By Christopher Blackwell, Deborah Zalesne / The Appeal
This was written by Christopher Blackwell, an incarcerated journalist currently serving a 45-year sentence in Washington State and Deborah Zalesne a Professor of Law at CUNY School of Law. She and Blackwell are co-writing a book on solitary confinement.
When I was twelve, I was stripped of all my clothing, hogtied, and tossed into a cold concrete room by three large prison staff members who could have played professional football given their size. I laid in that room for hours before I was untied and given clothing. Since then, I’ve continuously been in the custody of Washington State. I’m currently serving a 45-year sentence. I’ve been sent to solitary confinement countless times, often for questionable reasons. Rather than rehabilitate, my time in isolation has only exacerbated my anger, resentment, and shame. Solitary confinement caused anxiety and depression to surface that would not be treated until well into my adulthood.
And that is why it is troubling, inhumane, and, frankly, dangerous that, on Jan. 19, New York City Mayor Eric Adams vetoed a bill that would effectively ban solitary confinement in the city’s jails. In a written statement, Adams claimed the solitary restrictions “would have taken [the city] in the wrong direction.”
Luckily for the health and safety of people in the jails, guards, and the general public, the City Council on Jan. 30 overrode the mayor’s veto and passed the bill with a supermajority of votes.
New York State’s HALT Act, passed in 2021, has already limited solitary to no more than fifteen consecutive days and banned it outright for young people. The new law (549-A) further prohibits solitary confinement in city jails other than for four-hour “de-escalation” periods, with required check-ins every fifteen minutes. After that de-escalation period, a person can then be separated into restrictive housing, where they must be allowed out of their cells for 14 hours per day and have access to programming to address why they need to be separated. Evidence shows that solitary leads to more violent behavior and alternative forms of separation have been proven to reduce violence.
The United Nations considers the use of solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days a form of torture. But the practice—often renamed “restrictive housing” or “administrative segregation”—remains entrenched in U.S. prisons.
Solitary confinement had altruistic beginnings. In 1829, Quakers at Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary believed that isolating men in cold concrete cells would give them time to reflect, study, pray, and thus leave their criminal ways behind. But the prison’s administrator found out almost immediately that the practice instead drove people crazy.
When people are housed in solitary confinement, they are placed in tiny locked cells, typically the size of parking spaces, where they stay for upwards of 22 to 24 hours per day. They do not have meaningful human interactions, have minimal exercise or stimulation, and rarely have access to prison programs or activities. They are typically handcuffed, shackled at the waist, and placed in leg irons every time they leave their cell. People imprisoned in Washington State—like those in many other areas of the country—generally must participate in instructional programs while chained and cuffed to a table in a classroom. When people are taken out of their cells for their scant hours of “exercise,” they are often taken to another tiny concrete cage equipped with just a pull-up bar and a phone. That’s the “yard.” Any fresh air often comes only from a window high above arm’s reach.
Contrary to popular belief, solitary confinement is not used sparingly or only to punish the most dangerous criminals. People are often sent to solitary for vague reasons or minor offenses, often with no evidence of wrongdoing (such as during investigations), and sometimes even with no allegations of any offense at all (such as with medical isolation, suicide watch, and protective custody). For example, I was recently sent to solitary for over a month while I was investigated for something that I was later found not to have done.
It is not uncommon for incarcerated people to be forced to endure solitary confinement for months, years, or even decades at a time, with no human interaction and minimal exposure to the light of day. Studies show that most stays start at 30 days and typically last much longer. Consider Albert Woodfox, who spent 43 grueling years in solitary confinement in Angola Prison—despite exemplary prison records—before his conviction was overturned. (He passed away five years after his release.) In April of last year, the Supreme Court turned down a case brought by a man held in solitary confinement for 27 years.
Although many nations around the world use solitary confinement, use in the United States far surpasses that of other democratic countries in terms of both the extent and length of isolation.
UN rules prohibit outright the use of solitary for people in pretrial detention (as the vast majority of people in New York City’s jails are held), children, pregnant women, and people with mental health needs. The international body encourages member countries to abolish solitary confinement altogether. Canada, for example, has abolished the practice in its prisons. Solitary confinement is also less common in Europe than in the United States. In Northern Europe (Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway), countries take a “human dignity” approach to incarceration. Solitary is almost never used.
In contrast, a report from watchdog group Solitary Watch and advocacy coalition Unlock the Box indicates that more than 122,000 people are housed in solitary confinement in the United States on any given day. Statistics show that people with serious mental illness are overrepresented in solitary confinement. Once there, people with mental illness are at a higher risk of deteriorating mental health, as mental healthcare is typically inadequate in solitary. The consequences can be devastating: for example, footage from an Indiana jail recently showed that 29-year-old Joshua McLemore died of malnutrition there during a schizophrenic episode in summer of 2021. He’d allegedly been left in solitary confinement for 20 days without mental health treatment. Indeed, 50 percent of prison suicides happen in solitary confinement.
In many cases, solitary confinement causes mental illness. The silence of prolonged isolation creates a deafening noise in one’s head. Instead of an opportunity to reflect, it’s a cruelty designed to make anyone mad.
Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist, professor, and solitary expert, told The Appeal the many harms of solitary confinement include “severe anxiety and panic, depression, mood swings, anger, withdrawal, paranoia, psychosis, trouble concentrating and all too frequently, suicide and self-harm.” Kupers said solitary “takes a substantial psychological and physical toll on all incarcerated people as well as on prison staff, and having a loved one in solitary confinement has a huge negative impact on families.” The severe neurological effects of extreme isolation and confinement often last long after the end of the isolation. Studies show that solitary confinement shortens lives. And, because solitary can cause psychotic behavior, it ultimately decreases the safety of others as well.
Solitary confinement can also allow guards to commit unnoticed or unreported forms of torture. As a team, we have talked to dozens of people who have endured prolonged solitary confinement who say they have experienced extreme physical abuse, oppressive living conditions in extreme heat or cold, the complete and long-term deprivation of exercise and sunlight, and the withholding of food, medicine, toilet paper, tampons, and other necessities. Kwaneta Harris, an incarcerated journalist in Texas who has been in solitary for eight years, told us that it is not uncommon for guards to threaten solitary if a person doesn’t succumb to sexual abuse. And, once in solitary, Harris said women are regularly sexually abused.
Statistically, 95 percent of incarcerated people will eventually return home. Some will be released directly from solitary confinement. How can we expect people living in extreme isolation to return to their communities in healthy states? Mayor Adams vetoed this bill in the name of “public safety.” Thankfully, the City Council recognized that the arcane practice of solitary confinement makes the world more dangerous—and is nothing more than torture.
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