Solitary Watch

by Lena Massengale

July 2, 2025

New this week from Solitary Watch:  In her latest piece, incarcerated journalist and Solitary Watch Contributing Writer Kwaneta Harris exposes the systemic abuse and psychological violence faced by LGBTQAI+ individuals in prison and solitary confinement. Harris’s writing highlights how incarceration punishes queer identity while mainstream Pride celebrations too often ignore the experiences of those inside. […]

by Voices from Solitary

July 1, 2025

Sean Chaney is a formerly incarcerated artist who served a total of 18 years in various federal prisons before returning home in January 2025. Chaney spent significant time in solitary confinement, including a total of 12 years isolated at Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Lewisburg in Pennsylvania. While FCI Lewisburg is infamous for its brutal use […]

by Katie Rose Quandt and Maeve Brennan

June 30, 2025

This article is co-published with The Appeal. In February, a violent fight broke out in the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), a federal jail in Brooklyn. It left people like Sean Chaney, who was released in January after spending 15 months in MDC, scrambling to learn the status of his friend and former cellmate, who was […]

by Kwaneta Harris

June 26, 2025

The fluorescent lights in solitary confinement hummed overhead as I watched my friend Jack’s shoulders slump under the weight of another degrading lecture. The guard’s voice dropped with contempt as he told Jack, a transgender man, that he was “going to Hell” for his identity. This wasn’t the first time—or the last—that I witnessed staff […]

by Surina Venkat

June 25, 2025

New this week from Solitary Watch:  For our latest piece of original journalism, “A Sliver of Light,” reporter Edward Tie traveled to a remote prison in eastern Oregon to witness the work of Amend at the University of California San Francisco, which is working with correctional staff to get the toughest cases out of long-term […]

by Edward Tie

June 24, 2025

Jay Marriott entered the common room at Snake River Correctional Facility, his six-foot frame swaying slightly—his body, perhaps, adjusting to an unfamiliar lightness. For years, he had been bound in shackles every time he left his small cell, burdened by chains that gripped his hands, feet, and body. Now, as he sat at the desk, […]

by Shaun Traywick

June 20, 2025

The following piece, written by Shaun Traywick, was originally published in Truthout. This article was supported by a grant from the Ridgeway Reporting Project, managed by Solitary Watch with funding from the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation and the Vital Projects Fund.  • • • • • • • • • • In 2022, Alabama became one of the first […]

by Juan Moreno Haines

June 19, 2025

This commentary is the latest in “The Word from Solitary Watch,” our series of dispatches by Solitary Watch staff and contributors. • After nearly 30 years in prison, 2025 brings me a different kind of Juneteenth than the average American. While San Quentin celebrates what formerly enslaved Texans learned in 1865—that they are free from […]

by Lena Massengale

June 18, 2025

New this week from Solitary Watch:  Dwayne “Bim” Staats has spent nearly 17 years in solitary confinement in prisons across Pennsylvania and Delaware. In his essay for Voices from Solitary, Staats writes from the perspective of his nephew when he was three years old, drawing from Staats’s personal experiences, conversations with his family, and stories […]

by Voices from Solitary

June 12, 2025

Dwayne “Bim” Staats is currently incarcerated in the Delaware Department of Corrections. Out of his 21 years of incarceration, Staats has spent nearly 17 years in solitary confinement in prisons across Pennsylvania and Delaware. Staats represented himself and other individuals against the charges associated with the 2017 uprising in the Delaware supermax facility James T. […]

by Sara Vogel

June 11, 2025

New this week from Solitary Watch:  Solitary Watch is pleased to announce that we have partnered with the Louisiana Stop Solitary Coalition to extend Photo Requests from Solitary (PRFS) to Louisiana. PRFS is a project that invites individuals in solitary confinement to request a photo of something real or imagined—something they miss, love, dream about, […]

by Francisco Rodriguez

June 5, 2025

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: Since 2022, at least seven incarcerated individuals known to have mental health challenges have died by suicide while in solitary confinement in North Carolina prisons. According to a 2021 study featured in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, those struggling with mental health issues are […]

by Francisco Rodriguez

May 28, 2025

New this week from Solitary Watch: In the latest, two-part installment of Voices from Solitary, incarcerated writer Jacob Barrett writes about his 30 years of incarceration, 21.5 of which he spent in solitary confinement. His piece examines how prolonged isolation combined with oppressive power structures within the prison system whittle away at people’s mental wellbeing […]

