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Connecticut prison guards charged with assaulting incarcerated man

Connecticut Public Radio | By Ashad Hajela

Published December 1, 2023 at 12:30 PM EST

Three corrections officers are facing criminal charges for allegedly assaulting an incarcerated person at Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown. According to court documents, camera footage from the facility shows prison guards Anthony Marlak and Joshua Johnson allegedly punching an incarcerated person who they said threatened them and refused to go back to his cell on the evening of Sept. 25. A third officer, Patrick McGoldrick, is accused of kicking the prisoner while he was already on the floor. The man appeared to have bruises and swelling on the right side of his face soon after the incident, according to an affidavit filed in court by state police. Investigators concluded the three corrections officers used excessive force. They were charged with third degree assault, a misdemeanor. All three pleaded not guilty in court in November. They were placed on administrative leave with pay two days after the incident, on Sept. 27, according to the Department of Correction. Marlak told police the incarcerated person was making verbal threats against another prison guard, according to court documents. When Marlak ordered the man to go back to his cell, the man refused, the documents state. Marlak told police the alleged victim is designated a high-security inmate. He said he felt threatened because the man has a history of aggressive behavior, and because the man would not comply with his commands, and looked like he was preparing to throw a punch, court records indicate. Camera footage from inside the facility shows Marlak approached and started speaking with the incarcerated man, according to court documents. The man raised one arm, as if gesturing in that direction, and then pointed over Marlak’s shoulder, the documents state. Marlak is then seen pushing the incarcerated man into a doorway and striking him, according to a state police affidavit.

Now-former corrections officer charged with bringing narcotics into New Haven Correctional Center

by: Ellie Stamp

Posted: Aug 10, 2023 / 06:03 PM EDT

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) – A now-former correctional officer was arrested on Tuesday after allegedly bringing narcotics into New Haven Correctional Center, according to authorities.

The Connecticut Department of Corrections said the administration at New Haven Correctional Center became aware that the officer could be bringing drugs into the facility.

Officials said that the officer was identified as Nicholas Kosa, 28, of Cheshire. Kosa was searched upon entering the facility and drugs were recovered. Connecticut State Police responded to the New Haven Correctional Center and found Kosa with suspected narcotics. Kosa was placed under arrested and transported to Connecticut State Police Troop I for processing.

The Connecticut State Police and the Connecticut Department of Correction’s Security Division are both conducting investigations into the matter.

Kosa was charged with possession with intent to sell narcotics, possession with intent to sell a narcotic substance, criminal attempt to convey unauthorized items into an institution. Kosa became employed with the Department of Corrections on Feb 10. Kosa has since been separated from state service and is no longer employed by the Department of Corrections.

“I am extremely troubled to learn a staff member was arrested for attempting to bring narcotics into one of our correctional facilities,” said Department of Correction Commissioner Angel Quiros. “We take the safety and security of everyone who enters our facilities extremely seriously. There is zero tolerance for any action that could place our facilities at risk.  We will hold any individual who jeopardizes the safety and security of our operations accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

Kosa appeared in New Haven Superior Superior court on Wednesday.

The Reality of Carceral America: A Conversation with Activist Barbara Fair

By Rehana Konate, Blog of the APA, June 20, 2023

Barbara Fair is a social justice activist and founding member of Stop Solitary Connecticut. The Stop Solitary CT campaign is aiming to eliminate the utilization of solitary confinement in Connecticut’s jails and prisons, substituting it with humane and practical alternatives. This legislation was passed in 2021, but Governor Lamont stopped it from becoming law. The organization reintroduced the Protect Act in 2022, which became law. This did not stop Barbara Fair from fighting; she claims she is just getting started.  I sat down with Barbara via Zoom on April 3, 2023, to discuss her work as a social justice activist, mother, and grandmother who has been affected by the criminal justice system.

Barbara Fair, criminal justice activist, mom

By Madeline Papcun, CT Mirror, June 14, 2023

Barbara Fair has been a social justice activist in Connecticut for more than 50 years, working primarily in criminal justice. Sitting in Zoi’s on Grove Street in New Haven, wearing a bright yellow T-shirt and earrings reading “RESPECT,” she reflects. “My work is really focused on people in New Haven, but I can’t live there,” Fair said, glancing out the window. “The despair is hard to see. It’s disheartening.”… Despite her frustrations, Fair pushes forward. “Walking away is what they want us to do,” she says, leaning back in her seat. “They want to wear us down, so I’m trying my best to not do that.”

House advances bill that requires study, not limits of strip searches

By Jaden Edison, CT Mirror, May 31, 2023

House lawmakers on Tuesday passed a watered-down version of a bill that initially sought to end routine strip searches in Connecticut’s prisons and jails, sending the revised legislation to Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk for his signature. Senate Bill 1196 passed the House on a 125-18 vote, with eight people absent, after unanimous approval among the Senate’s 36 legislators earlier this month.

Some CT inmates charges $249 a day. Soon that charge will increase.

By Jordan Nathaniel Fenster, CT Insider, May 28, 2023

The per-day cost Connecticut charges inmates for being incarcerated, which some say is already the highest in the United States, is likely to go up. Inmates in Connecticut are charged $249 a day, but a state Department of Correction spokesperson confirmed by email that a $74 increase to $323 a day is “nearly finalized.”…“Hearing that the daily rate for incarceration in Connecticut is going into $323 a day is just totally crazy,” said Barbara Fair, the lead organizer for Stop Solitary Connecticut, an organization that aims to end the use of solitary confinement in the state. “What are they charging for? You can go to a luxurious hotel for less than that a day with all the amenities.”

CT prison placed on lockdown for three days. Advocates want answers.

By Jordan Nathaniel Fenster, Register Citizen, May 24, 2023

Inmates at New Haven Correctional Center recently spent three days in a facility-wide lockdown. Prison reform advocates say that flies against the spirit, if not the letter of a 2022 law. “New Haven Correctional Center was placed on lockdown on Friday, May 19,” said state Department of Correction spokesperson Ashley McCarthey said Monday. “We are unable to share details due to it being an active investigation.” McCarthy confirmed that the lockdown ended Monday. She did not say what type of investigation caused the lockdown, or how often such lockdowns occur. Barbara Fair, lead organizer with prison reform advocates Stop Solitary Connecticut, said an investigation was a way around the 2022 PROTECT Act, which limited the amount of time prisoners may be kept in isolation.

A month later, defense for Carleton Giles and his 71 commutations

By Mark Pazniokas, CT Mirror, May 18, 2023

Controversy swirled last month around Carleton J. Giles, the pastor and former police officer removed by Gov. Ned Lamont as chair of the Board of Pardons and Paroles after a backlash to the dramatic increase in the commutation of prison sentences. On Wednesday, Giles greeted a procession of men and women at the Legislative Office Building who praised his service and called him a victim of political cowardice and fear-mongering… Wednesday’s event was organized by Barbara Fair of New Haven, a longtime advocate of prison reform, and Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, a member of the legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus. It offered elements of a testimonial, a religious revival and political rally, replete with stories of failure and redemption, gratitude and bitterness, and a call to action. 

Advocates Call for the Reinstatement of Former Pardons and Paroles Chair

By Hugh McQuaid, CT News Junkie, May 17, 2023

Criminal justice advocates called Wednesday for the reinstatement of Carlton Giles as chair of the Board of Pardons and Paroles and condemned his removal last month by the governor in response to controversy over a sentence modification program. Giles, a former police officer who served as chair of the Board of Pardons and Paroles for nearly a decade, sat for an hour in the Legislative Office Building as advocates and formerly incarcerated people praised his work as an administrator of early release programs for those transitioning from prison sentences back into society. 

CT lawmakers curtail push to end routine strip searches in prisons

By Jaden Edison, CT Mirror, March 31, 2023

An effort to end routine strip searches in Connecticut’s correctional facilities is unlikely to succeed this year as lawmakers have instead opted to gather information on what it would take to implement body scanning technology in the jails and prisons. The legislature’s Judiciary Committee unanimously voted Thursday to advance a revised version of Senate Bill 1196 to the House and Senate for consideration, as opposed to the initial proposal which would have raised the standard for correctional officers to perform strip searches on incarcerated people from reasonable suspicion to probable cause. 

Could CT end routine strip searches in prisons? Debate heats up

By Jaden Edison, CT Mirror, March 16, 2023

Writing to legislators about strip searching in Connecticut prisons and jails, an incarcerated woman at York Correctional Institution described what it’s like to stand barefoot on a dirty tiled floor as a correctional officer examines her body from head to toe… “Strip searches are one of the most humiliating and intrusive allowances that occur in prison facilities,” West said in the written remarks read aloud on her behalf. “To quote a supervisor, sometimes it’s done just to ‘remind them that they’re inmates.’” 

CT policymakers visit Norwegian prisons to learn best practices

By Walter Smith Randolph, Connecticut Public Radio, March 14, 2023

Over the past decade, Connecticut has been able to cut its prison population in nearly half and criminal justice advocates say that number can go even lower if you think of corrections as rehabilitation. That’s why a group of Connecticut policy makers and thought leaders toured prisons in Norway to learn best practices. Our Accountability Project tagged along to see what the group learned.

New DOC oversight panel appointments alarm advocates

By Jaden Edison, CT Mirror, February 5, 2023

Republican lawmakers have appointed two people who have ties with Connecticut’s Department of Correction to a committee established to provide oversight of the agency — a decision that has sparked concerns among community organizers about the legitimacy and security of the panel. Holding the power to choose one of the 11 Correction Advisory Committee appointees, Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, selected John Bowen, a recently retired correctional officer who serves on the board of a local union and has interacted with a social media account that pays homage to the Confederacy. 

