A project of the Liman Center, the Seeing Solitary digital dashboard presents data about the scope and impact of solitary confinement in prisons across the United States and some information about solitary confinement’s use around the world. This website provides access to materials from individuals held in isolation, social science data on the impact of isolation, research, and analysis of the history and use of isolation, and policies, regulations, legislation, and court judgments addressing isolation. Tables and graphs of survey responses and other tools both provide information and highlight ongoing efforts. The public has very limited access to images of solitary confinement. The photographs here come from media coverage, academic research, and introduction lawsuits related to solitary confinement. Drawn from a few prisons, the photographs illustrate conditions that characterize solitary confinement in many jurisdictions in the United States.
Seeing Solitary aims to support continuing research and public education to end the isolation of individuals as punishment. The site is also an invitation for suggestions of materials to include or update.
Visit the Seeing Solitary website.
The development of this website was supported by a grant from the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fund at Yale Law School.