Solitary Lives

Stories and commentary about the use of solitary confinement for adults and minors in jails, prisons and juvenile halls. Curated by The Center for Investigative Reporting (@CIRonline)

Sixteen, Alone, 23 Hours a Day, in a Six-by-Eight-Foot Box

Reveal
Solitary Lives
Published in
22 min readMar 5, 2014

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“There came a time when I cried when I was on Rikers Island, in the box, when I was there by myself,” Nazario says. “There’s times, you know, sometimes you need a good cry.”

Last month, New York state prison officials said they would ban the use of solitary confinement as punishment for minors. But that settlement, forged after a lawsuit by the New York Civil Liberties Union, does not apply to Rikers jail, which is run by the city of New York.

Few U.S. systems ban juvenile solitary

“I don’t know a single country that tortures,” he says, “that calls what it does torture.”

A correction officer’s perspective

“We have had inmates bite off the fingers of correction officers so that they now have eight-and-a-half and nine fingers as opposed to 10,” he says. “Until you’ve walked in the shoes of a correction officer inside the city’s jail system, please don’t pass judgment on us, because you know what? It’s a tough job.”

Norman Seabrook, president of New York City’s correction officers union, supports the use of punitive segregation — the official term for solitary confinement — as a tool for managing inmates who break jail rules. CREDIT: Marco Villalobos for CIR

Seeking action by City Council

A cop and a social worker

Lorenzo Steele Jr. is a former Rikers Island correction officer. He was the unofficial jail photographer during his 12 years there, capturing images of life in the box. CREDIT: Marco Villalobos for CIR

The cop wants to control the inmate: “You have murderers, you have rapists, you have people throwing people in front of the trains, you have the city’s worst right there on Rikers Island.”

A toll on mental health

Dr. Robert Cohen was the director of medical services at Rikers Island from 1982 to 1986. He now serves on the New York City Board of Correction, which is in the process of creating new rules for the jail’s use of solitary confinement. CREDIT: Marco Villalobos for CIR

Assault charge leads to time in Rikers

Ismael Nazario counted more than 300 days in solitary confinement at Rikers Island as a teen, all before being convicted of a crime. CREDIT: Marco Villalobos for CIR

“So I’m looking at the places I used to hang out, and I’m just like, ‘Oh my God,’ ” he says. “But it ain’t hit me yet until we started going across that bridge to Rikers Island. As soon as we started going across that bridge, I was like, ‘What did I get myself into?’ ”

Rikers Island is a massive jail complex that sits in the middle of New York City’s East River. Hundreds of teenagers at the jail have been sent to solitary confinement. They refer to it as “the box.” CREDIT: Seth Wenig/Associated Press

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Solitary Lives
Solitary Lives

Published in Solitary Lives

Stories and commentary about the use of solitary confinement for adults and minors in jails, prisons and juvenile halls. Curated by The Center for Investigative Reporting (@CIRonline)

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Written by Reveal

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