Protestors Demanding Reforms at Correctional Institutions

By Peter Prohaska, Cheshire Herald, November 3, 2022

On Oct. 26, a group of advocates opposed to the use of solitary confinement rallied on the sidewalk in front of Cheshire Correctional Institution on Highland Avenue. They say the state is not doing enough to comply with Public Act 22-18, known as the Protect Act, which Governor Ned Lamont signed back in May… Barbara Fair, founder of Stop Solitary Connecticut, organized the rally and spoke passionately against what she characterized as continuing state violations of the new law’s letter and intent. “I’m getting letters from people all the time (from prison),” she said, explaining that her correspondents report conditions such as 22–23 hours a day of confinement, non-emergency lockdowns, lack of access to education, and arbitrary discipline for minor violations.

After winning key CT prison fight, longtime advocate for inmates says ‘this is just the beginning’

By Lisa Backus, CT Insider, May 30, 2022

There was a moment this spring when Barbara Fair wanted to stand firm in making sure that any prison reform legislation she backed would include banning strip searches, which she called “humiliating.” Months later after crafting a deal with state Department of Correction Commissioner Angel Quiros and other stakeholders, Fair agreed to drop the ban in favor of something larger. Her efforts helped lead to Gov. Ned Lamont signing a law this month that requires the DOC to limit solitary confinement and allow inmates at least four-and-a-half hours of out-of-cell time every day beginning July 1. The law also requires the agency to hire an ombudsman to investigate complaints and creates an independent oversight board.

Connecticut will begin to limit the use of solitary confinement in prisons

By Molly Ingram, WSHU, May 11, 2022

Governor Ned Lamont signed a bill on Tuesday that will limit the use of solitary confinement in Connecticut prisons. The bill prohibits prisoners from being kept in solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days, or more than 30 days total in a 60-day period. Barbara Fair is the founder of Stop Solitary CT, and began advocating for the bill after her then-teenage son was allegedly tortured with isolation while in prison. “First we have to treat people better,” Fair said. “We say these are correctional institutions, but all we are doing is causing more harm. People are coming back to our community broken spiritually — mentally their minds are shattered.”

Lamont Signs Bill Limiting Solitary Confinement

By Hugh McQuaid, CT News Junkie, May 11, 2022

A bill signed Tuesday by Gov. Ned Lamont will limit the use of solitary confinement in Connecticut prisons, codifying some of the reforms sought for years by Stop Solitary CT advocates. The bill, passed by both chambers of the legislature in late April, caps the number of days a person can spend in solitary confinement at 15 days and limits the total number of days in isolation to 30 in a 60-day period. It creates an ombudsman position within the Correction Department to investigate complaints and establishes a nine-member advisory panel to oversee use of solitary and recommend ombudsman candidates. 

Solitary Confinement Limited After Lamont Signs New Law

By Michael Lemanski, Connecticut Patch, May 11, 2022

Starting in July, new rules limiting the amount of time prison inmates can be put into solitary confinement will take effect, per a new state law signed by the governor on Tuesday. Governor Ned Lamont said he has signed into law Public Act 22-18. That law limits the amount of time and circumstances under which an incarcerated person may be held in isolated confinement in state prisons and jails. It places new requirements on its use. The law falls in line with executive orders issued by Lamont last year.

Advocates Celebrate New Limits on Solitary Confinement

By Katie Cerulle, CT News Junkie, May 2, 2022

Members of Stop Solitary CT celebrated a delayed victory Monday as Gov. Ned Lamont signaled his intent to sign a piece of legislation that will limit the use of solitary confinement in the state’s prisons. At a state Capitol press conference, members of the advocacy group Stop Solitary CT spoke about the impact of solitary confinement on inmates.

Bill limiting solitary confinement goes to Connecticut Gov. New Lamont for signature

By Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, April 29th, 2022

One year after a veto by Gov. Ned Lamont, state legislators have passed a revised bill limiting solitary confinement in Connecticut prisons. The compromise bill has gained the support of the state’s prison commissioner and will be signed by Lamont, officials said Friday. “I think it strikes the right balance,’' Stafstrom told reporters Friday. “It doesn’t eliminate the use of solitary confinement, but it puts significant restrictions on its use and makes clear that it should be used only in extreme circumstances. ... My understanding is the governor will sign it.’'

Solitary Confinement Bill Headed To Lamont’s Desk Again

By Hugh McQuaid, CT News Junkie, April 29th, 2022

In a divided vote late Thursday, the House approved legislation limiting the use of solitary confinement in Connecticut prisons, sending the bill to Gov. Ned Lamont, who vetoed a similar policy last year. Lawmakers voted 98 to 45 to pass the bill, which has the support of Lamont’s Correction Department Commissioner and advocates from Stop Solitary CT. The state Senate passed the proposal Wednesday. 

Solitary confinement bill heads to Gov. Lamont’s desk

By Kelan Lyons, CT Mirror, April 29th, 2022

For the second year in a row, Connecticut lawmakers passed a bill to limit the Department of Correction’s use of solitary confinement on those in the state’s prisons and jails. The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Ned Lamont, who vetoed a similar proposal last year.

Bill Limiting Solitary Confinement Advances

By Christine Stuart, CT News Junkie, April 27th, 2022

The Senate passed legislation Wednesday that limits the use of solitary confinement in the state’s prisons and provides more oversight for the Department of Correction. The bill passed 29 to 6. A similar bill suffered a bruising defeat last year when Gov. Ned Lamont vetoed it. This year things are different. Department of Correction Commissioner Angel Quiros and the advocates from Stop Solitary CT came up with a compromise.

Face the Facts: New Proposed Bill Aims to Limit Use of Solitary Confinement in Conn. Prisons

By Mike Hydeck, NBC Connecticut, April 17th, 2022

Solitary confinement policies are one contributing factor to the mental health challenges of the incarcerated population, according to Barbara Fair, who is a member of Stop Solitary CT. Recently, there was an agreement with the Department of Correction on language for a new bill that would limit the use of solitary confinement and increase oversight. NBC Connecticut's Mike Hydeck spoke with Fair about what the bill could change. (Click here for Part 2 of the interview, with reporter Kelan Lyons, and here for Part 3, with former state legislator Mike Lawlor.)

Justice Advocates Make Final Push

By Lisa Backus, CT News Junkie, April 14th, 2022

Alex Brown is on track to graduate from Central Connecticut State University with a degree in social work after completing all the necessary internships and courses, she said Wednesday. But she’s girding for a battle with the state Department of Public Health to secure a license because she has a criminal conviction that will likely make the process much harder. “I’ve completed everything I needed to do,” said the 32-year-old Brown who was released in 2014 after serving a four-and-a-half year sentence. “I want to be a licensed clinical social worker.” Brown was among the two dozen Smart Justice campaign leaders with the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut who rallied outside the Capitol Wednesday morning to get lawmakers to pass several criminal justice bills that have been approved by the Judiciary Committee.

ACLU voices support for key criminal justice reforms

By Jessica Bravo, CT Mirror, April 13th, 2022

The American Civil Liberties Union and other advocates on Wednesday rallied in support of legislation aimed at reforming key parts of the criminal justice process. The rally at the state Capitol was in support of four bills raised this session. SB 307 would increase prosecutor accountability with new protocols and training. SB 306 would prohibit police from using deceptive interrogation tactics. HB 5248 would allow those previously incarcerated to get an occupational license. SB 459 would end solitary confinement in prisons. 

Lawmakers Move to Limit Solitary Confinement (Again)

By Lisa Backus, CT News Junkie, April 1st, 2022

After a few minutes of discussion Thursday, for the second time, the Judiciary Committee approved a bill to limit solitary confinement in the state’s prisons and provide more oversight for the state Department of Correction. But after a bruising defeat last year when the legislature approved a similar bill only to have Gov. Ned Lamont veto it, advocates, including Stop Solitary Connecticut, plan to keep up the heat. “This is the first step of many before we can say our prisons in Connecticut are treating people humanely,” said Barbara Fair, a founding member of Stop Solitary CT who admitted she was excited that the bill will now move on to the Senate. “I was surprised by some of the people who voted in favor. They opened their hearts and their minds.”

The push to end solitary confinement in Connecticut intensifies as advocates try to change state law

By Claire Secrist, WSHU, March 28th, 2022

Connecticut prison reform advocates want lawmakers to pass a law to regulate the use of solitary confinement and improve correctional oversight. This comes after the state Judiciary Committee held a public hearing on Friday on several prison reform bills. Barbara Fair, co-founder of Stop Solitary CT, said her then 17-year-old son was allegedly tortured inside of Northern Correctional Facility, a now-closed supermax prison. “I witnessed first hand the irreparable damage isolation causes so I cannot rest until state-sanctioned abuse of incarcerated people is no longer an acceptable practice. No one should be allowed to degrade, humiliate and abuse another with impunity,” Fair said.

Connecticut residents, lawmakers testify on criminal justice bills

By Hannah Qu, Yale Daily News, March 27th, 2022

On Friday, the Connecticut General Assembly Judiciary Committee held a public hearing on several prison reform bills that would phase out solitary confinement, repeal lien, establish correctional oversight and expand medical service. During its 2021 session, the state legislature passed the PROTECT ACT, a bill aimed at establishing independent oversight of the prison system and reducing instances of solitary confinement. Gov. Ned Lamont vetoed the bill and replaced it with an executive order, which activists at organizations like Stop Solitary CT (SSCT) claim to be significantly less effective than the law. This year, activists and lawmakers are trying again to regulate the use of isolated confinement and ensure responsible oversight and accountability through SB 459.

