Dear Jesse,

So glad you posted this. I just finished the transcription. You write beautifully and I hope to hear more from you :)

I want you to know that you have not been forgotten and that people support you. I write for a website that is working to bring this issue out of the shadows and increase public awareness. In fact, there was an important victory in Maine today - I've included pieces of the story for you below.

People are fighting for you, myself included.

STAY STRONG,

Lisa

Maine’s Success Shows Reform is Both Necessary and Possible

March 11, 2013 PORTLAND – A new report out today from the ACLU of Maine documents the successful reform of solitary confinement in Maine’s prisons. Change Is Possible: A Case Study Of Solitary Confinement Reform In Maine provides a case study of what is possible and a model for achieving significant change.

“Solitary confinement is dangerous, cruel and costly. Thankfully, a movement to reform solitary is growing quickly, and we are hopeful that other states and the federal government will join Maine in making changes that benefit everyone,” said Zachary Heiden, ACLU of Maine legal director and the author of the report. “Maine’s state motto is Dirigo, ‘I lead.’ Solitary confinement reform should be a case in point.”

Working closely with corrections officials, the ACLU of Maine, the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition and others undertook a campaign to reform solitary confinement in Maine seven years ago. Since then, Maine has reduced the population of its solitary confinement Special Management Unit (SMU) by over 70 percent.

As the report describes, in addition to reducing the overall SMU population, prisoners who do end up in solitary in Maine spend less time there, are treated like human beings while there, and are shown a clear path to reentry into the general prison population....

“Maine’s successful reforms represent a rebuttal to everyone who declares that solitary reform cannot or should not be done,” said Heiden. “Reform of this brutal practice is both necessary and possible...."

The group will submit the report to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) tomorrow and urge the commission to investigate the use of solitary confinement nationwide. The IACHR is an autonomous arm of the Organization of American States whose mission is to promote and protect human rights in the American hemisphere.

Hi Jesse,

Just wanted to say hi and let you know the fight against solitary confinement continues. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) testified yesterday before the Inter-American Commission on the overuse and harmful effects of solitary confinement. Here's a few excerpts from an article covering the story:

WASHINGTON--(ENEWSPF)--March 12 - In a first-ever hearing on solitary confinement in the Americas, the American Civil Liberties Union today called on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to investigate the practice of solitary confinement in the United States.

"An investigation by the Commission will shed an international spotlight on the human and monetary costs of solitary confinement in the U.S. and other countries in the Americas. We hope this will lead our country to adopt more effective, more humane and less costly alternatives," said Steven Watt, senior staff attorney of the ACLU's Human Rights Program. "The United States should be a human rights leader, not an outlier."

In testimony submitted to the Commission at its hearing here today, the ACLU also asked the Commission, an autonomous body of the Organization of American States, to investigate the practice in other OAS member states, and to recommend that all governments in the Americas impose strict limitations on the practice, and in some instances, prohibit it.....

The Commission also heard the testimony of Juan E. Méndez, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, whose global study on the issue calls for the prohibition of solitary confinement on juveniles and persons with mental disabilities and the absolute prohibition of any solitary confinement exceeding 15 days.....

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons recently announced its intention to conduct the first-ever review of the agency's use of solitary confinement. During testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last June, the Director of the Bureau said that, on any given day, more than 15,000 federal prisoners are in some form of isolation.

STAY STRONG, JESSE!

Lisa

Hi Jesse,
I am going to use a few verses of a song to tell you what I feel (well, my bad english makes me be more creative - I bet you are laughing :) Well although I already know that we do not know well each other, sometimes people have a good feeling to know another and believes that it is important to follow knowing.

You and I must make a pact:
I'll reach out my hand to you
I'll have faith in all you do.
Just call my name and I'll be there.
I'll be there to comfort you,
Build a world of dreams around you,
I'm so glad that I found you.
I'll be there with a friendship that's strong,
I'll be your strength,
I'll keep holding on.
Let me fill your heart with joy and laughter.
Whenever you need me, I'll be there.
I'll be there to protect you,
With unselfish love that respects you.
Just call my name and I'll be there.

It is not an active struggle, I know, but it is a friendship that I offer you.

Take care, stay safe and as you say, be happy.

Nuria

(scanned reply – view as blog post)

Everyday I question why God decided to allow solitary confinement to grow so popular in the US. I can't find any justification for it in my head. It extracts all forms of beauty, of love, of joy, of happiness from a human's heart. The jailers are more sick than the ones they lock up. It is cruel without a doubt. everyday I wake up and i know that while I am waking up to sun shining through my window and a free heart, thousands of men are waking up in the same concrete tomb that they have woken up to year after year. it breaks my heart it truly does. but i will fight everyday in anyway I can to stop this torture. Jesse you are a beautiful soul from what I have gathered from your writings. You are not a murderer but they have chosen to define you as such. you have such a goddamn beautiful soul. more than any prisoner whose writings I've read. There is something so different about you that I can't put my finger on. You have a form of pure love. It seems to me that you would sacrifice your whole being for someone or something that you love. Your love seeps through the walls of these prisons and it has reached my heart. You are eternal and you are beautiful. It hurts me to know that everyday you are being dehumanized but I hope that this universe gives you something to hold on to. Maybe in your next life you will be full of joy and freedom. Bless your heart Jesse. You are loved.