Earl Smith (Wake Forest): Way Down in The Hole: Race in Solitary Confinement

Credit Earl Smith

This lecture was part of the International Symposium on Solitary Confinement held November 5-6, 2020 and sponsored by The Office of the Provost of Thomas Jefferson University. Earl Smith, PhD, is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of American Ethnic Studies and Sociology at Wake Forest University, and is currently teaching classes in Sociology, African and African American Studies, and Women & Gender Studies at the University of Delaware. Dr. Smith earned his Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut. His teaching and research focus on the sociology of sport, social stratification, and the intersection of race and the criminal justice system. He is the author of 12 books, including his most recent books, Gender, Power and Violence (2019), and Policing Black Bodies (2018). Currently he is finishing the book Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinement (2021). The book is based on three summers of ethnographic research in a large state penitentiary system. Methodologically, we conducted over 100 face-to-face interviews with inmates and correctional officers.

Special Thanks to Earl Smith for this presentation on solitary confinement.

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We Demand Prison Phone Justice Jpay and Securus

We are the family, friends & prisoners who jpay and Securus are feasting off our blood, sharing profits with states and investors from slave-like phone rates & fees. We demand prison phone justice!

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Criminal Justice Reform, Speech By William Thorpe

 

Terry Kupers (The Wright Instit.):The Decimation of Life Skills and the and the SHU Post-Release Syndrome

Credit Terry Kupers

This lecture was part of the International Symposium on Solitary Confinement held November 5-6, 2020 and sponsored by The Office of the Provost of Thomas Jefferson University. Terry A. Kupers, M.D., M.S.P.is Institute Professor Emeritus at The Wright Institute and Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He provides expert testimony in class action litigation regarding the psychological effects of prison conditions including isolated confinement, the quality of correctional mental health care, and the effects of sexual abuse in correctional settings. He is author of “Solitary: The Inside Story of Supermax Isolation and How We Can Abolish It” (Univ of California Press, 2017); “Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It” (1999) and co-editor of “Prison Masculinities” (2002). He is a Contributing Editor of Correctional Mental Health Report. He received the 2005 Exemplary Psychiatrist Award and the 2020 Gloria Huntley award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

Special Thanks to Terry Kupers for this presentation on solitary confinement.

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Stuart Grassian: Neuropsychiatric Effects of Solitary Confinement and Restricted Stimulation

Credit Stuart Grassian

This lecture was part of the International Symposium on Solitary Confinement held November 5-6, 2020 and sponsored by The Office of the Provost of Thomas Jefferson University. Stuart Grassian, MD is a Board-certified psychiatrist who was on the teaching staff of the Harvard Medical School for almost thirty years. He has had extensive experience in evaluating the psychiatric effects of stringent conditions of confinement, and has served as an expert in both individual and class-action lawsuits addressing this issue. Dr. Grassian described a particular psychiatric syndrome resulting from the deprivation of social, perceptual, and occupational stimulation in solitary confinement. His observations and conclusions have been cited in a number of federal court decisions, including Justices Sotomayor and Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court. In his publications, Dr. Grassian described the extensive body of literature, including clinical and experimental literature, regarding the effects of decreased environmental and social stimulation in a variety of situations, and specifically, observations concerning the effects of segregated prison confinement.

Special Thanks to Stuart Grassian for his lecture on Solitary Confinement.

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