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Fortresses of Solitude: Journalists Barred from Prison Isolation Units
The following essay by Solitary Watch’s James Ridgeway appears in the current issue of the Columbia Journalism Review, which also includes an excellent story on the difficulties involved in reporting...
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Guarding the Fortresses: How Prison Policies Limit Media Access to Solitary...
Journalists face serious obstacles to reporting on prisons–and even more to uncovering the truth about solitary confinement. (See James Ridgeway’s essay “Fortresses of Solitude.”) Public oversight of...
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The Art of Activism: Closing Tamms Supermax
A new article from Creative Time Reports highlights the role played by politically engaged art in the campaign to shut down Tamms supermax prison in southern Illinois. Tamms closed its doors for good...
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Voices from Solitary: 13.5 Square Feet
Menard Correctional Center is the largest maximum security prison in the state of Illinois. A December 2011 report by the John Howard Association, a prison watchdog group, depicts Menard as decrepit,...
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Solitary Watch Print Edition
On this first day of summer, it occurs to us that we’ve never posted our spring newsletter, which went out to 500+ people in solitary more than a month ago. This quarter’s print edition includes...
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Voices from Solitary: American Supermax
Joseph Dole is serving a life without parole sentence for a conviction that he continues to fight pro se. He was confined in Tamms Supermax Prison for a full decade, from 2002 through 2012, when a...
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Seven Days in Solitary [1/19/13]
The following roundup features noteworthy news, reports and opinions on solitary confinement from the past week that have not been covered in other Solitary Watch posts. • An NPR report by Laura...
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Voices from Solitary: Hunger Strike in Menard Prison
A little over a year ago, the notorious Tamms Correctional Center was closed, after a long battle by activists and with the support of Governor Pat Quinn. Individuals were rehoused in prisons across...
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Voices from Solitary: A Day in the Life, Part III
This post is the third in a series of pieces Solitary Watch is publishing as part of a new project calling for people held in solitary confinement to write on various proposed themes (read the first...
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Funding Approved for Activation of ADX/USP Thomson, New Federal Supermax Prison
Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, IL (Photo: suntimes.com) Even as it touts new initiatives to reduce the number of people it holds in solitary confinement, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)...
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Working from the Inside Out
Guest Post by Maya Schenwar Editors’ Note: The following is an excerpt from Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better, a new book by Maya Schenwar. Locked Down, Locked...
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New Federal Supermax Prison Will Double Capacity for Extreme Solitary...
Amid growing controversy around the use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and jails, and in advance of an audit of its own prison “segregation” practices, the federal government is quietly moving...
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Voices from Solitary: “I Am Somebody’s Daughter”
The following account is by Nicole Natschke, who is currently held in the segregation unit at Illinois’s Logan Correctional Facility, about three hours south of Chicago. Logan was repurposed from a...
View ArticleShutting Down a Supermax: An Interview With Alan Mills of the Uptown People’s...
Alan Mills is the Legal Director of the Uptown People’s Law Center in Chicago, Illinois. The Center has been involved in ongoing litigation on behalf of Illinois prisoners challenging the procedures...
View ArticleTamms Supermax Prison Closure Temporarily Halted
On September 4th, Alexander County Circuit Court Judge Charles Cavaness temporarily halted Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s plan to close the Tamms supermax prison, where hundreds of inmates have been...
View ArticleTamms Supermax: Report Reveals More Guards Than Prisoners, Soaring Costs
The Belleville News-Democrat known for a 2009 exposé that helped rouse opposition to conditions at Tamms Supermax, has now provided new ammunition in the longstanding battle to close the notorious...
View ArticleThe End of Tamms Supermax
As the new year began, the notorious Tamms state supermax in southern Illinois closed its doors forever. The closure marked the end of a decade-long effort that combined legal and political pressure...
View ArticleFeds to Open New Supermax Prison Cells at “Gitmo North”
Even as it announces a review and reduction of its solitary confinement practices, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed to Solitary Watch that a newly acquired prison ln Illinois will hold federal...
View ArticleSolidarity and Solitary: When Unions Clash With Prison Reform
On January 4, 2013, Tamms Supermax in southern Illinois officially closed its doors. The prison, where some men had been in solitary confinement for more than a decade, had become notorious for its...
View ArticleFortresses of Solitude: Journalists Barred from Prison Isolation Units
The following essay by Solitary Watch’s James Ridgeway appears in the current issue of the Columbia Journalism Review, which also includes an excellent story on the difficulties involved in reporting...
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