{"product_id":"2940044227712","title":"Solitary: The History and Current Reality of Torture as a Means of Social Control Within Prisons","description":"\u003cp\u003eOver 80,000 inmates in US state and federal prisons are currently housed in solitary confinement. Prisoners in solitary spend 23 hours a day in a room the size of a small bathroom. They receive meals through a slot in the cell door and eat alone near an open toilet; the places where they eat, sleep and defecate are only a few feet apart. Life in isolation is characterized by extreme stress, and frequently leads to suicidal behavior. Prisoners refer to solitary as a place where they must struggle to hold onto their minds and their sense of identity, a place where they are treated as something \"less than an animal.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStarting with the Quaker origins of solitary confinement in the eighteenth century, this book examines how solitary has been repeatedly viewed as a means of reprogramming the mind, of traumatizing a prisoner into adopting new beliefs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSolitary argues that CIA \"brainwashing\" research of the 1950s may have influenced the design of isolation units in American prisons today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book also explores the reality of isolated confinement through interviews with women who have been imprisoned in long-term isolation units in New York State. The book reveals special dangers that women face in solitary, including sexual predation by guards.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSolitary is essential reading for specialists, activists, and the general reader alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A pleasure to read, a marvelous book. The book is compelling, measured and steady in its tone, devastating in its ethical condemnation, well-researched, and elegant in its prose style. I think it is brilliant and beautiful.\" --Elizabeth Berger, psychiatrist and author\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJoanne Pawlowski, a writer based in New York City, has worked as a consultant for Human Rights Watch. She is a graduate of Princeton University and has a Master's degree in Public Administration from Harvard.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Joanne Pawlowski","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47067088224496,"sku":"2940044227712","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940044227712_p0.jpg?v=1763958902","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940044227712","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}