Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
An estimated 80,000 Americans are held in solitary confinement in prisons across the country. Solitary confinement, often in cells no bigger than 6 by 10 feet, means 24 hours per day with little or no meaningful human contact. Six By Ten explores the mental, physical, and spiritual impacts of America's widespread embrace of solitary confinement, as told through the first-person narratives of individuals subjected to solitary confinement, family members on the outside, and corrections officers. Each chapter presents a different individual's story and probes how Americans from all over the country and all walks of life find themselves held in solitary for years or even decades at a time.
Synopsis
This compelling collection of stories told directly by people personally impacted by solitary confinement is the first book in a new Voice of Witness series with Haymarket Books.
An estimated 80,000 Americans are held in solitary confinement in prisons across the country. Solitary confinement, often in cells no bigger than six by ten feet, means twenty-four hours per day with little or no meaningful human contact. Six by Ten explores the mental, physical, and spiritual impacts of America's widespread embrace of solitary confinement, as told through the first-person narratives of individuals subjected to solitary confinement, family members on the outside, and corrections officers.
Each chapter presents a different individual's story and probes how Americans from all over the country and all walks of life find themselves held in solitary for years or even decades at a time. In addition to evocative first-hand accounts, the book also includes essays and analysis on how solitary became such a prominent feature of the US prison system today.
Solitary confinement is the little-known dead end of the US criminal justice system. To understand that system, people need to understand and wrestle with what is happening in America's isolation cells.
Mateo Hoke is writer, journalist, and co-editor of Palestine Speaks: Narratives of Life Under Occupation.
Taylor Pendergrass is a lawyer and activist focused on criminal justice reform. He currently works for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Synopsis
Six by Ten is a deeply moving and profoundly unsettling wake up call for all citizens. The use of solitary confinement is deeply immoral and we must insist that it be banned in all of our nation's prisons. Immediately."
--Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy
This compelling collection of stories told directly by people personally impacted by solitary confinement is the first book in a new Voice of Witness series with Haymarket Books.
An estimated 80,000 Americans are held in solitary confinement in prisons across the country. Solitary confinement, often in cells no bigger than six-by-ten-feet, means twenty-four hours per day with little or no meaningful human contact.
Six By Ten explores the mental, physical, and spiritual impacts of America's widespread embrace of solitary confinement, as told through the first-person narratives of individuals subjected to solitary confinement, family members on the outside, and corrections officers.
Each chapter presents a different individual's story and shows how Americans from all over the country and all walks of life find themselves held in solitary for years or even decades at a time. In addition to evocative first-hand accounts, the book also includes essays and analysis on how solitary became such a prominent feature of the US prison system today.
Mateo Hoke is writer, journalist, and co-editor of Palestine Speaks: Narratives of Life Under Occupation.
Taylor Pendergrass is a lawyer and activist focused on criminal justice reform. He currently works for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Synopsis
Six by ten feet. That's the average size of the cells in which tens of thousands of people incarcerated in the United States linger for weeks, months, and even decades in solitary confinement. With little stimulation and no meaningful human contact, these individuals struggle to preserve their identity, sanity, and even their lives. In thirteen intimate narratives, Six by Ten explores the mental, physical, and spiritual impacts of America's widespread embrace of solitary confinement. Through stories from those subjected to solitary confinement, family members on the outside, and corrections officers, Six by Ten examines the darkest hidden corners of America's mass incarceration culture and illustrates how solitary confinement inflicts lasting consequences on families and communities far beyond prison walls. Stories include those of Brian, who was shuttled from prison to prison across Illinois as part of an unofficial program that came to be known as "the circuit"; Heather, a mother fighting for the life of her son, Nikko, who was diagnosed as bipolar at a young age and sent to solitary as a teenager; and Sonya, a trans woman sent to solitary in a men's jail in Texas, supposedly for her own protection.
Taylor Pendergrass is a lawyer and activist focused on criminal justice reform. He currently works for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Mateo Hoke is writer, journalist, and co-editor of Palestine Speaks: Narratives of Life Under Occupation.
Synopsis
A collection of intimate portraits told directly by people whose lives have been devastated by solitary confinement in America.