annual fundraising appeal

Voices from Solitary: “That’s the Only Mail I Get…”

The following was written a few days before Christmas by a man, now in his fifties, who has been in prison for 26 years. He wrote this in response to receiving a holiday card and note from Solitary Watch.

To help us keep in touch with people in solitary confinement throughout the year, please consider a donation to our “Lifelines to Solitary” project. (Even $10 allows us to keep in touch with someone in isolation for a full year.) Our kickstarter runs out in just six days, and from now through January 15, a generous donor (who prefers to remain anonymous) has pledged to match all donations, up to $500.

To make a donation, please follow this link. Thank you for your support! –Jean Casella and James Ridgeway

Thank you for replying. I was surprised when they called mail call and they called my name. I never receive any mail except once a month, one letter a month from my mom, she’s barely able to write…Best if you take me serious, and not pull my leg. Please don’t take me wrong and no pun intended. It is just over the years I’ve wrote hundreds of different groups and a lot of big ministries and nobody has ever wrote to me. I used to trade my food trays for stamps and envelopes but nobody wants to help or cares…

Heck, we stay locked in for 22 out of 24 hours in this cold concrete and steel. They won’t give us winter clothes. The jacket they hand out you can see through it. Our food is brought to us and it is always ice cold, most of the time straight out of the freezer and it’s left overs…and most of the time the loaf meat they give us is raw and stinks. On Thanksgiving we had peanut butter sandwich with meat sandwich and a pack of cookies…There were lots of us hungry that night. And it’s coming again Christmas and New Years. I dread it. The wardens here are big and fat. We’ll be locked down most of Christmas day. Because they have a Christmas party for the officers. You can smell the food cooking.

Anyways my friend, this life is and has got old. Tomorrow brings nothing but the same thing and at my age, well, who wants to see tomorrow. A human has to have something to hold on to or they lose all hope. And this old body is getting hard to even move around. I’ve got arthritis so bad it hurts to just move-from this cold air. I am sorry I don’t have a Christmas card to send you. You have a Merry Christmas up there in Washington and thank you for writing. That’s the only mail I get…

Please Consider a Year-End Donation to Solitary Watch

Dear Friends,

Solitary Watch needs your help this holiday season. In order to continue bringing you the ongoing, in-depth coverage you rely upon from this site, we need the support of our readers. We know how much you value Solitary Watch and its work exposing human rights violations, especially the abuse of solitary confinement, in the American prison system. Please make a donation today to help Solitary Watch continue carrying out the important investigative journalism you know and trust.

Over the past year, Solitary Watch brought you up-to-the-minute coverage of the hunger strikes by inmates at the Pelican Bay supermax prison. Its articles on the Rikers Island prisoners left behind during Hurricane Irene were read by more than 200,000 people in two days. Its reporting has been cited in news outlets around the world, including Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, The Village Voice, WNYC, Huffington Post, Alternet, Counterpunch, Truthout, Truthdig, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Le Monde, Le Nouvel Observateur, Der Spiegel, and Al Jazeera. Please show that you care about these issues and you want them to remain a part of the conversation in our country.

Although Solitary Watch is largely a volunteer effort, many expenses still exist for this site. There are substantial operating costs involved in providing nationwide coverage, including travel, equipment, and technology costs. We must also cover the cost of postage and printing for the hundreds of printed copies of the newsletter we mail to prisoners throughout the US free of charge. Our readers are a vital source of financial support for Solitary Watch and we need your help to keep it thriving.

Across the country, more and more people are raising their voices against solitary confinement. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture recently declared prolonged solitary confinement to be a form of torture and called on member nations, including the United States, to prohibit this “cruel, inhuman” practice. In November, American hiker Sarah Shourd, who spent 482 days in an Iranian prison, published a New York Times op-ed demanding an end to solitary confinement in the United States. Raise your voice by showing your support for Solitary Watch today.

We can bring the practice of solitary confinement, and all human rights abuses against prisoners, out of the shadows and into the light of the public square. But we need your help to do it.

Donations can be made online here or by sending a check to Solitary Watch, c/o Community Futures Collective, 221 Idora Avenue, Vallejo, CA 94591. If your donation is received by December 31, 2011, you can deduct the full amount on your 2011 tax return. For questions about making a contribution, please write to Jean Casella at: casellaj4@gmail.com.

We thank you for your generosity and for standing up for the human rights of prisoners.

With warmest wishes for the new year,

James Ridgeway and Jean Casella, Co-Directors