In their own words: Prisoners testify on solitary confinement bill

By Kelan Lyons, CT Mirror, March 25th, 2022

For at least the second consecutive year, people incarcerated in the state’s prisons and jails wrote letters to legislators to express their support for a bill that would reduce the Department of Correction’s use of solitary confinement… Below are excerpts from letters submitted as written testimony. The first thing written in the top left of each envelope is the incarcerated person’s name. The second is the six-digit prisoner ID number provided to them by the state.  “I would like to remember how it feels to be a person, not just a number,” Robert Homar told legislators.

Correction Department, Stop Solitary Reach Agreement on Confinement Bill

By Lisa Backus, CT News Junkie, March 25th, 2022

After months of negotiations the state Department of Correction and Stop Solitary of Connecticut have reached an agreement to support a proposed bill with new language that would more tightly regulate solitary confinement and create an ombudsman and advisory committee to review policies and complaints. “Collectively, Stop Solitary CT and the DOC focused on the objective of minimizing the long-term impact of incarceration, while simultaneously maintaining a safe and secure environment for our staff and the individuals in our custody,” said DOC Commissioner Angel Quiros during a public hearing Friday.

In Connecticut, Opponents of Solitary Confinement Renew the Fight for Strong Legislation and Independent Oversight

By Mirilla Zhu, Solitary Watch, March 18th, 2022

At Connecticut’s Cheshire Correctional Institution, Muhammad and his blockmates are often locked in their cells for upwards of twenty-two hours a day. The lockdowns have put tremendous stress on the men, according to Muhammad, and when they are let out, guards sometimes curse at them and encourage fights. “Tempers are raging to a boiling point,” Muhammad wrote in a letter to Solitary Watch. “What will an animal do when you keep him caged up for so long?”

Against Solitary, In Solidarity

By Hannah Qu, The New Journal, March 15th, 2022

Colleen Lord rushed back to the kitchen to tend to the roast beef in the oven, leaving me for a few minutes to nervously explore her home. Her West Haven condo sat on the Long Island Sound with a window facing the water. The space was decorated with light blue and purple wallpaper, and a reproduction of a Monet painting hung on the wall. Photos of Colleen and her kids, smiling and rejoicing in each other’s company, stood on a ledge above the electric stove. To the left of these photos was a little memorial plaque made of black stone. “Carl Robert Talbot. May 30, 1988 - March 21, 2019,” it read. 

Mom Wants Answers in Son's Death in a Connecticut Prison

By Christine Stuart, NBC Connecticut, February 18th, 2022

Disturbing video shared by the family’s attorney raises new questions about how a 19-year-old man died while in custody at Suffield’s Walker Correctional facility. The man’s mother said a call for medical help took too long and the man passed away. “The hardest part for me is I may never find out what really happened in that cell, but I know they are responsible for the urgency, because if they had hurried up, Jamari would be alive today,” Melisia Taylor says.

Solitary confinement reemerges as criminal justice issue for lawmakers

By Kelan Lyons, CT Mirror, February 17th, 2022

Members of the state’s Judiciary Committee agreed on Wednesday to consider legislation ending the prison system’s use of solitary confinement, resuming a conversation that ended abruptly last year with a governor’s veto. The committee approved the concept in its first meeting of the legislative session, meaning its members agreed to draft a bill and hold a public hearing.

Campaign Continues to Demand End to Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons

By Ramon Garcia and Melinda Tuhus, February 16th, 2022

In 2021, 32 states and the federal government introduced legislation to ban or restrict the use of solitary confinement. At least six states passed bans and major restrictions, including Arkansas, Colorado, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. In 2021, the Connecticut General Assembly passed legislation to greatly reduce the use of solitary confinement in its prisons and jails, but Gov. Ned Lamont vetoed the bill, claiming it would create unsafe conditions for both inmates and staff, although data shows reducing the use of solitary increases safety for all.

Renewed Call To Change Incarceration Practices

By Lisa Backus, CT News Junkie, February 10th, 2022

Colleen Lord cried as she told a crowd of about 50 that their stories of solitary confinement while in state Department of Correction custody reminded her of her son Robby Talbot’s death while he was shackled and in isolation in March 2019. “We need oversight, we need transparency, we need accountability” Lord said after explaining that her son died after correction officers used an unreasonable amount of a chemical agent to subdue him and then left him shackled and alone.

Activists push for end of prison solitary confinements on first day of state legislative session

By Lindsey Kane, Fox 61, February 9th, 2022

Activists rallied together outside the State Capitol on Wednesday to push for an end to solitary confinement in prisons across the state. “That’s why we’re here to make sure our voices are heard,” said Barbara Fair, lead organizer of Stop Solitary Connecticut.

The Solitary Thousands: Locked Away in Connecticut’s Solitary Confinement Units

By Noel Sims and Shira Minsk, The Politic, Feburary 6th, 2022

A nineteen-year-old Michael Braham was dressed in only his boxers, a t-shirt, and socks when guards came to his cell after breakfast and took him to the solitary confinement unit of Corrigan Correctional Institution in Uncasville, CT.  “You get handcuffed, you get brought down to wherever the segregation unit is, and then you’re taken to a strip search…. And then they tell you ‘there’s two squares on the floor, stand on those squares,’ and they say ‘bend at the waist and open your buttocks,’ so they see inside,” Braham said. 

Advocates Look To Renew Push To Change Incarceration

By Lisa Backus, CT News Junkie, February 1st, 2022

Men start lining up at their cell doors about 10 minutes before inmates at Cheshire Correctional Institution are let out for recreation time each day, Ray Boyd recalled. “There are six showers and 12 phones for 52 men,” Boyd said. “Because they aren’t out of their cell, when you open those doors it’s like when you finally let the dog out and they go running.”

Connecticut jails and prisons unleash a new wave of constraints on life behind bars

By Megan Vaz, Yale Daily News, February 1st, 2022

In-person legal visits have been suspended in prisons and jails across the state of Connecticut, following a pattern of restrictions on life and legal services placed on the state’s incarcerated. The Connecticut Department of Correction has implemented policies that have drastically altered living conditions for imprisoned people due to the spread of the Omicron variant in facilities.

Reform advocates renew a push to ban solitary confinement in Connecticut prisons

By Clare Secrist, WSHU, January 18th, 2022

Hope Metcalf, a Yale Law School professor, said Connecticut lawmakers need to work on ending what she calls “torture” in state prisons. “Under international law, every state has an obligation not only not to torture but to prevent torture. And how do you prevent torture? You prevent torture by bringing sunshine and light and air — meaning the public — in. And so oversight is absolutely essential piers to ensure the humanity of a system,” Metcalf said.

Renewed Call to End Solitary Confinement

By Lisa Backus, CT News Junkie, December 9th, 2021

A group looking to stop the use of solitary confinement in Connecticut prisons is continuing its fight against the practice with a call to action Friday. Stop Solitary Connecticut will discuss conditions at the prisons and push again to pass legislation. Gov. Ned Lamont vetoed their efforts earlier this year. “We compromised last time and took it out,” Barbara Fair, a founding member of Stop Solitary CT, said. “This time we’re not compromising.”

Prisoner's death sparks calls to divert more short-term stays from Connecticut's prisons

By John Moritz, New Milford Spectrum, November 27th, 2021

Barbara Fair, a clinical social worker with the prison-advocacy group Stop Solitary CT, said Friday that state officials should be doing more to ensure the releases of incarcerated people who are elderly, pregnant or have underlying medical issues — while using rehabilitation services to treat people with drug or alcohol-related issues. “When we put people in jail, we’re really risking their lives, especially for very short sentences,” Fair said.

Seven Days in Solitary

By Roxanne Barnes, Solitary Watch, November 17th, 2021

Barbara Fair, lead organizer for the Connecticut movement Stop Solitary CT, wrote an op-ed in the Connecticut Mirror, arguing that a recent executive order from Governor Ned Lamont insufficiently shifts prison culture away from solitary confinement. Gov. Lamont issued the order shortly after vetoing the PROTECT Act, which would have restricted solitary confinement and provided outside oversight to ensure compliance. Fair describes how individuals in isolation are held on lockdown from Thursday to Sunday, stating that “the administrative staff is unaware this has been going on for months which is exactly why independent oversight and community input must be statutorily implemented.”

Spurred by executive order, prison system starts revising solitary confinement policies

By Kelan Lyons, CT Mirror, October 26th, 2021

“This change essentially adds another step, another review process,” said Karen Martucci, the agency’s director of external affairs. “Part of that discussion may be, ‘Are there alternatives? Is this is this going to be harmful to this individual?'”

But advocates remain frustrated that the Department of Correction is overseeing its own internal policies over how to treat the most marginalized people in its custody. “It’s very difficult to be optimistic about how DOC handles vulnerable populations, especially when they’re putting them in solitary confinement,” said Claudine Fox, the ACLU of Connecticut’s public policy and advocacy director. “This new directive entrusts the DOC to regulate itself regarding the health and well-being of the most vulnerable people it imprisons.”

With solitary confinement bill vetoed, hopes dashed for return of ombudsman

By Kelan Lyons, CT Mirror, August 1st, 2021

Leonard Engel spent much of his 16-year tenure as assistant ombudsman at Cheshire Correctional Institution, a building more than a century old that’s known informally as “The Rock.” As he’d interview prisoners who’d filed complaints about their living conditions, he’d see people getting shuttled in and out of “the hole,” cells used for punitive segregation located right next to the interview room. Once, he saw a man get dragged in after beating up a correction officer. Covered in blood, the man was babbling to himself. To Engel, it appeared the man was having a mental health crisis. Prison staff put the man in solitary confinement and placed him in restraints to make sure he didn’t hurt himself or anyone else.

