On Monday, March 13, after a legal battle lasting nearly seven years, the last of the men known as the Dallas 6 had his day in court. Carrington Keys was one of six people–all of them men of color–who faced riot charges after protesting staff brutality in the Restricted Housing Unit (RHU) at SCI-Dallas, a […]
Video
Voices from Solitary: Fly in the Ointment
Peter Collins has been in prison for more than 30 years and is one of Canada’s longest-serving prisoners. He is currently incarcerated at Bath Institution near Kingston, Ontario. Collins is an award-winning human rights activist, writer, artist and peer health educator. In 2008, he was awarded the Canadian Award for Action on HIV/AIDS and Human […]
Supreme Court Justice Kennedy: "Solitary Confinement Literally Drives Men Mad"
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on Monday used long-term solitary confinement as evidence that the “idea of total incarceration just isn’t working.” Solitary “literally drives men mad,” Kennedy said, noting that more humane alternatives are employed elsewhere in the world. Kennedy’s comments were made during a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the 2016 Budget Request for […]
Videos Show Brutal Treatment of Prisoners with Mental Illness
Recently obtained videos which have been exposed to the public show corrections officers using extreme force on incarcerated people suffering from various forms of mental illness. Attack on a Suicidal Man at Denver City Jail Footage of one such video (shown below), taken in September of last year and later obtained by The Colorado Independent through an […]
New on Solitary Watch: Multimedia Resources
Thanks to our amazing Social Media Manager, Lisa Dawson, Solitary Watch now features a large and growing archive of multimedia resources on solitary confinement, including audio, video, and infographics. Art and photography are coming soon! Send suggestions for additons to the multimedia pages to solitarywatchnews@gmail.com.
New Video: Dr. Terry Kupers on Solitary Confinement and Mental Health
Dr. Terry Kupers, Institute Professor at the Wright Institute in San Francisco and Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, is among the foremost national experts on the mental health effects of solitary confinement. Dr. Kupers delivered the keynote address at the Strategic Convening on Solitary Confinement and Human Rights, sponsored by the Midwest […]
Video Shows Maine Prisoner with Mental Illness Brutally Subdued by Guards
A graphic video (shown below) recently leaked to the public shows a team of corrections officers make liberal use of prison torture tactics on a man who was, at the time of the incident,  incarcerated at Maine Correctional Center and had been held in solitary confinement for two months. A still of the explicit footage, originally […]
New Video: "Solitary Confinement: The Season of Sorrow"
The following video, titled “Solitary Confinement: The Season of Sorrow,” was directed and produced by our gifted videographer and reporter Valeria Monfrini, who also shot the other original videos on Solitary Watch’s YouTube channel. Here is her brief description of the content: This short documentary explores the experience of solitary confinement through the testimonies of former inmates held in […]
Solitary and Death Row Survivor Anthony Graves Speaks Out
Perhaps the most moving testimony Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on solitary confinement came from death row exonoree Anthony Graves. Graves spent over 18 years on Texas’ death row for a crime he did not commit. Living in an 8 x 12 cell, he had little social contact, and described horrible, degrading conditions. “Like all […]
New Film Explores "the Injustice of Solitary Confinement and the Transformative Power of Art"
Premiering today at the Full Frame Documentary Festival in North Carolina is Herman’s House, a film “that follows the unlikely friendship between a New York artist and one of America’s most famous inmates as they collaborate on an acclaimed art project.” The inmate is Herman Wallace, one of the Angola 3, who on Tuesday will mark […]
New Video: Daughter of Russell Maroon Shoats, Held in Solitary Confinement for Nearly 30 Years
Theresa Shoats is an activist and the daughter of Russell Maroon Shoats, who was a member of the Black Panther Party and a founding member of the Black Unity Council. He is serving multiple life sentences for the 1970 murder of a Philadelphia area police officer. Now 70 years old, Shoats has spent the last […]