Its mission is to provide the public—as well as practicing attorneys, legal scholars, law enforcement, and people in prison and their families—with a reputable source of unfolding news, original reporting, firsthand accounts, and research on solitary confinement and other harsh prison conditions to generate public debate and policy change.
Created by journalist James Ridgeway and writer/editor Jean Casella, the website features original reporting, fact sheets, resources and information, and the "Voices from Solitary" project, which collects firsthand narratives from people who have served time in solitary confinement.
Titles in the series include "Living on Deathwatch," "Books are a Spark in the Dark," "Everyday Torture," and "A Sentence Worse Than Death.
The first major anthology of essays written by people in solitary confinement, the book aims to shed light on the humanitarian crisis taking place in United States prisons and jails and has been described in the Los Angeles Review of Books as a "minor act of rebellion" for being "composed of communication and observation that is not supposed to exist.
"[5] The firsthand accounts in the book are supplemented by writings from medical, legal, and human rights experts.