“Who is going to bring this to their attention? ‘This is a problem that you’re not solving by shackling them to the bed?'” Engel asked, who reported what he saw to the warden. “Those things would bubble up through the ombuds.”  

Dozens of Yale faculty urge Lamont to restrict use of solitary confinement

By Ben Lambert, New Haven Register, June 19th, 2021

Dozens of faculty members from Yale University have sent a letter to Gov. Ned Lamont, urging him to limit the use of solitary confinement and create independent oversight of the Department of Correction by signing Senate Bill 1059 into law.

LISTEN: UConn Legend Caron Butler Wants Lamont To Limit Solitary Confinement 

By John Henry Smith, WNPR, June 8th, 2021

Both chambers of the state legislature over the weekend passed SB 1059 -- also known as the PROTECT Act. It’s a measure that would end the practice of long-term continuous solitary confinement for most inmates by mandating they be given at least 6 1/2 hours outside the cell each day. The measure would also curtail abusive shackling and strengthen oversight of the Department of Correction. To help persuade Gov. Ned Lamont to sign the bill into law, UConn basketball legend Caron Butler spoke to the legislature Monday. The current Miami Heat assistant coach joined All Things Considered to talk about the issue.

Former UConn basketball star Caron Butler recounts experience in solitary confinement, urges Gov. Ned Lamont to sign bill that would limit the practice

By Daniela Altimari, Hartford Courant, June 7th, 2021

Upon leaving prison as a teenager, Caron Butler was given some advice: “Don’t look back.”But Butler, a former UConn basketball star and NBA player-turned assistant coach, decided to ignore it. In recent years, he has spoken frequently about his experience, addressing it on late-night talk shows, in interviews and on Monday, outside the Connecticut Capitol. Butler came to the state to ask Gov. Ned Lamont to sign into law a bill that would place new limits on solitary confinement in the state’s prisons.

Former NBA star works to end solitary confinement in prisons

By Pat Eaton Robb, Associated Press, June 7th, 2021

Caron Butler can easily point to the lowest moment in his life — the days he spent as a teenager locked in a solitary confinement cell inside a juvenile prison. The former UConn and NBA star planned to be at Connecticut's state Capitol on Monday to ask Gov. Ned Lamont to sign legislation that would strictly limit the use of solitary confinement and other forms of inmate isolation in prisons.

UConn great Caron Butler endured solitary confinement. Now he's speaking out for change

By Jeff Jacobs, CT Post, June 7th, 2021

This weekend the Connecticut Senate and House passed the PROTECT Act — SB 1059 — that would end long-term isolation, abusive shackling and employ an oversight system for the Department of Corrections. It awaits only the signature of Gov. Lamont. It is a strong piece of legislation. It is a just piece of legislation. “When I got wind of 1059, I mean, this is something I personally experienced,” Butler said. “I have loved ones who have personally experienced it. I have family members who work in corrections on a day to day basis.

Senate passes solitary confinement bill

By Kelan Lyons, CT Mirror, June 4th, 2021

In years past, the advocacy group Stop Solitary CT brought a replica of a cell used for solitary confinement to the Capitol. Legislators were invited to step inside the concrete and metal box, to experience in part what it’s like to be locked up in isolated confinement. Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, had spent several hours in it.“That experience, even though I knew I could open the door, even though I knew I had complete control, became disorienting,” Winfield said. “This issue that has been in front of the General Assembly is about the way in which we treat people who have done some things that have landed them in our prisons, but who remain human beings, and about whether or not we treat them as such.”

Despite pricey fiscal note, solitary confinement bill passes out of committee

By Kelan Lyons, CT Mirror, May 24th, 2021

Lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee voted 30-16 Monday to advance a bill that would sharply curtail the use of isolated confinement on people incarcerated in state correctional facilities. The vote comes after the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis released a report predicting the bill would cost the state around $20 million in fiscal years 2022 and 2023.

One Cell, a Lifetime of Pain: Waking to the Truth of Solitary Confinement

By Diana D’Abruzzo, Arnold Ventures, May 19th, 2021

Unlock the Box, which launched less than three years ago, has quickly gone from supporting three state campaigns to 18, supporting grassroots efforts and centering the voices of solitary survivors and their families. Last year, 26 states introduced 63 pieces of legislation to restrict or prohibit the use of solitary, with seven states passing reform, Sandoval said. And this year, 75 pieces of legislation have been introduced in 32 states, including in Connecticut,where last month the PROTECT Act — which would essentially end solitary confinement in the state — made it out of committee with bipartisan support.

Judge hears arguments in suit alleging abuse in CT prison system

By Tatiana Flowers, CT Post, May 1st, 2021

The lawsuit, Disability Rights Connecticut v Department of Correction, was filed Feb. 4, and originally sought to end those practices at Northern Correctional Institution, the state’s only supermax prison, scheduled to shutter by July 1. But the plaintiff recently expanded the lawsuit to include all Connecticut prisons, to prevent the Department of Correction from transferring the alleged harmful practices to their other facilities, if and when, Northern closes.

Lawsuit over solitary confinement in limbo as state pushes for mediation

By Kelan Lyons, CT Mirror, April 30th, 2021

Even when Northern closes, the complaint reads, Disability Rights Connecticut’s constituents “will remain in DOC custody and remain subject to and/or at imminent risk of prolonged isolation and in-cell shackling in other Connecticut state correctional institutions.”The state, meanwhile, is trying to get rid of the case. They filed a motion to dismiss it, along with a motion that would prevent any discovery in the case until the court rules on whether to dismiss the lawsuit….The legislative session ends June 9. If legislators pass the PROTECT Act, the lawsuit’s focus could be narrowed, Dooley said — not to mention that Northern will be closed in less than 90 days.”

Judiciary Committee votes for sweeping solitary confinement reform

By Razel Suansing, Yale Daily News, April 15th, 2021

After successfully pushing to close the state’s only maximum-security prison this year, Connecticut activists are advocating for more reforms in the state’s solitary confinement practices. The PROTECT Act — which stands for Promoting Responsible Oversight and Treatment, and Effective Correctional Transparency — was passed with bipartisan support by the legislative Judiciary Committee on Thursday. The bill would implement new limitations on solitary confinement and increase support for Department of Correction staff, among other policies. At the hearing, several activists spoke in favor of the bill, while CT DOC Commissioner Angel Quiros spoke against it. New Haven legislators Rep. Robyn Porter and Sen. Martin Looney are among the bill’s co-sponsors. The bill now awaits a vote on the Senate floor.

Efforts Continue to End Solitary Confinement In Connecticut Prisons 

By Tess Terrible, Lucy Nalpathanchil, and Joseph Vazquez, CT Public Radio, March 30th, 2021

One of the harshest punishments you can receive in prison is solitary confinement. Advocates say solitary confinement does more harm than good - leaving the incarcerated with lasting mental health problems that go beyond the duration of their served sentence. This hour, we talk with advocates in our state who are working to end solitary confinement. And we will hear from someone who experienced solitary confinement

Campaign Launched to End Solitary Confinement in Connecticut Prisons

By Melinda Tuhus, Between the Lines, March 24th, 2021

Efforts to end or reduce solitary confinement in prisons and jails around the U.S. have had some success recently.  Solitary reform in New Jersey in 2019 states: “No person can be isolated for more than 20 days in a row, or for more than 30 days during any 60-day period.” In mid-March, the New York legislature passed the HALT Act, which limits the number of consecutive days an inmate can spend in solitary confinement to 15 days.

Former Prisoners, Staff, Activists Testify on Connecticut’s Use of Solitary

By Emilia Otte, CT Examiner, March 22nd, 2021

As a number of former prisoners, activists, Department of Correction staff and ministers urged the Connecticut legislature to eliminate solitary confinement, Department of Correction Commissioner Angel Quiros asked instead for the time to lead the agency through a shift in culture. In a public hearing on Monday, a number of former prisoners testified on Senate Bill 1059, which would limit the use of isolated confinement and restraints, and would forbid the use of solitary on individuals with a diagnosed mental health condition.

Advocates push for free telephone calls for Connecticut inmates and restrictions on solitary confinement

By Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, March 22nd, 2021

In a continuing push for criminal justice reforms, advocates called Monday for free telephone calls for incarcerated people and restricting the use of solitary confinement in Connecticut prisons.During an hours-long public hearing on multiple bills in front of the legislature’s judiciary committee, advocates said that maintaining ties to family members is important to the inmates’ mental health — as shown by the impacts of isolation during the coronavirus pandemic. This is necessary, they said, as the inmates prepare to reenter society when they are released, including young people who are often from low-income families.

Writing from their prison cells, the incarcerated submit testimony about their time in solitary confinement

By Kelan Lyons, CT Mirror, March 22, 2021

Joe Baltas started getting placed in solitary confinement shortly after getting admitted to prison at age 18. Some of the reasons were frivolous, he claimed, like not walking fast enough.“Conn[ecticut Department of Correction] has done nothing but weaponize isolation confinement against its prisoners, to no affect but destroying people,” Baltas wrote to legislators of administrative segregation, a status the department uses on incarcerated people who pose a threat to themselves or others. “All AS isolation ends in people getting worse, hurting themselves or killing themselves.” As the Judiciary Committee geared up Monday to hear from the public on a number of bills related to life inside state correctional facilities, they received written testimony from at least nine people currently in prison. All spoke up in support of the PROTECT Act.

