Voices from Solitary: Coyote Calling
One of the aims of Solitary Watch News is to build an online archive of literature, drawings, and reportage by people who are, or have been, in solitary confinement. These will be compiled in the...
View ArticleVoices from Solitary: Charles P. Norman on “The Insanity of Solitary...
Charles Patrick Norman, who has served more than 30 years in Florida’s prisons, is an eloquent and accomplished writer whose poetry, short stories, essays, memoirs, and plays have won several awards,...
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Voices from Solitary: Oscar Wilde’s Cry from the Depths
The door of Oscar Wilde's cell at Reading Gaol, displayed at Nottingham's Galleries of Justice. In 1895, Oscar Wilde, who was arguably Britain’s most famous literary and cultural figure, was sentenced...
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Voices from Solitary: Letters from the Hole
Solitary Watch frequently receives notes from prisoners, many of them in solitary. From time to time, we want to share excerpts some of these with our readers. Names of prisoners and prisons have been...
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News from the Hole: The Words of People in Solitary Confinement in America’s...
This story was funded by the Alicia Patterson Foundation. It originally appeared on CounterPunch, which has generously given Solitary Watch permission to republish it. Photograph by Francesca Pollard....
View ArticleVoices from Solitary: A Sentence Worse Than Death
William Blake has been in solitary confinement for 27 years. When he was 23 years old and in county court on a drug charge, Blake murdered one deputy and wounded another in a failed escape attempt. He...
View ArticleNow Available—Our New Book: The First Collection of Voices from Solitary...
UPDATE — UPCOMING BOOK EVENTS: After a standing-room-only launch at the Open Society Foundations in New York on March 15, we are planning several more book events/readings in the coming months. Stay...
View ArticleVoices From Solitary: The War of All Against All
Thomas Bartlett Whitaker is serving time in solitary confinement on Death Row at the Polunksy Unit in Livingston, Texas, after being convicted in 2007 of hiring a gunman to kill his family. While in...
View ArticleWriter in Solitary Confinement Is Barred from Reading His Own Book
After spending nearly three decades in solitary confinement, William “Billy” Blake has learned a few things about staying sane. For Blake, who is serving a sentence of 77 years to life in conditions...
View ArticleVoices from Solitary: Sad Flutes
Francis Bauer Harris has been on Death Row at Greene State Correctional Institution for 19 years. He was convicted of first degree murder in 1997, though he continues to maintain his innocence. On...
View ArticleFive Unforgettable Stories From Inside Solitary Confinement
Years ago, when we were down in Louisiana working on a story about the notorious plantation prison called Angola, a man who had served nearly 20 years shared with us what he thought to be a common...
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Voices from Solitary: Reprieve
UPDATE, FEBRUARY 22: Thomas Whitaker will serve life in prison without parole rather than facing the death penalty for the 2003 murder-for-hire of his mother and brother, in a rare commutation by Texas...
View ArticleVoices From Solitary: The Freedom I Feel in My Heart and Mind
The following account was written by John Jay (Jack) Powers, who was arrested in 1989 for what he describes as “unarmed bank robbery, possession of a stolen motor vehicle, and illegal firearms found in...
View ArticleVoices From Solitary: Resurrection
The author of the following poem, William Blake, has spent 31 continuous years in solitary confinement in New York State prisons. Sentenced to 77 years to life for killing a sheriff’s deputy in a...
View ArticleNew Guide to Yoga and Meditation Written by and for People in Solitary...
With the help of two remarkable men who have survived years in solitary confinement, Solitary Watch recently published a special supplement to our newsletter, featuring guides to yoga and meditation...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [11/18/18]
• The New York Daily News reported that a state medical review board found that adequate medical treatment could have prevented 50 deaths in the custody of the New York State Department of Corrections...
View ArticleVoices from Solitary: Solitary Sorrow
John Jay Powers, the author of this piece and a prolific prison writer, spent over twelve years isolated at the notorious ADX federal supermax facility in Florence, Colorado. The severity of the...
View Article14 Journalists Awarded Grants from the Solitary Confinement Reporting Project
WASHINGTON, DC, April 9—Solitary Watch today announced the recipients of the first grants awarded by the Solitary Confinement Reporting Project. The new grants program, which is funded by the Vital...
View ArticleSeven Days in Solitary [7/13/19]
• As NorthJersey.com reported, Governor Phil Murphy signed the Isolated Confinement Restriction Act, hailed as “the strongest legislation restricting solitary in the nation,” by ACLU of New Jersey...
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Louisiana on Lockdown: The History of Solitary Confinement in Louisiana
The following is an excerpt from the report Louisiana on Lockdown, published this past June in a collaboration between Solitary Watch, the ACLU of Louisiana, and the Jesuit Social Research Institute at...
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