Thread by @ScottHech

THREAD: Imagine your dearest loved one. Child. Spouse. Parent. Grandparent.

Now imagine them locked in a concrete room the size of a parking space. Behind solid steel. 20-24 hr/day. No contact w/ other humans except screams thru a food slot.

This is solitary. This is torture.

100 people caged in Michigan solitary confinement wrote letters to share their experiences. Allies in Michigan collected them. Artists interpreted them. Coders organized & filtered them. The result: This interactive digital archive of first-hand accounts. silenced.in

Shearod McFarland, who spent *over 9 years* in solitary: “I felt that the quiet, creeping violence of segregation was slowly tearing my soul apart. These abuses continue because no one can see what’s happening to us. Solitary is a kind of perpetual violence."

Facts: There are over 3000 people in some form of solitary in Michigan. No limit on length. 47% in long term solitary have been in over 2 years. Longest serving have been in over 40 years. Black men are 7% of MI population. 65-80% of solitary.

Artwork: 18, by Duane Montney.

Brian Peterson: "I hate it in there. I feel the walls closing in around me even as I write this about it. It is a horrible feeling to be so helpless. If it wasn’t for my faith in Jesus Christ I know I would have died. I can’t write about that but one night I know it was close.

Solitary confinement is a form of capital punishment. People come out (if they come out) forever damaged, fundamentally altered. Their former selves disappeared. Solitary confinement is death. It must be abolished.

Artwork: Quiet Thinker by Darius White.

Rutikanga Akesi: “I know it’s too late now, but I want those people to know we’re humans too & we deserve to be treated as such. To subject us to extreme social isolation & sensory deprivation -- it’s endless torture, psychological & physical."

How to get solitary:

Disobeying an order
Yelling
Cursing
Arguing
Fighting
Too many alcohol swabs, toilet paper, toiletries
Too much medication or food
Asking to speak to a superior officer
Standing up for vulnerable person
Refusing meals
Filing grievances
Requesting protection

People in Michigan solitary are often held in remote, rural prisons in the Upper Peninsula where the staff is nearly 100% white. Racially charged abuses, both physical & verbal.

Andraus McCloud: "The further you go up north, it's like the South. You see more crosses burning."

Jodi Hill: "No books. No T.V. No music. No way to contact the outside." Jodi is a transgender woman forced to try to survive in a male facility. She had to wait to get out of solitary to find a way to create.

Just some of her extraordinary art produced for this project:

The vast majority of the world has ended long-term solitary confinement. While we fill the streets with demands that the police stop killing Black & poor people, we must not forget those men and women suffering in solitary confinement in Michigan & around the country.

Death penalty isn't only way the state kills. Meet Jon Lancaster. Father. Grandfather. Suffered severe mental illness. Yet still caged in solitary. Shot w/ pepper balls & pepper spray. Restrained for days. They let him “slowly die in plain sight."

Erick Johnson: "You said you wanted to hear more ok then hold on to your seat. Because this inhumane treatment to anybody living conditions. The prisons and C.O.s don’t feed us. We received small to little to none food. I enclosed a drawing to show the food trays they give us. "

Brian Grimmett: "I dream of just being free, clean of this system. Seeing about how to enjoy my life in society."

Many people believe solitary confinement is reserved for the “worst of the worst,” whatever that means. This is simply not true. But it’s meant to scare the general public into allowing this form of torture to exist.

Artwork, "Lodged Amongst the Chaos," by Roberto D'Avano.

Abron Shakir: "I am most passionate about drawing, tattooing, & learning new mediums to express myself. Unfortunately being caged so early in life I never had chance to learn what I enjoyed. Mostly I remember I was at my happiest spending time w/ my family & friends."

In the summer, the temperature could feel over 100 degrees, with no air circulation. People describe the feeling as living inside an oven. If they react or cry out for help, they may be hog-tied, gassed, tased, have their water turned off, or be deprived of sleep.

Quincy Howard: "I have experienced countless years of all contact being cut off from family, children. Gassed over 100 times with chemical agents, no heat in the winter, no ventilation nor cool air in the summer, the target of foul language, threats, and sour and spoiled food."

Five days a week, people in solitary in Michigan are permitted out of their cell for one hour, in a caged yard, if they’re lucky, and three 10-minute showers a week. They may only have non-contact visits from family, separated by plexi-glass while they are bound in shackles.

We must abolish the torture of solitary confinement. That starts with listening to those who are in it. Right now.

We must abolish the torture of solitary confinement. That starts with listening to those who are in it. Right now.

EXPLORE: This new, interactive, searchable, & growing digital archive of over 100 letters from solitary was designed to shift the narrative around the torture & the need to end it in Michigan and around the country. Hear them. Read them. See them. silenced.in

TAKE ACTION: Learn more about solitary confinement in Michigan and call on Michigan leaders to end this torture now. openmidoor.org/contact-leader…

I am so sorry. And thank you for sharing.