Solitary: The Inside Story of Supermax Isolation and How We Can Abolish It

I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

From the publisher - “When I testify in court, I am often asked: ‘What is the damage of long-term solitary confinement?’ . . . Many prisoners emerge from prison after years in solitary with very serious psychiatric symptoms even though outwardly they may appear emotionally stable. The damage from isolation is dreadfully real.” —Terry Allen Kupers Imagine spending nearly twenty-four hours a day alone, confined to an eight-by-ten-foot windowless cell. This is the reality of approximately one hundred thousand inmates in solitary confinement in the United States today. Terry Allen Kupers, one of the nation’s foremost experts on the mental health effects of solitary confinement, tells the powerful stories of the inmates he has interviewed while investigating prison conditions during the past forty years. Touring supermax security prisons as a forensic psychiatrist, Kupers has met prisoners who have been viciously beaten or raped, subdued with immobilizing gas, or ignored in the face of urgent medical and psychiatric needs. Kupers criticizes the physical and psychological abuse of prisoners and then offers rehabilitative alternatives to supermax isolation. Solitary is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the true damage that solitary confinement inflicts on individuals living in isolation as well as on our society as a whole.

I must start out by stating that I am a major fan of "Inside Russia's Prisons" on Netflix - it is my guilty pleasure. My husband is a security guard and we have talked ON END about Adam Capay a Canadian who spent four years in solitary "for good reasons" ... this book is an education on its own! I have enjoyed the author's other books and know that he is THE authority on prison mental health.

This is not an easy book to read - be forewarned. The situations are gruesome and makes me wonder how you can further punish those who are being punished? Is there a difference, when it comes to solitary whether the prisoner is in a jail, a prison or a penitentiary? (Penitentiary is, to me, a Canadian thing - Jail for under two years, the "pen: for longer crimes. I think that came more so from this definition --- Commit a serious crime like a murder and you won't just go to jail; you'll be sent to the penitentiary. Penitentiary comes from the Latin paenitentia, meaning "repentance.) Back to the book --- anyone who works in social services as I do should read this book: ditto for anyone with an interest in crime or psychology. It is difficult to read at times but nonetheless an excellent reference or starting off point for a very interesting conversation.