[Pnews] Why Counting Everyone in Solitary Confinement Matters

Wed Jun 7 17:19:43 EDT 2023

Site logo image 	Jean Casella posted: " Two weeks ago today, Solitary 
Watch and the Unlock the Box campaign published Calculating Torture, a 
report showing that at least 122,840 people are in solitary confinement 
in U.S. prisons and jails. Ours is the first report to provide a 
snapshot of all " Solitary Watch <https://solitarywatch.org>

  The Word: Why Counting Everyone in Solitary Confinement Matters
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Jean Casella

Jun 7, 2023

Two weeks ago today, Solitary Watch and the Unlock the Box campaign 
published /Calculating Torture 
<https://solitarywatch.org/calculating-torture/>/, a report showing that 
at least 122,840 people are in solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and 
jails. Ours is the first report to provide a snapshot of/all 
/individuals in solitary confinement for 22 hours or more a day in /all/ 
U.S. state and federal prisons /and/ local jails, based on the best 
available data.

Previous counts of people in solitary have been significantly lower 
largely because they have been less complete, counting only people in 
prisons (not jails), and in some cases, only those held in solitary for 
15 days or more. Clearly, such calculations provided only a partial 
picture—but in the absence of any better or more complete data, they 
were widely cited by journalists, scholars, and policymakers.

Given this, we realize that it could be months or years before our more 
accurate number becomes the new standard (and even longer until we have 
a figure that includes the unknown number of people in solitary in 
juvenile or immigration facilities). The fact that governments on all 
levels permit this form of torture to take place without even requiring 
that its victims be counted is just one of the travesties inherent in 
the way solitary confinement is practiced in this country.

At the same time, we’re plagued by the uncertainty that the new number 
alone will make much of a difference. Will it matter to know that over 
122,000 people are being tortured in solitary confinement, rather than 
80,000, or 50,000? Will the pure shock value provided by the enormity of 
the number—which, as our colleagues at Unlock the Box have pointed out, 
is more than the total population of Berkeley or Ann Arbor—jolt more 
people into action?

We have to believe that accuracy matters—that the truth matters. And 
even more, we believe that every person in solitary confinement is a 
suffering human soul who, at the very least, deserves to be counted.

One of those people was Kalief Browder, who endured more than two years 
of solitary confinement on Rikers Island while he was still a child and 
legally innocent, and who died by suicide after being (in his own words) 
“mentally scarred” by his experience. Because he was held in solitary in 
a local jail rather than a state or federal prison, Kalief would not 
have been counted.

Another was Benjamin Van Zandt, who had endured time in solitary 
confinement as well as abuse and threats from guards, and who died by 
suicide at the age of 21 on the first night after he was sentenced to 
another 30 days in solitary. Because he had not been in solitary for 15 
days or more, Ben might not have been counted.

Their stories are reminders of what our number means in human terms. It 
means that more than 122,000 people—one of every 17 incarcerated 
Americans—are being held in conditions that constitute torture. It means 
that as I write—and as you read—each of these individuals is suffering 
alone, being put at serious risk of psychological, neurological, and 
physical damage, as well as self-harm and suicide.

Making sure that all the Kaliefs and Bens and others are counted is just 
one way to acknowledge and bear witness to their experience. Telling 
their individual human stories—and encouraging people in solitary to 
tell their own stories—is another way.

But the most important thing we can do for all of them is to fight to 
reduce the number of people in solitary confinement—and to keep on 
fighting until solitary is a thing of the past, and there is no one left 
to count.

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