The cell James Burns is now calling home
Annons
Annons
Watch James Burns explain why he's going into solitary confinement voluntarily for 30 days.
At its core, solitary generally consists of spending "23 hours a day alone in a small cell with a solid steel door, a bunk, a toilet, and a sink," as the ACLU put it in a 2014 report on the practice. It is marked by a total or near-total lack of human interaction and natural light, and often includes a ban on reading materials. Unlike most of the rest of the planet, America embraces this practice at almost every level of the system—local jails, state and federal prisons, mental health facilities, you name it. By most estimates, solitary ensnares 65,000 to 100,000 people at any given time in the United States. Just this past month, a study from Yale Law School carried out in coordination with the heads of state prisons across America suggested nearly 6,000 of them have been in solitary for three years or longer. And like most layers of the American criminal justice system, solitary disproportionately impacts people of color.It'd be one thing if this practice of confining people in cramped, isolated cells worked—if all the loneliness and human misery had a point. But report after report (and study after study) suggests solitary brutalizes the incarcerated and in some cases may even make them more likely to hurt others when they get out."It scarred me deeply," Burns explains. "There's a part of me that is afraid of touching a door that I've closed a long time ago, that took years for me to figure out and understand."
Annons
Annons
I think it's important to note that I don't want to paint myself as a victim here. I take responsibility for my actions, because we all have a choice. And as flawed as the system may be, I did make some very poor decisions that landed me in my situation. The two biggest things I regret are, first, the crimes that I committed, the armed robberies. And that's because of the people who were victims. And secondly—most important—what I regret is paving the way for younger people like my siblings and other kids in the neighborhood who may have looked up to us and thought it was OK to follow in my footsteps.When it comes to solitary, there's this idea that people are thinking of like a dark dungeon, where nobody sees the light of day for all this time. And actually it's kind of the opposite. When I think about it, it is a very bright hell. A very sterile, bright hell. And more than anything, solitary is a mind fuck. The way that things move in there is very efficient and mechanical, and if you really want to break it down, your darkest fears of mind control and sensory deprivation and all of those things come into play. Even the sounds—it's like you're in your own coffin, basically, just unraveling.
People make mistakes, but that doesn't mean we should outcast them for the rest of their lives.
Annons
Watch the solitary confinement livestream above or check out the standalone site here.