logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2019
12m 7s

What happens to people in solitary confi...

TED
About this episode

Imagine living with no significant human contact for years, even decades, in a cell the size of a small bathroom. This is the reality for those in long-term solitary confinement, a form of imprisonment regularly imposed in US prisons. In this eye-opening talk, civil rights lawyer Laura Rovner takes us to ADX, the US federal government's only supermax prison, and describes the dehumanizing effects of long-term solitude on the mind, personality and sense of self. What emerges is an urgent case for abolishing solitary confinement -- and evidence for how our tax dollars, public safety and values are implicated in it. "Prisons are administered in our name and on our behalf," she says. "We have an obligation to bear witness."



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Today
How to use tech to outsmart dictators | Leopoldo López
In seven years as a political prisoner in Venezuela, activist Leopoldo López kept asking one question: Who holds the keys to freedom? Now the leader of an alliance of dissidents and exiles from more than 60 countries, he makes the case that open-source, decentralized technology c ... Show More
21m 42s
Yesterday
Campaigns spend millions to influence voters. This works better | Katie Paris
Katie Paris quit her career in Washington, DC, to figure out how to make politics feel less like strangers shouting at each other and more like friends looking out for each other. In this practical talk, she reveals why conversations between real people can have a bigger impact o ... Show More
13m 22s
Sep 15
The wiggly wonder of music | Jacob Collier
Grammy-winning musician Jacob Collier has a name for the feeling that moves through a great piece of music: the wiggle. Watch him break down the idea into its three parts — melody, rhythm and harmony — with nothing but his own voice, a grand piano and Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wo ... Show More
12m 39s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2017
Ep. 67: The Hole
<p>Imagine a concrete room, not much bigger than a parking space. You're in there 23 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is the reality of solitary confinement at prisons across the United States. Keramet Reiter, a criminology professor at UC Irvine, says that while some inmates in ... Show More
23m 37s
Jan 2022
A Texas Prison's Radio Station Helps Incarcerated Men Build Community
The men on death row in Allan B. Polunsky Unit, a maximum security prison in southeastern Texas, spend most of their time in solitary confinement, isolated from each other. Now, a prison radio station is giving them a sense of community and a way to be heard.Keri Blakinger talks ... Show More
10m 12s
Dec 2021
Fireside with the Underboss - Inside the ADX Supermax
Sammy paints us a vivid picture of the harsh living conditions he experienced at the ADX Supermax in Colorado. He opens up about the insanity of the inmates, the brutality of the guards, and extreme loneliness he felt during his six years in the hole. 
17m 20s
Jul 2024
204. What Happens When You’re Cut Off From All Human Contact?
tail spinning
40m 9s
Dec 2024
Loneliness
Loneliness is what results when a person is cut off from the living world. Ecological loneliness, in particular, is reciprocal - what we mete out always comes back to trouble us. However, as Laura Marris demonstrates, loneliness can entail the shadow work for understanding how a ... Show More
19m 10s
Aug 2024
Inside San Quentin
The guys get a one-of-a-kind, uncensored look from the prison’s warden about transitioning from housing many on death row to the rehabilitation prison it is today. Then, hear from an incarcerated man who’s trying to better himself from murderer to mathematician.See omnystudio.com ... Show More
32m 21s