Push to eliminate solitary confinement in Connecticut

By Tony Terzi, Fox 61, March 11th, 2021

A local movement to end the use of solitary confinement in Connecticut is gaining steam.The advocacy group Stop Solitary CT today rallied outside New Haven Correctional calling for lawmakers to adopt alternatives to solitary confinement, as other states have."We are in the front of this battle to stop the torture of our family members before behind these bars and so many other bars around the state," said New Haven activist Barbara Fair, whose son was among those in solitary in prison at age 17.

Connecticut’s sole supermax prison is closing. What comes next for the men who used to be on death row?

By Kelan Lyons, CT Mirror, March 11th, 2021

The PROTECT Act was proposed by Stop Solitary CT. Rahisha Bivens, an organizer with the group and a licensed clinical social worker, said each man’s punishment is their lifelong loss of liberty, not permanent solitary confinement. Barring extraordinary circumstances — a commutation or sentence modification — each of the men held on special circumstances will all die in prison.“People being confined for the rest of their lives behind bars, in a cell, for most of the day, where they’re never gonna return to society, is punishment enough,” Bivens said. “I think that we underestimate what that’s like for people, and the impact that has on people changing, to whatever degree it’s possible to change, and not have the mentality they had when they committed their crime.”

The Cost Of COVID: Remembering The First Connecticut Inmate To Die Of COVID-19 

By Ali Oshinskie, March 10th, 2021

Still, none of that could ensure inmate safety, according to Barbara Fair, an advocate for better prison conditions with Stop Solitary Connecticut.“I was getting letters from people in prison talking about how the correctional officers were walking around without masks,” Fair said, “so they felt like they were sitting ducks.”Fair looked to Gov. Ned Lamont early in the pandemic to use his executive powers to release large groups of inmates early in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. While Fair found the approach lacking, the rate of early releases was at its highest in a decade in 2020. Still, Fair and other advocates question the whole approach to inmate safety. She wondered whether racism affects their view of inmates. “Is it because these are Black and brown people that there’s no plan to preserve their lives?”

Legislation and Lawsuit Take Aim At Solitary Confinement in Connecticut Prisons

By Emilia Otte, CT Examiner, March 2nd, 2021

Correction Officers say that they need tools like solitary confinement to maintain their control over inmates — and there are cases where Kevnesha Boyd agrees this is true — but only, she says, because the culture of the state’s Department of Correction emphasizes the use of force over rehabilitation.  Boyd, a counselor who worked in the state’s Department of Correction for four years, says the things she witnessed handling intake at New Haven Correctional Center ultimately drove her to leave her job. “It started to eat me up, because it’s just like traumatic event after traumatic event,” she said. 

Advocacy Group Says Ending Solitary Confinement Would Save The State Money

By Lisa Backus, February 26th, 2021

An advocacy group that wants to end the practice of isolating inmates in prison says reducing isolation could save the state as much as $17 million annually. The savings projected in the report by Stop Solitary CT do not include the $12.6 million that the state will save when Northern Correctional Institution, Connecticut’s only “supermax” prison, closes on July 1, said Stop Solitary CT Steering Committee member and organizer Joseph Gaylin.

Advocates of Prison Reform Aim to Overhaul State’s Solitary Confinement

By Emilia Otte, CT Examiner, February 19th, 2021

The closure of Northern Correctional Facility in Somers, which Gov. Ned Lamont officially announced earlier this month, is a victory for prison reform activists that has taken years. But for human rights lawyer Hope Metcalf and State Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, it’s only the beginning.  As executive director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale University, Metcalf has been working with a team of lawyers to represent the nonprofit Disability Rights Connecticut in a lawsuit against the Connecticut Department of Correction alleging the “the persistent and deliberate abuse of people with mental illness [through prolonged] isolation and sensory deprivation, and forcible in-cell shackling.”

Closing Conn.’s Only 'Supermax' Prison Was 20 Years In The Making For This Advocate 

By Davis Dunavin, WSHU, February 15th, 2021

Connecticut's only maximum security prison — Northern Correctional Institution — will close in July, according to Governor Ned Lamont. Northern houses more than 50 inmates. Barbara Fair, an activist with Stop Solitary CT, has worked for more than 20 years to close the prison. Her crusade began in 1998 when her son was sent to Northern.

Connecticut Department of Corrections closes Northern Correctional Institution

By Razel Saunsing, Yale Daily News, February 14th, 2021

For Stop Solitary CT activist Barbara Fair, the opposition is more personal. Fair detailed her experience viewing her son’s pretrial cell in the Northern Correctional Institution to the News. “I’ve seen how tight the space was and I just broke down,” Fair said. “I can’t believe my son was in a physically tight space like this.”

Lamont Pitches Criminal Justice Reforms As Part of Budget

By Lisa Backus, CT News Junkie, February 10th, 2021

“Savings from prison closures, in particular the closure of Northern, must be used to protect the lives of incarcerated people,” Stop Solitary CT said in a statement issued after the budget was released. “The closure of Northern will not memorialize Connecticut’s progress as a national leader in correction policy if the state does not commit to a change in policy. We must end prolonged isolation throughout the DOC (Department of Correction) and invest in external oversight.”

Criminal justice advocates push for more policy change after Gov. Lamont announces closure of CT prison

By Samaia Hernandez, WTNH, February 10th, 2021

Governor Ned Lamont started the week announcing the closure of a maximum-security prison but criminal justice advocates say more should be done. Leighton Johnson spent five years at Northern Correctional Institution in Somers. He says some inmates spent so much time in isolation that they barely saw the light of day. “That destroys families. That destroys people’s minds. That destroys a person. It either exasperates or introduces mental illnesses,” said Johnson.

State To Close Supermax Prison

By Lisa Backus, CT News Junkie, February 8th, 2021

The state officials announced that Northern Correctional Institution, the state’s only “supermax” prison, would close by July 1. The announcement comes as good news for advocates who had been calling to close the maximum security prison or years. “I’ve been waiting to hear those words for as long as I can remember,” said Barbara Fair, who has been advocating or an end to solitary confinement for decades after her 17-year-old son was placed in Northern CI for months in 1999. “Right now I am completely overwhelmed.”

Disability Rights, ACLU Sue State Over Conditions At Supermax

By Lisa Backus, CT News Junkie, February 4th, 2021

An advocacy agency for people with disabilities filed a federal lawsuit today against state Department of Correction Commissioner Angel Quiros and a warden citing “horrendous” conditions at the state’s “supermax” prison, Northern Correctional Institution, that equate to “torture” for inmates with mental illness…Advocates including Stop Solidarity CT have called as recently as this week for the closing of the prison and a stop to “administrative segregation,” a polite term for indefinite solitary confinement for at times seemingly minor offenses.

Advocates push to end solitary confinement at CT prisons

By Lisa Backus, CT Post, February 1st, 2021

The PROTECT Act, proposed this legislative session, would end the use of solitary confinement in the state’s prisons, create an avenue for greater Department of Correction oversight and shutter Connecticut’s maximum security facility, Northern Correctional Institution. Barbara Fair, a founding member of Stop Solitary CT, recalled Monday when she watched her 17-year-old son brought out for a visit in shackles while he was being held in Northern.

Activists and legislators push bill to stop solitary confinement and shutter Northern Correctional Institute

By Talat Aman, Yale Daily News, February 1st, 2021

Stop Solitary has organized for an end to solitary confinement since 2017. As of Monday, the organization has collected 1,000 signatures on a petition calling for the state government to take up the bill. At Monday’s virtual Zoom event, legislators and advocates, many of whom brought personal or familial experiences with solitary confinement, stressed the toll the practice can have on prisoners’ mental health. “We go to the extreme to dehumanize people that are serving time for crimes that they have been convicted of,” state Rep. Robyn Porter, D-Hamden, said on the call. “The loss of freedom is enough punishment — solitary confinement is inhumane.”

Connecticut Legislators Announce Bill To Close 'Supermax' Prison 

By Davis Dunavin, WSHU, February 1st, 2021

A group of Connecticut lawmakers are again trying to close a controversial Supermax prison and put other criminal justice reform measures in place. The bill would shut down and demolish Northern Correctional Institute by the end of the year. Northern has been criticized for its use of solitary confinement, including by a U.N. torture expert. The prison served as an isolation unit for inmates with COVID-19 from March to September of last year.

Connecticut inmate advocates call for closing Northern ‘supermax’ in Somers

By Alex Wood, Journal Inquirer, January 20th, 2021

Barbara Fair, a licensed clinical social worker with an organization called Stop Solitary CT, called Northern a “dungeon.” If it is closed, she said, its programming, which she called “torture,” shouldn’t be moved to another prison.

Coalition Calls For Closing Supermax Prison

By Maya McFadden, New Haven Register, January 20th, 2021

The advocates called into question the prison’s restrictive policies and treatment of inmates. “Northern is a place primarily filled with young men of color. They’re sent there to break their spirits, to shatter their minds and to reduce them to broken men who face a lifetime of scars from that torture,” Fair said.

Advocates call for closure of Northern Correctional, reinvestment in community supports

By Kelan Lyons, CT Mirror, January 19th, 2020

“Northern is a place primarily filled with young men of color,” Barbara Fair, a steering committee member of Stop Solitary CT, one of the groups leading the charge to close the prison, said on Tuesday’s Zoom call. “They’re sent there to break their spirit, to shatter their minds and to reduce them to broken men who face a lifetime of scars from that torture.”

