Clik here to view.
California Prisoners Launch New Hunger Strike to Protest Solitary Confinement
A SHU cell at Pelican Bay State Prison, where men spend years or decades in isolation. Hundreds of people held in California prisons are expected to launch their third large-scale hunger strike in two...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Faces and Voices of the California Prison Hunger Strike
Today the massive California prison hunger strike enters its third day. Below are six individuals in Pelican Bay State Prison and Corcoran State Prison SHUs. All have been held in the SHU for over a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Suicide of California Hunger Strike Participant Draws National Attention to a...
Billy Michael Sell, 32 Over the weekend, news came out that a hunger strike participant at California State Prison, Corcoran had committed suicide. Billy Michael Sell, 32, killed himself on July 22nd,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
California Prison Hunger Strikers to Be Force-Fed
A force-feeding chair at Guantanamo. Robert Lowell called it “man’s lovely, peculiar power to choose life and die”–the ability of human beings to give their lives willingly in service of a cause...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Seven Days in Solitary [10/13/13]
The following roundup features noteworthy news, reports and opinions on solitary confinement from the past week that have not been covered in other Solitary Watch posts. • Following the death of Herman...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Oversight in British Prisons: A Model for the U.S.?
Note: The following article orginally appeared in The Crime Report, and is reposted on Solitary Watch by permission. With great power, the saying goes, comes great responsibility, and prison systems...
View ArticleClik here to view.
One Month After Historic Hunger Strike, California Lawmakers Hold Hearings on...
Guest Post by Victoria Law The following report on the October 9 hearing held by the California legislature originally appeared on Truthout. The author, Victoria Law is a writer, photographer, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Prison Segregation and Racial Disparities
Guest Post by Margo Schlanger Margo Schlanger is Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. The following post is based on an article that appeared in the Michigan Journal of Race &...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In States That “Reduce” Their Use of Solitary Confinement, Suffering...
A cell in the supermax unit at Maine State Prison. Photo by Lance Tapley. Under pressure from activists, lawsuits, and even a few reformers within the corrections system, several states have...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“This Draconian System of Punishment and Abuse”: An Interview with Former...
Photo copyright Matthew Robbins, from the Portland Phoenix. The following is a partial transcript of an interview with Ray Luc Levasseur, a former political prisoner who spent over fifteen years in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Seven Days in Solitary [12/15/13]
The following roundup features noteworthy news, reports and opinions on solitary confinement from the past week that have not been covered in other Solitary Watch posts. • Alan Prendergast reports in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
As New York City Jails Amend Their Solitary Confinement Practices, Abuses on...
In early January the Wall Street Journal reported that the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) had ceased using solitary confinement as a form of punishment for people with mental illness. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
At Hearing on Solitary Confinement in California Prisons, Advocates Challenge...
Demonstrators gather at the State Capitol in Sacramento on Tuesday. Photo by Pete Brook. “We’re here to question the existence and effects of the SHU,” stated California Assembly Member Tom Ammiano on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Way Down in the Hole: Senate Hearing Challenges Solitary Confinement for...
Damon Thibodeaux, who spent 15 years in solitary confinement on Louisiana’s death row, testifies at the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on February 25. It didn’t take much reading between the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Voices from Solitary: A Day in the Life, Part IV
This post is the next in a series of pieces Solitary Watch is publishing as part of a new project calling for people held in solitary confinement to write on various proposed themes (read the first,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Voices from Solitary: Analyzing Isolation, Part I
This post is the next in a series of pieces Solitary Watch is publishing as part of a project calling for people held in solitary confinement to write on various proposed themes. Our second suggested...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New York City’s New Corrections Chief, Known for Solitary Confinement...
New York City’s new Commissioner of Correction, Joseph Ponte, with NYPD chief Bill Bratton and Mayor Bill DeBlasio. In March, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed reformer Joseph Ponte as the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Disappearing” the Disadvantaged Into Prison, and Into Solitary Confinement
Guest Post by Terry Kupers Dr. Terry Kupers is one of the nation’s leading experts on the psychological effects of prison isolation. A psychiatrist with a background in psychoanalytic psychotherapy,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Holder Makes Obama Administration’s First Public Statement on Solitary...
Photo: Richard Ross, “Juvenile In-Justice” In a weekly video message earlier this month, Attorney General Eric Holder made the first public statement on solitary confinement to emerge from the Obama...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In a Maryland Jail, Teens Charged As Adults Face Isolation and Neglect
“Trays up!” the CO yells. It’s about 5 am, and breakfast trays are here. I’ve been up since midnight, studying the workbooks that a friend sent to me. When everyone is asleep, and the TV is off, it’s...
View Article
