Here’s What It’s Like To Survive Solitary Confinement: NJ Inmates

NEWARK, NJ — Could you survive being locked in a space as small as your bathroom for years on end – without any human contact – for up to 23 hours a day? If the thought seems like “torture,” then you now have a glimpse into the desperation about 1,500 New Jersey inmates in solitary confinement face every day, a group of activists says.

Earlier this month, a coalition of former inmates, their families and advocates released a series of videos that feature gut-wrenching, firsthand testimony from people who have lived through solitary confinement.

The footage was put out by the New Jersey Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (NJ-CAIC), which includes several Newark-based organizations. (Watch videos below)

The group has been active in the quest to end solitary confinement in the Garden State, pushing for bills such as A-314 / S-3261, which would ban isolation for more than 15 consecutive days. The proposed law would also prohibit any member of “vulnerable populations” – such as youth under 21, senior citizens, people with developmental disabilities and people with serious medical conditions – from being put in solitary confinement.

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“This practice has been thoroughly condemned by national and international human rights bodies, by medical and mental health professionals, by leaders of faith communities, and most loudly by those who have survived this trauma and who live with its lingering aftereffects,” the NJ-CAIC states on its website. “The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture equated the U.S. application of isolation to torture. This bleak description has been corroborated by countless testimonies of current and former prisoners.”

Lydia Thornton, a woman who endured more than nine months in solitary confinement, said that people often ask her why they should care about prisoners who have committed crimes.

“I’ll tell you right now why you should care,” she says in the NJ-CAIC video. “93 percent of the people inside our jails and prisons are coming home.”

According to Thornton, the question is: do you want them to come home better, or worse?

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‘IT BROKE ME… I WAS DONE’

The following accounts of solitary confinement come via NJ-CAIC interviews:

Mark Hopkins – “A couple guys were trying to kill themselves. One guy across from me was screaming, banging his head on the glass until it was just blood everywhere. He was eating his own fecal matter. The only thing they did with him would just beat him up more and then strap him to a chair and then put a needle in him after he begged them not to – ‘I'm gonna calm down, I'm gonna calm down.’ They just put the needle in him anyway.” (Read more of his story here)

Lydia Thornton – “This young lady was walking to the shower and she put her hand in my food port to show me how badly hurt it was. And my instinct being me, being a mother, the first thing I did was kind of gently stroke it. You just reach out. That's what normal humans do. She looked at me and started to cry. And I was like, ‘I'm so sorry, I didn't even think that that must have hurt like hell when I touched it.’ She shook her head and kept going to the shower. As she came back from the shower, I was standing at my door. I said, ‘Are you okay? I'm so sorry I hurt you.’ She's like, ‘No, you don't understand. That's the first time I've been touched by other than a guard with any kind of kindness in two years.’ It broke me. I was done.” (Read more of her story here)

Justice Rountree – “I spent a total of five years in isolation. I counted and re-counted every crack in the ceiling. I survived the extreme cold of winter, the extreme heat of summer, the haunting screams of other isolated people, and the eerie silence that nearly convinced me I was alone and forgotten.” (Read more of his story here)

Nafeesah Goldsmith – “We were supposed to shower every day but a lot of times, depending on how the officers feel, you may not get out to shower for a few days. If you don't have any sanitary napkins and you ask for some, some of the officers will say to you, ‘Use a sock or use toilet paper because they don't feel like going to go get those things for you.’” (Read more of her story here)

Ron Pierce – “Some guys they'll play chess. They'll call a chess move out to the guy they're playing with. He'll call a chess move back. And they'll have made pieces of crumpled up papers so they know where every piece is. That's how people survive. If you don't keep your mind active then you're going lose a piece of it.” (Read more of his story here)

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