Calls To Close Supermax Grow As Legislative Session Gets Underway

By Hugh McQuaid, CT News Junkie, January 19th, 2020

Advocates for people in Connecticut prisons called Tuesday for the closure of Northern Correctional Institution in Somers and the redirection of its operating budget towards programs and services aimed at helping former prison inmates. Northern, the state’s only maximum security prison, was reviled throughout a midday Zoom conference as a “dungeon” and a “monument to racism.” Its continued operation amounted to the “state sanctioned terror” of the inmates incarcerated there, said Barbara Fair, an advocate with anti-solitary confinement group Stop Solitary CT.

Connecticut Prisoner Rights Advocates Push For Closure Of 'Supermax' Prison 

By Davis Dunavin, WSHU, January 19th, 2020

“Northern is a place primarily filled with young men of color. They’re sent there to break their spirit, to shatter their minds and to reduce them to broken men who face a lifetime of scars from that torture,” Fair said…“If we have chosen to create a system in which we break people, when those people come back out of the system, we should be doing something about the fact that those are the choices we’ve made, and never make those choices again,” Winfield said.

‘In there, that’s a lot of money:’ Advocates push to get inmates stimulus checks after federal court ruling

By Kelan Lyons, CT Mirror, October 9th, 2020

“Out here, $1,200 ain’t [much], but in there that’s a lot of money,” said Leighton Johnson, education outreach coordinator with Stop Solitary CT… Most of all, Johnson said, the money could restore a sense of agency that’s sorely missing when your life is controlled by prison officials. For instance, food is currency in correctional facilities, said Johnson, who spent 11 years behind bars.

After two sessions, no legislation on prison conditions leaves advocates frustrated

By Kelan Lyons, CT Mirror, September 29th, 2020

“In January when the full session opens, since our leaders are not going to be discussing us in this session, we need to make sure that the boldest, most courageous legislators are leading in the House and the Senate to make sure our voices are heard,” said Barbara Fair, a member of Stop Solitary CT’s steering committee. “Passing the PROTECT Act is a mandate for 2021.”

United Nations Official Says Connecticut’s Use of Solitary May Amount to Torture

By David Reutter, Prison Legal News, September 1st, 2020

“The [Connecticut] DOC appears to routinely resort to repressive measures, such as prolonged or indefinite isolation, excessive use of in cell restraints, and needlessly intrusive strip searches,” said Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. “There seems to be a state-sanctioned policy aimed at purposefully inflicting pain or suffering, physical or mental, which may well amount to torture.”

Protesters hold ‘die-in’ at state Capitol, march in New Haven as busy weekend of George Floyd demonstrations continues

By Shawn McFarland, Nicholas Rondinone, and Steven Goode, Hartford Courant, June 5th, 2020

Protesters held another day of demonstrations across Connecticut Friday as the movement spurred by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis continues to lead to calls for reforms to reduce police violence A rally in Hartford began with a march from downtown, through Bushnell Park and to the Capitol. The event, organized by the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut and Stop Solitary CT, an organization that aims to end solitary confinement in the prison system, drew a crowd of about 100.

Lamont challenged after seventh inmate dies from coronavirus

By  Gregory B. Hladky, Kelan Lyons, and Mark Pazniokas, CT Mirror, May 27th, 2020

Lamont tried to explain the administration’s efforts to contain the disease in prison, including the testing of all inmates. Barbara Fair of West Haven, who has written opinion columns and demonstrated on prison issues such as solitary confinement, immediately interrupted.“But people are still dying, and you could have released some of those people, but you decided you didn’t want to do that,” Fair said, shouting to the governor during a news conference at a COVID testing site on the New Haven Green. “Now, what I’d like to know is why are those lives disposable, that you don’t even have a plan to release?”

Clergy ask Lamont to reduce prison population amid pandemic

By Register Staff, New Haven Register, May 18th, 2020

The letter follows the decision of U.S. District Judge Janet Arterton, who ruled that the ACLU of Connecticut’s class-action suit against Lamont and Department of Correction Commissioner Rollin Cook on the prison issue can proceed due to the “life-and-death consequences at stake.”Calling the prisons a “petri dish,” they pointed out that COVID-19 has infected some 598 prisoners and 369 staff , while 6 prisoners have died.Others who already have shared this message with the governor include Yale University faculty, Stop Solitary CT, Katal, the CT Bail Fund and Smart Justice.

Prisons Are Using the Pandemic to Impose Lockdowns

By MichelleChen, TheProgressive, May 14th, 2020

Leighton Johnson, an organizer with Stop Solitary CT, who himself spent years in solitary confinement at Northern, said in an interview many incarcerated people have been telling family members that they feared not only getting infected, but also being transferred to Northern. “People are calling home crying saying that they don’t want to die,” he said.

Release Connecticut’s Prisoners? Health Experts, Activists Urge “Decarceration” to Slow Pandemic

By Sayuri Gavaskar, May 12th, 2020

“Prisons and jails are institutional amplifiers of infectious disease, and decarceration is what’s best for Connecticut, inside and outside corrections facilities,” Gonsalves said. “We are hoping the governor will do the right thing.”… Among the participants were representatives from Stop Solitary-Connecticut; Sex Workers and Allies Network, Greater Hartford Harm Reduction Coalition, Katal Center for Health, Equity, and Justice; Alliance for Living; Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health; Yale Global Health Justice Partnership; and One Standard of Justice.

The Many Protests of the Coronavirus Pandemic

By Sarah Holder, CityLab, April 27, 2020

But rallying groups now, even at a limited capacity, will have dividends later, says Leighton Johnson, another organizer with Stop Solitary CT. He believes the techniques the group is adopting now — lawsuits, car protests, social media blasts, shame campaigns — will help them to come out of lockdown stronger. “It’s teaching people how to campaign virtually, and I think it’s going to … give more ammunition for the fight,” he said.

Prisons hit by a pandemic, In Connecticut, the COVID-19 crisis has brought the prison healthcare system under even further scrutiny.

By Meera Shoaib, Yale Daily News, April 22, 2020

“Solitary confinement is bad enough on its own, but when you start to have massive numbers of people without adequate planning at a facility that is known for inhumane treatment — you’re going to see incredibly devastating conditions,” Joseph Gaylin, a steering member for the social justice organization Stop Solitary CT, told the News in an interview. “The other problem is that, since they know they’re going to face something akin to solitary confinement, transferring COVID-positive inmates to Northern CI disincentivizes people from self-reporting their symptoms.”

Confined? Are we killers or saviors?

By James Walker, Real Talk, Real People, April 20th, 2020

There are more than 11,000 people locked up in the Connecticut prison system who are potentially on death row as COVID-19 slithers through the densely populated spaces. Should some of them be released in an effort to keep them from potentially becoming infected and infecting others? The governor says no; Rahisha Bivens and Barbara Fair of Stop Solitary CT yes -- and give their reasons why. 

Lamont Won’t Free Prisoners During the Pandemic

By Stanley Heller, The Struggle, April 16th, 2020

Interview with Barbara Fair of StopSolitaryCT after an Easter Sunday demonstration in front of the CT Governor's mansion. Though conditions in a prison make physical separation impossible CT Gov. Lamont isn't giving any even temporary freedom. At the close of the interview Fair talks about the case of a prisoner who died of the Coronavirus. He has been serving a two-year term for possession of a weapon.

State Reports First Inmate Death From COVID-19; Advocates Demand Meeting

By Lisa Backus, CT News Junkie, April 14th, 2020

Representatives from the Katal Center, Stop Solitary CT, One Standard of Justice and Second Chance Educational Alliance planned to present a document recommending the release of thousands of inmates, including those with less than a year remaining to serve and 1,556 people in prison for technical violations. The document drafted by Joseph Gaylin, a Dwight Hall Criminal Justice Fellow at Yale University and a steering committee member of Stop Solitary CT, estimates there are 3,089 more who are being held without having been sentenced. Gaylin also concludes that vast numbers of the 5,314 inmates who are parole-eligible should be released.

Protestors Fear CT Prisons are a COVID Death Sentence

By Brian Didlake II, Fox 61, April 13th, 2020

The state Department of Public Health released data showing higher rates of infections and mortalities for minority communities, which fueled the fire under demonstrators. They say it’s time to act. [Barbara] Fair said, “I feel that has a lot to do with why there is no immediate plan to release this because the majority of the people that are in these conditions are black and brown people and so there is no urgency to even hear our pain.”

State prisons releasing inmates due to coronavirus as positive tests rise

By Kaitlan Krasselt, CT Post, April 6th, 2020

“They say they are separating the infected population in quarantine but right now they’re actually putting people into solitary confinement,” said Rahisha Bivens, whose brother has been incarcerated for three years, pre-trial, at Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown. Bivens is a justice advocate for Stop Solitary CT. Bivens said she appreciates the accelerated releases but said it’s not enough at a time when more releases could “prevent a pandemic.”

Advocates Urge Prisoner Releases Before Virus Strikes

By Lisa Backus, CT News Junkie, March 17, 2020

…Dozens of organizations and hundreds of individuals sent a letter to Gov. Ned Lamont Monday asking state officials to release as many people from Connecticut’s prisons as possible before the virus strikes the prison population…

The advocates, including Stop Solitary Connecticut and the Lowenstein Clinic at Yale Law School, are calling on Lamont and the state Department of Correction to release as many people as quickly as possible to combat the spread of the virus in state prisons and save lives.

Hundreds Call for Release from Prisons to Protect Inmates from Coronavirus

By Ed Stannard, New Haven Register, March 16, 2020

Advocates for incarcerated people have called on Gov. Ned Lamont to reduce the number of people occupying the state’s prisons and jails to protect them from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coalition said in an open letter that those in prisons and jails live in unsanitary conditions and are unable to keep a safe distance from others. “In times of public health crisis, these dangers are compounded, and the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception,” the letter states. “People in confinement, who have no control over their own movement and must be in close quarters, are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreaks.”

