Synopses & Reviews
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has denounced the use of solitary confinement beyond fifteen days as a form of cruel and degrading treatment that often rises to the level of torture. Yet the United States holds more than 80,000 people in isolation on any given day. Now, for the first time, the founders of Solitary Watch have collected a dozen firsthand accounts of life in solitary confinement.
In a book that will add a startling new dimension to the debates around human rights and prison reform, former and current prisoners describe the devastating effects of solitary confinement on their minds and bodies, the solidarity expressed between individuals who live side by side for years without ever meeting one another face to face, the ever-present specters of madness and suicide, and the struggle to maintain hope and humanity.
These firsthand accounts are supplemented by the writing of noted experts, exploring the psychological, legal, ethical, and political dimensions of solitary confinement, and a comprehensive introduction by James Ridgeway and Jean Casella. Sarah Shourd, herself a survivor of more than a year of solitary confinement, writes eloquently in a preface about an experience that changed her life.
Review
"Solitary confinement in American prisons has grown to become one of our nations most horrendous human rights problems. Much more public attention is needed on this shameful, wasteful, cruel travesty.
Hell Is a Very Small Place has been put together by a group of conscientious stalwarts working at the center of this problem. Please take the time to read itthe haunting voices of people in solitary, along with experts and activists. It is vitally important."
Ralph Nader