutality. IAHR | “Officers have withheld [Eshiet’s] medication, spit in his food, taken his lifeline to the outside world, his tablet, violated his Quran, and used racial slurs,” Prison Radio reported. Eshiet’s mother said, “They call him ‘monkey,’ call him ‘n****r,’ and twist his name, ‘Eshiet,’ into ‘eat sh–t.” Since then, other incarcerated men at the Virginia prison have taken similar measures in an attempt to be transferred out of Red Onion. Both Eshiet and Brown suffered third-degree burns or worse and were transferred to the University of Virginia for medical treatment. Prison Radio | Back in 2022, a man named DeAndre Gordon also set himself on fire at Red Onion after guards assaulted him. Kevin Rashid Johnson has been facing severe retaliation and lockdown for years, and his attorney claims that a correctional officer is now spreading life-threatening rumors that Johnson is to blame for the lockdown and heinous conditions at the Red Onion. WVTF

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Despite the United Nations’ designation that placing a person in solitary confinement for more than 15 days is torture, the practice is still commonplace in U.S. prisons and jails, writes incarcerated journalist Christopher Blackwell. Across the country, people are held in solitary confinement for months or years leading to irreversible psychological harm and often preventing successful reentry to society. However, attempts to limit solitary confinement in several states have failed in recent years due to a resurgence of “tough on crime” approaches to criminal justice policy. The Appeal 

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Officials at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, have spent the last three years developing a bachelor’s degree program for incarcerated people at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison, which is notorious as a site of extreme solitary confinement and of the 2013 hunger strikes to protest solitary. The program, the first ever at a maximum security facility in the state, gives incarcerated people the opportunity to develop important skills—even if they may never be used in the outside world. One student, Michael Mariscal, validated the importance of the program as he gave a presentation to his classmates on his personal growth while incarcerated. “I can still live a meaningful life in here,” he told the class, “Freedom is different for everybody.” Cal Matters 

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Of the more than one million people incarcerated in the United States, over 120,000 are locked in solitary confinement on any given day. However, this prison within prisons began as a Quaker philosophy that promised silent reflection as a humane alternative to the violent punishment of 18th-century America. The philosophy was first put to practice when Eastern State Penitentiary opened in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, as the centuries passed, it became clear that the practice had become just another form of state-sanctioned violence. Public Domain Review 

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In excerpts from the upcoming book Unit 29: Writing from Parchman Prison, four incarcerated men describe their memories of freedom alongside the pain and trauma of solitary confinement. Unit 29: Writing from Parchman Prison compiles the writings of over 30 people incarcerated at the infamously brutal prison in Mississippi known as Parchman Farm. “The book is not a comfortable literary work, but rather a cry for help from deep within Unit 29, Parchman.” Oxford American 

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Aisha Bailey is currently incarcerated in solitary confinement at the Murray Unit in Gatesville, Texas. In a short audio interview published by Texas Letters Project, she shares the psychological and physical harm she’s suffered over the last two years and the comfort brought to her by books. Texas Letters Project 

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Action Alerts for this week: 

Sara Kielly has faced retaliation from prison officials since her article revealing their failure to implement the HALT Solitary Confinement Act was published in September. Now, advocates are asking the public for assistance in pressing officials to investigate the retaliation against Ms. Kielly by participating in an email zap. People interested in participating should copy and fill in the blanks of the following Email Zap Template.   

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