State Organizations Seek Prisoner Release due to Virus Concerns

By Lauren Sellew, Record-Journal, March 16, 2020

A number of organizations are calling for Gov. Ned Lamont to release as many state prisoners as possible and place a moratorium on new admissions into prisons during the COVID-19 crisis. 

The groups published an open letter to Lamont calling for urgent action to protect people in the prisons and jails, including employees.

The Tom Ficklin Show with Barbara Fair: Solitary Confinement

By Barbara Fair, The Tom Ficklin Show, March 10, 2020

Stop Solitary CT Steering Committee Member, Barbara Fair, discusses the state of solitary confinement in Connecticut with James Jeter and Daquan Young, giving a candid look at the reality of the prison system and the emphasizing the need for concrete legislative change.

Stowe Prize 2020 Awarded to Albert Woodfox for Memoir “Solitary”

By Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, March 2, 2020

The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center is honoring Albert Woodfox, known as one of the Angola Three, as the 2020 Stowe Prize winner. Woodfox receives the award for Solitary, his memoir about the four decades he spent in solitary confinement for a crime he did not commit.

United States: Prolonged Solitary Confinement Amounts to Psychological Torture, says UN expert

By United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, February 28, 2020

"For years, my mandate has raised concerns about the worldwide overuse of solitary confinement…Most recently, the practices of the Connecticut Department of Corrections (the DOC) have been brought to my attention…The DOC appears to routinely resort to repressive measures, such as prolonged or indefinite isolation, excessive use of in-cell restraints and needlessly intrusive strip searches," the expert said. "There seems to be a State-sanctioned policy aimed at purposefully inflicting severe pain or suffering, physical or mental, which may well amount to torture."

UN official criticizes Conn. prison practices as torture

By Chris Ehrmann, Associated Press, February 28, 2020

An expert on torture with the United Nations is calling out the use of solitary confinement as punishment in Connecticut prisons, saying it could amount to psychological torture. On Friday, Nils Melzer, special rapporteur on torture for the UN, criticized the use of solitary confinement in the United States but specifically mentioned Connecticut’s Department of Correction’s practices.

CT’s use of solitary confinement could amount to torture, UN says

By Kelan Lyons, February 28th, 2020

The Connecticut Department of Corrections’s use of prolonged solitary confinement could inflict psychological torture on inmates, a United Nations human rights expert said Friday. The critique came in a press release speaks broadly to the use of solitary confinement across the U.S. but specifically mentioned the Connecticut’s system.

“The DOC appears to routinely resort to repressive measures, such as prolonged or indefinite isolation, excessive use of in-cell restraints and needlessly intrusive strip searches,” said Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture.

At The Capitol: A Demonstration Of Solitary Confinement

By Lori Mack, February 25th, 2020

“This is not correction right here,” Tillman told a crowd of legislators and advocates. “This is torture. Placing a person in prolonged isolation, it messes with your mind. It also has a physical effect on you. It’s like giving people a life sentence. And after being out since 2006, it hasn’t gone away yet.”

Sen. Gary Winfield is pushing for a measure to eliminate the use of long-term isolated confinement. He said a bill is headed to the judiciary committee, which he co-chairs. 

Legislators, advocates voice support for ending solitary confinement in Connecticut

By Amanda Blanco, February 25th, 2020

“It’s an important part of the conversation to give legislators even the slightest inkling of what it’s like in a solitary cell," said state Sen. Gary Winfield, a New Haven Democrat who co-chairs the judiciary committee. “Every legislator should spend time in the cell before making a decision on this legislation."

“Connecticut is one of the only states in the country with little to no independent oversight over the Department of Correction," said Barbara Fair, a steering committee member of Stop Solitary CT. “When we talk about ending the use of torture in our prison system, we need a mechanism to ensure that actually happens.”

‘This is torture,’ former inmate advocates ending solitary confinement

By Walker Strong, February 25th, 2020

Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, joined Stop Solitary CT in unveiling a 5,000-pound replica prison cell at the state Capitol Tuesday as part of an effort to end solitary confinement in Connecticut’s prisons.

“Correction means to correct something. But this is not correction, this is torture,” said James Tillman, who was wrongly convicted and served more than 18 years in prison for a rape he never committed.

Connecticut's 'Monument' to Tough-on-Crime Era Sits Almost Empty as Justice Reforms Shine

By Kelan Lyons, January 29, 2020 - USAToday

It’s not the rows of barbed wire along the building’s exterior, nor the locked metal door at the entrance. It’s not the buzzer for requesting entry, nor the distinct lack of windows; not the guard at the entrance and not the metal detector. It’s the thick, stale air inside Northern Correctional Institution that cuts you off from the outside world. The trapped oxygen between its silvery, worn floors and ceilings, caught between narrow hallways and cinder-block walls, lock you in.

The prison is a “monument” to another era, when officials locked up the “worst of the worst,” Dan Barrett, American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut’s legal director told me during the course of my reporting on the facility. “I see Northern as the apex of a failed model.” 

Will Solitary Confinement End in 2020?

By Sam Gurwitt, January 27, 2020 - New Haven Independent

When model solitary confinement cells sat on display at the state Capitol and in New Haven’s Ives Memorial Library, David Yaccarino walked into one to see what some inmates in Connecticut prisons experience.

Pictures of Democrats like State Sen. Gary Winfield and State Rep. Robyn Porter in those cells circulated in the news during that 2017 political exhibit. The experience, said Yaccarino, affected him too, and now, he might be ready in 2020 to support a bill that bans the practice in the state, depending on the language.

Activists Press for New Law Abolishing Solitary Confinement and Capping Inmate Cell Time at 16 Hours Daily

By Josh Kovner, January 23, 2020 - Hartford Courant

Against a backdrop of heightened scrutiny over the Department of Correction’s use of solitary confinement, a group of seasoned activists, lawyers, clergy and parents is pressing for a law this legislative session that would abolish the practice and limit an inmate’s maximum cell time to 16 hours a day.

Inmates who are isolated under one of DOC’s several versions of solitary confinement are now locked in their cells up to 23 hours a day. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the use of solitary confinement at the Manson Youth Institute in Cheshire, and a federal judge in August ruled that the isolation and other conditions of confinement of a former death row inmate at Northern Correctional Institute amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. The judge ordered the state to relax some of those conditions.

Advocates Push to Curtail Solitary Confinement in CT Prisons

By Kelan Lyons, January 23, 2020 - CT Mirror

It’s been 20 years, and James Tillman still hasn’t forgotten what it felt like the first time he trudged down the narrow, gray hallways into the bowels of Northern Correctional Institution.

“It was like walking into the circle of hell,” said the wrongfully convicted inmate-turned-activist. “The conditions are so terrible – worse than any animals could be subject to.”

Tillman told his story to a crowd of about two dozen people gathered in front of the state Capitol on Thursday afternoon as he threw his support behind a proposal that will be released this upcoming legislative session.

The Growing Fight Against Solitary Confinement

By Michelle Chen January 13, 2020

In July 2010, Leighton Johnson wrote a letter to advocacy groups, calling attention to the horrors he had witnessed in solitary confinement in a supermax prison in Connecticut.

“There are so many things that are going on in this building that are unjust, inhumane and basic violations of our rights. But we have no voice,” Johnson wrote. “I’m hoping this will open some eyes and cause some action to be taken . . . . We are human beings and should be treated as such, despite our status as prisoners.”

CT Prison Reformers Seek Legislation to End Solitary Confinement

By Ed Stannard, December 11, 2019

Calling solitary confinement a form of torture and modern-day slavery, Stop Solitary CT on Tuesday night at the Ives Memorial Library called for reform of the state’s prison system, including closing down the maximum-security Northern Correctional Institution in Somers.

According to Hope Metcalf, of the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School, one of Stop Solidarity CT’s partners, while they are not in “hermetically sealed cells … most people at Northern are truly in solitary confinement. The only way they can speak to another human being is through a vent in the door” or through the pipes from their sinks.

In the first of three phases in isolation, “I’m chained up,” Leighton said. “Everywhere I go, every time I leave the cell I have to be chained up.” In the second phase, four-point shackles are removed but prisoners must wear handcuffs.

Almost Empty: “Monument” to Punishment-Heavy ’90s Sees Sharp Population Decline

By Kelan Lyons, September 4, 2019

The air trapped in the narrow, windowless hallways of Northern Correctional Institution feels thick and tense. The Somers facility seems like it’s underground, its inmates even further isolated from the outside world than those incarcerated in other prisons around the state.

The gray concrete floors and cinderblock walls give Dan Barrett, the ACLU of Connecticut’s legal director, the impression he’s in a mortuary, not the state’s most secure penitentiary.

“It’s so quiet. It’s so desolate. The footsteps echo,” Barrett said. “The place is like a tomb.

Federal Ruling on Conditions of Confinement Leaves State Unsure of Next Step

By Kelan Lyons, August 30, 2019

A federal judge’s ruling earlier this week that the state is imprisoning former death row inmates under cruel and unusual conditions at Northern Correctional Institution could upend the way Connecticut treats prisoners who were originally sentenced to die.

State officials would not say Thursday whether they intend to appeal the ruling by U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill.

They Survived Solitary Confinement. Now They’re Fighting to End It.

By Victoria Law, August 12, 2019

For nine and a half months, Lydia Thornton was locked into her cell nearly 24 hours a day. All of her meals were slid through a slot in the cell’s steel door. She was allowed outside to shower three times each week. Through cinderblock walls, she could hear women in adjoining cells screaming for hours on end. Sometimes they threatened to kill themselves, a threat often followed by an eerie silence.

