This is one of the first posts we ever published on Solitary Watch, and we now share it with our readers every year. Once a year—and only once—we also ask you to consider supporting the work we do: shining a light on the darkest corners of our criminal justice system and bringing a glimmer of […]
Dear Readers, Supporters, Colleagues, and Friends: At Solitary Watch, we receive dozens of letters every week from people living in solitary confinement in prisons across the country. In one recent letter, a man described to us how he had managed to survive nearly a decade in isolation in a 6×9-foot cell, quoting the iconic musician Bob […]
Dr. Craig Haney has investigated the psychological effects of prison conditions for more than 40 years, and has spent time in dozens of supermax prisons and solitary confinement units. But the conditions in the Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison’s solitary confinement facility, the Special Management Unit (SMU)—where incarcerated men swallow hacksaw blades and their own […]
This story was published in partnership with The Nation. On July 8, 2013, more than 30,000 incarcerated men and women across California began refusing to eat. It was the start of the nation’s largest ever prison hunger strike, and for some the fasting would last nearly two months. The mass protest made headlines across the country, […]
It’s been interesting to observe in recent days the growing consternation on the Right over Paul Manafort’s month-long stay in solitary confinement in a regional jail in Virginia, which began on June 15 after his $10 million bail was revoked based on allegations of witness tampering. After appeals from Manafort’s lawyers that his confinement was “severely impacted […]
In 2013, tens of thousands of people incarcerated throughout California launched a hunger strike to protest the polices of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) around indefinite isolation in solitary confinement (also known as indeterminate sentences). The strike lasted nearly 60 days and ended only after state lawmakers promised to hold hearings around […]
The only people who cannot access Solitary Watch’s work online are also its most important potential readers: the men, women, and children who live in solitary confinement. For this reason, we have long been producing a print edition in newsletter format, published as many times a year as we can afford. The print edition now […]
This post has become an annual tradition at Solitary Watch. To all our readers, warm wishes for the holidays. Special thanks to those who have helped (or plan to help) us shine a light on the darkness of solitary confinement by generously supporting our work. –Jean and Jim . . . . . . . . . . […]
Dear Friends, Colleagues, Readers, and Supporters: With just 10 days left in 2017, we are writing to you one last time to ask that you consider a donation to Solitary Watch. No matter what your beliefs, this time of year tends to be one that is rich in human fellowship, as family and friends gather […]
Imagine row after row of cell doors that rarely open and row after row of people trapped behind those doors, in small cells, day after day. Imagine having to hold most of your conversations by shouting through your cell door at voices whose faces you cannot see; imagine trying to sleep as a cacophony of […]
Dear Friends: Yesterday, we wrote about people living in solitary confinement who found the strength and courage to bring us news from inside a secret world of torment and abuse. We shared with you a few of their most powerful stories telling what it is like to live for years or decades deprived of all […]