I feel I’ve tried and fallen short in elucidating the core of the matter as regards solitary confinement. When I watched The Gray Box, by freelance journalist Susan Greene and DAX Films, I knew it was something I had to share.
The Gray Box speaks as I never could; it has voices of experience. You’ll be awed by the psychological terror they describe and by the activities isolated prisoners employ to remain sane.
Of all the many battles at hand for prison reformers, it is felt that the campaign against the over-use of solitary confinement in American prisons is an issue that currently resonates enough with the public to effect some policy change.
The anti-Solitary bloc has simplified its message saying that solitary confinement does permanent damage to the mind of he or she imprisoned; a view backed up by medical science.
Publics are also more educated about isolation – and the manipulation/interrogation techniques associated with it – because Guantanamo prison has been regularly discussed in the media for over a decade.
Essentially, the knowledge that solitary destroys people is knowledge that anyone on the political spectrum can understand and oppose. From the hardcore secular ACLU to coalitions of churches, the voices in opposition to solitary confinement are wide and varied. Even so, we do still see some prisons such as Rikers Island which are bucking the trend and pushing for the to use of more solitary confinement.
Furthermore, the few actions of what we might refer to as prisoner resistance include calls to curtail the use of solitary confinement. (This is something Isaac Ontiveros covered when we discussed the California hunger strike).
Solitary confinement is not an issue I feel I’ve adequately discussed here on the blog. I’ve brought up it’s historical genesis; I’ve discussed isolation in and out of prisons; and I’ve referred you to stories about infamous U.S. prisoners such as Robert King and Leonard Peltier who served and are serving time in isolation.
Truly, if you want to know about the abusive use of solitary confinement in US prison’s follow James Ridgeway’s vital journalism at Solitary Watch.
Ridgeway, a voice you can rely on, says about the film and of Greene’s article The Gray Box: An Investigative Look at Solitary Confinement:
This is one of the most comprehensive articles ever written about solitary confinement in the United States, and is particularly noteworthy for including the voices of prisoners, obtained through correspondence with those buried in isolation. It is also passionate and personal.
JOURNALISTS
Susan Greene is a former-columnist at the Denver Post who often wrote about the widespread use of solitary in Colorado’s prisons and at the federal supermax, ADX Florence.
James Ridgeway was interviewed by the Dart Center and talked about the murky statistics and exchange of (mis)information about American prisoners in solitary.
Joseph Rodriguez alerted me to this film. Joseph’s own work Re-Entry in Los Angeles appears among the Spring 2012 Dart Society Reports.
The Dart Society Reports distributes journalism about trauma, violence and human rights.
4 comments
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January 27, 2012 at 6:22 pm
John Wedgwood Golden
I can not agree more with the dangerous effects that prison isolation has upon the human mind. I believe that in most US state prisons Inmates go to solitary for there own safety. It is called protective custody, or P.C And this real terror! does not come from Correctional Staff. But rather the homicidal Inmates who, constantly terrorize weaker Inmates. I further contend that the prison administration is to blame here! Simply because they allow it to happen. http://www.blurb.com/books/2526697
February 3, 2012 at 7:20 am
petebrook
John. Why does protective custody have to mean solitary confinement? It is a sad indication of affairs that you do not balk at using the terms synonymously. Surely any legitimate prison system should be protecting it’s wards, keeping them occupied in positive acitivities, keeping staff safe and maintaining teh highest possible standards. Short-circuiting to solitary confinement for the victim as a solution to inmate on inmate violence is deplorable.
February 12, 2012 at 10:40 pm
Stan B.
Unlike its subject, this video demands a much longer treatment as to follow ups and statistics concerning prisoner aftermaths, scientifically measured physical and psychological after effects, frequency and duration of use, etc.
I can see solitary being necessary for short periods of time. If it hasn’t achieved the “desired effect” after a couple of months, it’s certainly not going to make the situation any better; it amounts to the lazy, cheap (at least in theory) and easy way (as far as not inciting much public backlash) of inflicting “cruel and unusual punishment.”
January 30, 2017 at 7:16 am
Jude Wright
I agree with whoever said, go home, lock yourself in your bathroom for a weekend without a phone, tv or any human contact also no way to know what time it is. Once you get out, go get the book, Hell is a very Small Place. Perhaps then u will agree that Solitary Confinment is as evil as slavery was and must be against the law and not part of it.