Book Review: Solitary: The inside story of supermax isolation and how we can abolish it

• Date: 01 September 2021
• Published date: 01 September 2021
• Author: Jane C. Daquin
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016818811916
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

2. Hernandez v. Texas was a Supreme Court case that established that the equal protection clause under the

Fourteenth Amendment covered groups beyond the “two-class theory.”

References

America’s children: Key national indicators of well-being. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.childstats.gov/

americaschildren/demo.asp

Feld, B. C. (2017). The evolution of the juvenile court: Race, politics, and the criminalizing of juvenile justice.

New York: NYU Press.

Hernandez v. Texas, 347 U.S. 475 (1954).

Mendez v. Westminster, 64 F. Supp. 544 (S.D. Cal. 1946).

Nellis, A. (2016). The color of justice: Racial and ethnic disparity in state prisons. Washington, DC: Sentencing

Project. Retrieved from www.sentencingproject.org

Kupers, T. A. (2017).

Solitary: The inside story of supermax isolation and how we can abolish it. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.

304 pp. $29.95, ISBN: 9780520292239.

Reviewed by: Jane C. Daquin, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016818811916

Terry Kupers’s Solitary contributes to the scholarly examination of solitary confinement in three

ways: (1) it highlights the deplorable treatment of incarcerated persons, (2) brings attention to the

harmful practice of solitary confinement, and (3) it offers rehabilitative alternatives to isolation.

Written by a forensic psychiatrist and Professor Emeritus of Psychology, this book can be used by

other professionals and academics to understand the extent of harm associated with the practice of

solitary confinement.

In Solitary, Kupers argues that the use of solitary confinement (or supermax isolation) and the

practice of isolating incarcerated persons for long stretches of time are linked to deleterious conse-

quences. This work represents the culmination of Kupers’s decades of work as a forensic psychia-

trist, and the author draws on the data collected from more than four decades worth of interviews

with and observations of persons incarcerated in isolation. Although Kupers’s discussion of the

problems associated with solitary confinement is not a new topic of discussion, it is the use of the

words and personal experiences of the incarcerated persons that help to set this work apart from

others. Reading the personal accounts of so many who represent only a small percentage of the

persons experiencing these harsh conditions provokes a visceral response from readers. Solitary not

only contributes to the scholarly work in this area but also serves as a powerful piece in the advocacy

for the abolition of the practice of solitary isolation. The problems associated with solitary confine-

ment have been recognized since the 1800s, yet we continue to isolate individuals for extended

periods of time. Relatively few come out of solitary unscathed. As Kupers notes, “no matter what

mental condition a man is in before entering solitary, in my experience it is rare that he does not

emerge in demonstrably worse mental and physical condition” (p. 32).

Kupers divides the book into three parts. In Part I of Solitary, the author focuses on the conditions

of solitary confinement, the rationale for the use of solitary confinement, and the culture of punish-

ment. Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the history of solitary confinement in the United States

beginning in the first penitentiaries (e.g., Eastern State) to modern supermax prisons. Kupers then

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