Solitary confinement, especially for extended terms, is quite literally soul death; for the state’s way of killing without killing. I’ve seen men mutilate themselves, cut their necks, their throats, all because the mind-killing boredom drove them out of their skulls. There’s a reason the United Nations Special Rapporteur call solitary a form of torture if one is held that way over a few weeks, because it is. That’s why guys across California staged hunger strikes, as did men in Georgia, and in Ohio, because solitary was killing ’em, and by starving themselves to death, they could determine their own destiny. From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