by Voices from Solitary

May 23, 2025

Having survived over two decades in solitary confinement, Jacob Barrett is currently incarcerated at Oregon State Correctional Institution for crimes committed when he first entered prison at nineteen years old. In addition to his work as an ADA Orderly, Barrett utilizes writing and drawing to document his three decades of incarceration in a multi-part series […]

by Voices from Solitary

May 22, 2025

First incarcerated at the age of 19, Jacob Barrett has spent the last three decades behind bars. Spanning five “supermax” units and 18 jails and prisons in five states, his prison time has included 21.5 years in solitary confinement.  Upon his release from solitary in May 2017, Barrett became a Certified Recovery Mentor through the […]

by Francisco Rodriguez

May 21, 2025

New this week from Solitary Watch: The Society of Professional Journalists and the Prison Journalism Project recently announced the winners of the second annual Stillwater Prison Journalism Awards. Among the winners are Solitary Watch contributing writer Kwaneta Harris, who won Prison Journalist of the Year and Best Op-Ed for “Menopause in a Prison Cell,” published […]

by Kilhah St Fort

May 14, 2025

New this week from Solitary Watch: To mark Mother’s Day, Solitary Watch contributing writer Kwaneta Harris and her daughter Summer Knight engage in a powerful exchange about how their bond was shattered by nearly a decade of forced silence through solitary confinement. Knight opens up about the confusion, anxiety, and fear she felt when her […]

by Summer Knight and Kwaneta Harris

May 9, 2025

The following piece is co-published with Ms. Magazine. In this powerful mother-daughter exchange, Summer Knight and Kwaneta Harris reveal how nearly a decade of forced silence through solitary confinement shattered their bond—and how they’re fighting to rebuild it, piece by piece. Summer I was only four months old when my mama got arrested. That’s what […]

by Francisco Rodriguez

May 7, 2025

New this week from Solitary Watch: In the latest piece from the Ridgeway Reporting Project, Nicholas Brooks, a writer currently incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility in New York, examines forced prison labor within the state’s Department of Corrections and across the United States. While incarcerated at Sullivan Correctional Facility, Brooks worked in the prison’s […]

by Nicholas Brooks

May 2, 2025

The following piece, written by Nicholas Brooks, was originally published in Hell Gate. This article was supported by a grant from the Ridgeway Reporting Project, managed by Solitary Watch with funding from the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation and the Vital Projects Fund.  • • • • • • • • • • When I first arrived at […]

by Kilhah St Fort

April 30, 2025

New This Week from Solitary Watch: In her latest article, Solitary Watch contributing writer Kwaneta Harris breaks down the relationship between suicide and the solitary-to-cemetery pipeline. Through personal narrative, she calls attention to the lack of protocols to provide support for those in solitary after these traumatic events take place. Harris also spotlights the plight […]

by Kwaneta Harris

April 25, 2025

The first time I saw a noose made from torn bed sheets, I thought it was a dream. Eight and a half years in solitary confinement have shown me it’s a recurring nightmare. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve pressed my face against cold steel, screaming for help while watching someone’s daughter, sister, […]

by Djamilah Diabate

April 23, 2025

New This Week from Solitary Watch: In the latest installment of Voices from Solitary, Redhawk Monte, a Coast Salish native of the Snoqualmie tribe, shares a searing poem reflecting on his twelve years spent in solitary confinement. Through vivid imagery and deeply personal narrative, Monte captures the psychological deterioration, spiritual disconnection, and loss of identity […]

by Voices from Solitary

April 17, 2025

Over the course of his incarceration, Redhawk Monte has spent 12 cumulative years in solitary confinement. A coastal Salish Native of the SDUKwALBIXw (Snoqualmie) tribe in western Washington, Monte says that his writing is both a coping mechanism and a platform to center the experiences and contributions of his fellow Indigenous people. When he’s not […]

by Francisco Rodriguez

April 16, 2025

This week’s pick of news and commentary about solitary confinement: President Trump announced via Truth Social that he has selected William “Billy” Marshall to lead the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Marshall, who was appointed as the commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation in 2023, will inherit a severely overcrowded and […]

by Djamilah Diabate

April 9, 2025

New from Solitary Watch: In a two-part series, Solitary Watch reporting intern Sania Tildon examines the devastating psychological effects of solitary confinement through firsthand accounts. Part 1 explores how the conditions and lack of meaningful mental health care in solitary confinement often exacerbate preexisting mental health issues and create long-lasting psychological damage, especially among vulnerable populations.  […]