This article originally appeared in them. When advocates rallied earlier this month for an end to the use of solitary confinement in New York City jails, one of the names they evoked, on signs and in speeches, was Layleen Polanco. A 27-year-old transgender woman and well-known figure in the New York City ballroom scene, Polanco was found […]
death in custody
Seven Days in Solitary [6/17/18]
• 39-year-old Marco Antonio Muñoz, a Honduran husband and father, committed suicide last month in a solitary confinement cell, after Border Patrol agents took away his three-year-old son. Muñoz and his family were applying for asylum at the border when they were informed that the family would be separated. An agent recalled, in a Washington Post article, […]
The Colorado Files: Death in a Denver Jail
As we were preparing to make our recent trip to Colorado, the district attorney in Denver decided not to file criminal charges against the group of corrections deputies who, according to the coroner, were responsible for the death of an inmate in a local jail. Marvin Booker, who was a preacher and homeless, was 56 years old. He was […]