Six By Ten

Taylor Pendergrass is an advocate and activist around ending mass incarceration and racial injustice in the criminal legal system. He currently works for the ACLU and lives in Denver, Colorado. He graduated from Duke University and the University of Colorado School of Law.Mateo Hoke is writer, journalist, and coeditor of Palestine Speaks: Narratives of Life under Occupation. He studied journalism at the University of Colorado and the University of California-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

INTRODUCTION by Taylor Pendergrass and Mateo Hoke





EDITORS’ NOTE: Ten Things to Know as You Read This Book





COFOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR’S NOTE by Mimi Lok





NARRATORS:





Maryam Henderson-Ulohu (Louisiana)





“I was the only woman in the prison who was Muslim, the only one who wore a headscarf.”





Brian Nelson (Illinois)





“There were times where I lost track of time. And I’m afraid of that happening again.”





Aaron Lewis (Connecticut)





“They create this hardened person and then they release them to the community, which is doomed for destruction.”





Vernesia Gordon (Alaska)





“They pepper-sprayed him through that slot in the door. You see these long shots of pepper-spray going in.”





Mohammed “Mike” Iftiker Ali (California)





“In immigration detention, everybody was fighting for their lives but in different ways. You knew you might not ever see your family again.”





Steve Blakeman (Washington)





“I think that mercy and justice in proper balance is the key.”





Candie Hailey (New York)





“If anybody wants to know what hell is, that’s what hell is.”





Shearod McFarland (Michigan)





“I had started to envision myself hanging from beams and having other suicidal visions.”





Sonya Calico (Texas)





“It seemed like they had a rule that every time someone who’s transgender goes in . . . they automatically go straight to solitary.”





Travis Trani (Colorado)





“How safe is that, really, to take somebody from twenty-three-hour-a-day lockdown, and now he’s on the street corner in Denver, catching a bus with civilians?”





Tonja Fenton (New York)





“I have developed zero tolerance for anything. I wasn’t like this before.”





Jason Mollino (California)





“Is it torture? I’d say yes because we crave human contact.”





Heather Chapman (Florida)





“They’re torturing my husband. They’re torturing me. They’re torturing my daughters. They’re destroying our family.”





Michael “Zaharibu” Dorrough (California)





“I think that many of us reclaimed our humanity. Fighting back will do that.”





APPENDIXES:







Timeline of Solitary Confinement in the United States
Glossary TK





III. Solitary as Violence (Title TK): essay by law professor Hope Metcalf







ACLU piece on current state of solitary policy and reform TK by Amy Fettig
Five Demands of 2011 California Prisoner Hunger Strike
Ten Things You Can Do





VII. Q&A with mental health expert TK





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS