May 13, 2016: Lawyers for Arthur Johnson, a 63-year-old man in the custody of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) at State Correctional Institution Frackville, filed a lawsuit today challenging his long-term solitary confinement. Mr. Johnson has been held in isolation since 1979. Continue reading MEDIA RELEASE: Lawsuit seeks end to 36 years of solitary confinement
GOOD FAITH, BAD FAITH – URGENT HOLIDAY UPDATE: MAROON’S PROCESS OUT OF SOLITARY THWARTED BY PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS It is with some surprise and sadness that we must report that once again the progress of wrongfully incarcerated Russell Maroon Continue reading ACTION ALERT: MAROON’S RELEASE FROM SOLITARY THWARTED BY PA DOC
National Lawyers Guild – Solitary Confinement and Political Prisoners: The Use of Prison Isolation in Policing Radical Politics. San Juan, Puerto Rico. October 25, 2013. Moderator: Bret Grote (Executive Director of the Abolitionist Law Center) Panelists: Jihad Abdulmumit (Co-chairperson of Continue reading Panel Discussion: Solitary Confinement and Political Prisoners (Video)
Arthur “Cetewayo” Johnson is a politicized prisoner who has been held in solitary confinement by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC) since 1979.
Despite his exemplary disciplinary record of the past 25 years, and his recently turning 61 years old, Cetewayo continues to be subjected to 23-24-hour lockdown in solitary confinement with its attendant austerity, monotony, and deprivations. He has not had human contact with anybody except prison guards in over 30 years. Continue reading Action Alert – Demand an end to Arthur “Cetewayo” Johnson’s 34 years in solitary confinement
By Pam Johnson
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 19 2013 (IPS) – He has not had human contact or a good night’s sleep in nearly three decades. Every single day, he wakes to the sound of metal doors clanging open and a pair of disembodied hands pushing a tray of food through a slot into his 64-square-foot cell.
For the next 23 hours, he will stare at the same four walls. If he is lucky, he’ll be escorted, shackled at his ankles and wrists, into a “yard” – an enclosure only slightly larger than his cell – for an hour of solitary exercise.
This is how Russell “Maroon” Shoatz, a prisoner in the restricted housing unit at the State Correctional Institute (SCI) Frackville in northern Pennsylvania, has spent the past 22 consecutive years. Continue reading The U.S.’s 64-Square-Foot “Torture Chambers”
NEW YORK/PITTSBURGH — By Bret Grote and Kanya D’Almeida. This article was first published by Ecosocialist Horizons Stop the average person on the street in any major city in the United States and ask them if they were aware that Continue reading Five Things You Need to Know About Solitary Confinement
