Incarcerated journalist Christopher Blackwell and writer Jamie Beth Cohen first connected in 2020 through Empowerment Avenue, a nonprofit collective that provides incarcerated people with paid writing and artistic opportunities. The pair, who have deemed themselves “The Chicken Farmer and the Soccer Mom,” have worked together on more than 100 published essays ranging from personal essays about holiday celebrations while incarcerated to reported articles on harrowing conditions in county prisons. Blackwell, who is currently incarcerated in Washington State, has written about incarceration and prisons for The New York Times, The Washington Post, HuffPost, The Boston Globe, and The Progressive, among other publications.
Later this month, Blackwell will publish his first book, Ending Isolation: The Case Against Solitary Confinement, which is co-authored by criminal justice writer and legal expert Deborah Zalesne. Ending Isolation uses academic and medical research along with first-hand testimonies to explore the physical and psychological effects of solitary confinement. In her blurb for the book Angela Y. Davis writes that “These compelling reflections by people who have been entrapped within the tortures of solitary, should rekindle our abolitionist impulses at an especially critical moment in our history.”
In early September, Cohen and Blackwell discussed the process of creating Ending Isolation via email. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Chris, I’ve worked with you on writing projects for the past five years. But I had nothing to do with your first book. You worked with some really amazing collaborators on it. Can you tell me a little bit about them and how the book came to be?
Christopher Blackwell: When I started writing about solitary confinement, I never actually planned to write a book. And when those writings did start to become the length of a manuscript, well, I thought I’d be writing a book on my own. But as the project progressed, it was clear the value other writers would have on the book would be massive.
Deborah Zalesne was first. She was just so committed to the project and with her knowledge around constitutional law as a law professor [at the City University of New York School of Law], it was only right to add her.
Then Professor Zalesne and I began to work with other incarcerated writers or folks who’d been impacted by solitary confinement. While doing this we spoke at length with Kwaneta Harris, a talented prison journalist [currently incarcerated] in Texas. When she shared her experiences about what women go through inside solitary confinement, we knew right away she had to have a larger role in the book . . . . [W]hat she and the other women were experiencing was far worse than what I, as a man, have dealt with in solitary confinement. Women’s voices are often secondary to men’s; Deborah and I wanted to change that for our project.
And last but not least, we added Terry Kupers, a leading expert on solitary confinement. We knew that he would help people understand the physical and psychological harms caused through isolation better than anyone else. So it was a no-brainer to add him to our team.
Having experts on all sides really allowed us to write a kind of book on solitary confinement that had never been done before. And I know that’s what makes this team so special. It also allows for great potential with the book to end isolation in our country, and that was a top priority for those of us who collaborated on the book.
Q: That really does sound like an amazing team. Can you tell me a little about the process of writing a book? Collaborating with that many people sounds both exciting and possibly really challenging.
Blackwell: It was challenging to write a book and weave in so many voices, but it was possible because we took the time to really lay out how we wanted things to be addressed and by whom. That was key in getting the book just right—making sure the right voices were tackling the areas they were best suited to take on. I must give a lot of credit to Deborah Zalesne on the structure. She and Terry Kupers really crushed it, making sure the puzzle of everyone’s stories fit just right. Especially given my limited access to technology.
Q: I know we’ve talked before about how limited [access to] technology really complicates the writing process. And yet you keep doing it! What is it about writing that compels you to keep at it, even in the face of incredible difficulties that would make other writers want to give up—things like not being able to cut and paste in a document and not having access to the Internet to do research or just not having a quiet space and a comfortable chair?
Blackwell: Despite all the madness and barriers I have as an incarcerated writer, I feel like writing is the best way to change the narrative about people who are incarcerated. If we don’t tell our stories, then others will, and that can be harmful. Our voice is all we have to fight against a system that has and continues to harm our communities. How can I let a barrier stand in the way of that? I can’t. And I find my motivation in knowing I can add to a conversation that is often being had about us without us. In my eyes, I owe a life of service for the harm I caused, so I do that by helping others share their stories and by sharing my own. This is a collective effort to humanize the many incarcerated within the United States. Because when we are humanized, it can become extremely difficult to demonize us.
Q: There’s a book tour happening right now and a bus tour along with it, which is so cool—but obviously, as an incarcerated individual, you can’t be part of that. Or can you? How do you promote your work from inside?
Blackwell: Being incarcerated has made my role in the book/bus tour very interesting. But we’ve found ways. Because we have such a special team of folks involved, especially at Unlock the Box Campaign, who are committed to lifting impacted voices like mine, we make it happen. In our recent events in Seattle, that meant having me record a speech about the importance of this work and why I do it. In Berkeley the folks at KPFA radio made space for me to call into the panel they hosted with Cat Brooks and made sure I played a key role in the discussion. So there is always a way to have system-impacted voices like mine join the conversation. I think it really just matters who you’re working with. I happen to be organizing with some really incredible people who work through a strong set of principles.
Q: What’s one thing you’d like people reading this Q&A to know about the use of solitary confinement? And why should they read the book, even if they think they know why solitary confinement is bad?
Blackwell: Solitary confinement is not just harming the people who are forced to endure it. It is causing harm to our communities and society as a whole because we are causing severe damage to our people. Without proper support and care, the harm that is caused is never addressed. This means prisons are releasing people who are suffering from high levels of post traumatic stress disorder and other conditions that stem from being placed in solitary confinement. Is it worth it? That’s the question I always ask. You may think some people need to be in prison, but ask yourself, do you want them to be tortured while inside and then released back into society? Does that make you feel safer? I feel like the book helps us challenge these types of questions. And that is exactly what the book was created to do.
I encourage people to read the book so they can better understand what their tax dollars are supporting. We are allowing this to continue so we should be responsible enough to know what actually happens when someone is placed in solitary and the effects that has on our population as a whole.