Stories from Solitary

We interviewed dozens of prisoners, who spoke about being crushed by the conditions of solitary confinement, about their desire for effective mental health treatment and rehabilitative programming, and about the mistreatment they experience on a daily basis.

Mental Health and Solitary Confinement
Solitary confinement -- for people with or without mental illness – often amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. It aggravates mental illness for those previously diagnosed, and may lead to a diagnosis of mental illness for those who previously did not have it.
Religion and Family in Solitary Confinement
A person’s need for meaningful interaction with other humans and purposeful activity is like a person’s need for food. Without enough, they suffer and deteriorate.
Surviving Solitary Confinement
Solitary confinement is not rehabilitative. It does not prepare people for transition to the general prison population or back into the community. It does not make prisons – or our communities – any safer.