"We Shouldn't Torture People": The Case Against Solitary Confinement

"As you read these words, tens of thousands of people in the United States are being tortured. They're being tortured because they've been placed in solitary confinement in one of the thousands of jails or prisons across the country. They've likely been jammed into a tiny cell, cut off from almost all contact with the rest of the world, and left to rot. Human beings are not built to withstand such an environment. This isn't new information."

"Christopher Blackwell, an incarcerated journalist in Washington State, was 12 when he was first placed in solitary. Since then, he has endured the horrors of this confinement more times than he can count. (He wrote about one of those experiences for The Nation earlier this year.) After a stint in the hole in 2017, Blackwell, who is also an organizer, broadcaster, and a contributor to a wide array of prominent media outlets, decided to write a book with one aim: to bring about the end of solitary confinement in America. That book, Ending Isolation: The Case Against Solitary Confinement-which Blackwell cowrote with a group of experts on the carceral system, including other incarcerated people-is being published on Saturday."

Solitary confinement in the United States subjects tens of thousands of incarcerated people to extreme isolation, tiny cells, and near-total social deprivation that inflicts severe psychological harm. Historical authorities and international bodies have long condemned prolonged isolation as destructive rather than rehabilitative, with the United Nations deeming it a form of torture. The carceral system employs solitary as a tool that damages minds and bodies rather than reforms. Christopher Blackwell's life-long encounters with solitary and his collaborators combine history and first-person testimonies to document the harms and advocate for abolition, presenting Ending Isolation as a concrete effort to end the practice.

Read at The Nation