Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this grim, no-holds-barred exposé, 21 essays and academic papers critique the use of solitary confinement in prison, looking at the ruinous effects on those forced to endure it for weeks, months, years, or even decades at a time. Casella and Ridgeway are no strangers to this topic: they're the cofounders of Solitary Watch, a watchdog group formed to investigate the practice. Shourd, a journalist who spent 410 days as a political hostage in Iran from 2009 to 2010, brings firsthand knowledge. Selections written by former and current inmates assemble a litany of horror and shocking treatment, backing the argument that no one deserves this level of punishment, regardless of the crimes committed. "Solitary confinement for the length of time that I have endured it... is torture of a terrible kind," states William Blake, who has been held in solitary for more than 20 years after murdering a deputy and wounding another in an escape attempt from a courtroom, in his essay "A Sentence Worse than Death." While it's obvious that the editors are pursuing an agenda and the contributors likewise have an undeniable bias, these stories pack a visceral punch and make a convincing case for more humane conditions, better oversight, and continuing prison reform. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Solitary confinement is the practice by which certain prison inmates are locked in small dungeon-like cells for an indefinite time Here, Casella and James Ridgeway of the watch-dog group Solitary Watch, and Sarah Shourd, who was once a political prisoner in Iran, bring together 16 accounts by people still in solitary confinement, or those who have survived it, and several authorities on criminal justice. Far from light bedside reading, these are horrifying accounts of madness and a struggle for survival. It is often difficult to believe that the a experiences described are happening right now in America and not at some distant place in the Middle Ages. Many of the accounts will stick in one's mind, but this reviewer found among the most memorable to be William Blake's "A Sentence Worse Than Death," which won honorable mention in the 2013 Yale Law Journal's Prison Law Writing Contest. Once violent but now subdued, Blake writes eloquently of his attempt to make sense of it all. VERDICT A book for everyone who is at all interested in prisons, and certainly for students and teachers in the field of criminal justice.-Frances O. Sandiford, formerly with Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, NY © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The founders of a watchdog group dedicated to stopping the practice of solitary confinement gather voices from victims of this hellish punishment. The editors of this slim but powerful collection of essays may wear their political agendas on their sleeves, but they make their arguments with undeniable efficacy. Casella and Ridgeway are co-founders of Solitary Watch, and journalist Shourd chronicled her 410 days of solitary confinement in her memoir A Sliver of Light (2014). In collecting essays from prisoners and mental health experts, the editors dig deep into the frailties of the human mind as well as the savagery of the American penal system and its ilk. Many of the men and women whose voices are captured here measure their time in solitary not in years but in decades. Some are soul-deadening, such as William Blake describing his nearly 30 years of solitary in "A Sentence Worse Than Death": "I've experienced times so difficult and felt boredom and loneliness to such a degree that it seemed to be a physical thing inside so thick it felt like it was choking me, trying to squeeze the sanity from my mind, the spirit from my soul, and the life from my body." Other writers are startlingly articulate and unnervingly funny, despite the violence and grief spilled out on the page. Take Thomas Bartlett Whitaker, whose essay "A Nothing Would Do as Well" starts with an attention-getter: "The first time I met Mad Dog, he nearly shot me with a Hepatitis C-infected blowgun dart." The stories by people victimized by solitary confinement are followed by articulate essays by medical and legal professionals about the human costs of the practice. In her introduction, Shourd says it best: "Locking a person in a box is a sick and perverse thing to do. It benefits no onenot even the governments who allow it. It's torture." A potent cry of anguish from men and women buried way down in the hole. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