This was administrative segregation, or “ad seg,” in New Jersey’s prison system. Ad seg is one of the many official terms for solitary confinement; other systems call it punitive segregation, special housing units and keeplock. Regardless of the name, the reality is that people spend nearly 24 hours locked in their cell each day with little to no human contact.

Thornton has been out of prison since 2015. Since then, she’s been fighting to ensure that others don’t go through that same experience.

Yale Law School Clinic Asks U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture to Declare Connecticut Department of Correction “Tortures” in CT Prisons

Yale Law School’s Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic filed an allegation letter to the United Nations documenting the use of solitary confinement and other abusive practices by the Connecticut Department of Correction, arguing that such practices constitute torture under international law.

The Clinic has been investigating the conditions in Connecticut prisons since 2010. The letter was submitted to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, on behalf of individuals who are currently or were formerly incarcerated at Northern Correctional Institution, Connecticut’s supermax prison. Fifteen men submitted statements in support for the submission to the Special Rapporteur, in which they described their experiences of neglect and abuse at Northern and other Connecticut prisons.  

The submission alleges that the Connecticut Department of Correction (DOC) systematically relies on indefinite isolation to punish and control prisoners, including those with serious mental illness. DOC policies authorize confining people for 22 to 23 hours a day.  

More must be done to humanize Connecticut criminal justice

By Barbara Fair, June 22, 2017

After months of tireless work to bring awareness to state legislators about the harm associated with solitary confinement, a bill was passed that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what must happen to humanize criminal justice in this state. When states as notorious for prisoner abuse as California and Texas are making changes in prisoner treatment, one must wonder why Connecticut is lagging behind.

Read the full Op-Ed here.

ACLU of Connecticut Hails Final Passage of Bill That Puts New Limits on Solitary Confinement

By Daniela Altimari, June 7, 2017

A bill that places new limits on the use of solitary confinement in Connecticut prisons is headed to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for consideration following final passage in the House Wednesday.

The measure would provide greater transparency around the use of solitary confinement and limit the Department of Correction's ability to place prisoners under 18 in the harshest form of solitary confinement.

Traveling Exhibit Lets Visitors Experience Solitary Confinement, Here & Now

By Lori Mack, February 24, 2017

"The "Inside the Box" project invites people to spend some time in a full-size replica of a prison cell. Lori Mack (@lmackwnpr) of Here & Now contributor WNPR paid a visit to the exhibit during a stop in New Haven, Connecticut, and has our story."

Solitary Confinement Cell Makes Its Way To The State Capitol, CT News Junkie

By Christine Stuart, February 22, 2017

"He was just one of many Tuesday left by themselves under a fluorescent light in a small cell with a bunk, but unlike the estimated 80,000 inmates nationwide in solitary confinement, Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, was able to leave after two hours.

The cell was a replica built by lawyers, psychiatrists and religious leaders who are bringing a national movement to limit the use of solitary confinement to Connecticut.

Lawmakers and visitors to the state Capitol are being encouraged to experience what it would be like to be in solitary confinement. There’s a sign-up sheet where anyone willing can sit by themselves in the cell where they can hear the hum of the light and recorded sounds from an actual prison in Maine."

Scott Semple Speaks on Corrections Reform, Yale Law School

February 17, 2017

"Connecticut Commissioner of Corrections Scott Semple began his talk Thursday by stating a fundamental belief: that “a system without hope is a system in chaos.” It is this conviction that has motivated the many corrections reforms Semple discussed in the talk, “What does a progressive prison system look like?

In his two years as commissioner, Semple has implemented a number of reforms that have helped Connecticut achieve one of the most progressive prison systems in the country, with remarkably low rates of recidivism and use of solitary confinement.”

Yale Gives Law Students a Taste of Solitary Confinement, Law.com

By Karen Sloan, February 16, 2017

"Yale Law School’s Lillian Goldman Library is housing more than just legal tomes and bleary-eyed students this week.

In between the stacks stands a replicated solitary confinement cell, with gray cinder block walls, fluorescent lights, and a prison toilet-sink combo. The 10-by-12-foot cell was installed in the library for seven days as part of an anti-solitary confinement campaign arranged by a consortium of Connecticut churches, civil rights organizations and Yale entities.

“It’s almost an assault on your senses,” said Sameer Jaywant, a second-year Yale law student who helped bring the cell to campus through the school’s Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic.

“The light is very reminiscent of correctional institutions, or even mental institutions. The sounds — the audio is taken from a real jail — are very striking. There’s an echoing sound of people banging on metal, and yelling and screaming. There’s also a feeling of claustrophobia. You’re penned in. There’s nowhere to go. The longer you sit in there, the more it feels like the walls are closing in on you a little bit.”"

BECKMAN: Solidarity on solitary, Yale Daily News

By Siduri Beckman, Feb 16, 2017

"Last week, I drove to Hartford to observe a hearing of the Connecticut Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which focused on the issue of solitary confinement. At the meeting, a woman testified about her experience in “administrative segregation” during her 23-year sentence in Connecticut: “They’re not correctional officers. They don’t correct anything. They punish. That’s why I call them guards.”

Solitary confinement is a well-established practice in the United States. Although the intent of Quakers and Calvinists was to isolate convicts for spiritual reflection, the term quickly picked up a negative connotation. Today, correctional facilities maintain that practices like “administrative segregation” and “special housing units” are necessary for keeping order in prisons across America."

“Inside the Box,” Yale experiences solitary confinement, Yale Daily News

By Andrew Ballard, February 8, 2017

"Haunting shrieks, the repeated pounding of a steel door, the echoing voices of guards and then silence: These are sounds Yalies will hear when they step “Inside the Box” at Sterling Memorial Library’s latest exhibit — a life-sized solitary confinement cell to raise awareness of what organizers call a hidden form of torture.

The windowless replica, no bigger than a large closet, is modeled after a solitary unit in a Wisconsin prison and is accompanied by recordings from a facility in Maine. Aiming to educate the public while pushing for legislative action, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture led the effort to bring the cell to New Haven. The project drew wide support from activist organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, three New Haven churches, several organizations at the Law School and the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project. The exhibit will stand outside the library’s Starr Reference Room until Feb. 12."

What's It Like? Experiencing Solitary Confinement In A New Haven Exhibit, WNPR News

By Lori Mack, February 2, 2017

"A traveling exhibit, now in New Haven, aims to give people the opportunity to experience solitary confinement and learn about its effects. It includes a replica of a prison cell and people are invited to go "Inside the Box."

The door closed behind me as I walked into a grey cell that’s 10 feet by 12 feet. It had a toilet, sink, and a wooden box for a bed. There was an overhead fluorescent light and recorded sounds from an actual prison.

Reverend Allie Perry, board president of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, explained that it's actually a sound track from a supermax prison in Maine."

'Inside The Box' Exhibit Shows Life In Solitary Confinement, NPR Wshu.org

By David Dunavin, February 1, 2017

"An exhibit in New Haven, Connecticut, lets people spend a few minutes inside of a solitary confinement cell. "Inside the Box" is a replica solitary cell created by a religious human rights group that says it wants to show people solitary confinement is essentially torture.

The exhibit is a 10 X 12 foot gray box. It sits in the middle of a room in the New Haven Free Public Library. When you step inside, the sound of a busy reception goes away, and is replaced with rattling, pounding and almost inhuman screams."

Listen to the sounds from inside the box and read the full article here.

In New Haven, ‘Inside the Box’ exhibit offers up close look at solitary confinement cell, New Haven Register

By Esteban L. Hernandez, January 30, 2017

"The torture lasted about a month. That’s how Keishar Tucker said he remembers it.

It was Tucker’s first stint in solitary confinement inside Northern Correctional Institution in Somers. Tucker said he couldn’t deal with his prison experience, so he often acted out. So into the solitary cell he went. It was the first of several stays for an experience the New Haven resident said he considers torture.

“It’s designed to break you down,” Tucker said. “It’s definitely inhumane. We need to put a stop to it.”

'I Still Suffer'; Solitary Confinement On Display, Hartford Courant

By Nicholas Rondinone, January 30, 2017

"Keishar Tucker's first experience in solitary confinement was when he was 17. Nearly two decades later, it hasn't left him.

"I still suffer ... I have anxiety attacks. It's just a place that no one should have to endure," Tucker, now 35, said. Sometimes it was for weeks, other times it was for months, during his 10 or so years in prison after a larceny conviction." 

Watch Keishar talk about his experiences and read the full article here.

You can think “Inside the Box” with solitary confinement exhibit, News8 wtnh.com

By Kent Pierce, January 30, 2017

"NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) – Starting Monday, the public gets a chance to experience what solitary confinement is like. A traveling exhibition of a replica cell is in New Haven for the next three weeks.

The first stop is the New Haven Free Public Library, and if you come to the library to be alone, now you can really be alone. You can step inside a solitary confinement prison cell." 

Legislator Enters Solitary Confinement, New Haven Independent

By Markeshia Ricks, Jan 30, 2017

"State Rep. Robyn Porter sat inside a 10 foot-by-12 foot box looking at the blue cinderblock walls. Listening to the sounds of prison, she got a taste of what her son once experienced.

“I started to think about how my son had been in prison and how he had sat in a [solitary] cell,” she recalled Monday.

Porter didn’t go to jail herself. She took a turn sitting inside a replica of a maximum-security prison cell in Wisconsin, newly on display at the downtown Ives branch of the New Haven Free Public Library."