Eventually these letters will be donated to an existing archive which will be able to provide a more complete breakdown of the contents of the collection, but to provide a preliminary overview of the collection, we provided a brief summary of the collection below.

Title: Solitary Watch Letters Collection

Span Dates: 2009-present

Creator: Multiple

Extent: Unknown (1000+ letters and associated ephemera)

Languages: English and Spanish

Location: Collection is held by Solitary Watch.

Summary: Representing letters, drawings, poetry, and other ephemera sent by inmates from across the country directly to Solitary Watch to document their prison experience; the collection also includes copies of similar materials sent by inmates to family and friends which were then collected or reproduced for the benefit of Solitary Watch by the inmate or on their behalf. Although, ostensibly focusing primarily on the experience of inmates within solitary confinement, many of the letters address topics relating to prison life more generally. The materials are sorted by state and within each state, the materials are further organized by date.

Common themes (Codes) include, but are not limited to:

  • Experience of time and physical space
    1. Keeping track of time/length of sentence
    2. Referencing the past
      • Nostalgia/reflecting on the Past
      • History
      • Slavery and Jim Crow
    3. Architecture, space, and location of the prison
    4. Cell size and physical conditions
    5. Description of separate spaces
      • SHU (Special Housing Unit)
      • Suicide cells
      • Administrative seg/solitary confinement
  • Dynamic between staff and prisoners
    1. Surplus/abuse of power
      • Retaliation by guards
      • Tension between prisoners and staff
    2. Violence against prisoners by staff
      • Physical and Sexual Abuse
      • Verbal Abuse
      • Racial slurs
  • Bare life + abjection, mortification processes
    1. Physical degradation
    2. Mortification of Self
      • Dehumanization
      • Feeling a lack of personal identity
      • Sensory deprivation
    3. Contamination
      • Physical illness
  • Ideology of choice (related to how they got there)
    1. Accountability for self
    2. Responsibility assigned to other inmates
    3. Responsibility assigned to outside actors
  • Resistance + hidden transcripts
    1. Resistance amongst prisoners (or individual)
      • Self protection against conditions 
      • Public exposure through writing
      • Connections to outside world through reading/communicating
      • Legal remedy
    2. Resistance against staff
      • “Disorderly” rational conduct
      • Physical violence
      • Refusing to obey orders
  • Descriptions of conditions/processes of prison
    1. Physical conditions, not related to architecture/space
      • Cleanliness and safety
    2. Receiving services in Prison
      • Medical healthcare
      • Mental healthcare
    3. Social conditions
      • Hostile/Brutal
      • Racism
      • Overwhelming*
      • Torture/Hell/Death/Burial*
      • Abnormal*
      • Inhumane*
    4. Metaphorical descriptions (used in reference to self, experience, emotions)
      • To the body
      • Outdoors/the sky
      • To death/burial/asphyxiation
  • Grievances about prison policy, processes, and punishment
    1. Ignoring/withholding basic needs inside
      • Care/services
      • Supplies
      • Visitations
    2. Lack of preparation for reentry/outside world
    3. Criticizing correctional rationales, objectives and practices
    4. No evidence to support imprisonment as correction
    5. Label of “credible threat” to justify lockdown
  • Emotional geographies and ways of coping
    1. Positive emotions
    2. Imagination as coping 
    3. “Realities” and reminders of solitary
    4. Violence as coping
    5. Spirituality/self-improvement as coping
    6. Transcendence/forgiveness as coping
    7. Writing, poetry, art as coping
    8. Views of outdoors/indoors
    9. Connections to others (therapy, family or friends)
  • Psychological and emotional impact of solitary confinement (during and after)
    1. Fear of people
    2. Hate towards others
    3. Desensitization
    4. Isolation/detachment
    5. Manic thoughts
    6. Hopelessness
    7. Uncertainty about future
    8. Trauma
    9. Suicide 
  • Classification of self and others
    1. Self-identification
      • As activist
      • As writer (or artist)
      • Within race/culture
      • As historical figure
    2. Other prisoners
      • Mentally ill/suicidal
    3. Audience/people on the outside
      • Difference in positions between prisoner and person outside

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