(URBAN MATTERS) Five Mualimm-ak, November 30, 2019

I have served over 40,000 hours in isolation at the New York City corrections facility on Rikers Island and in State prison facilities in Upstate New York. During my time in solitary confinement, I produced many portraits. By drawing faces, I tried to draw attention to others who were suffering as well and their reasons for being confined from humanity. Saving myself from the boredom of my own mind and constantly searching to distract myself from the torture of extreme isolation was a challenging task.

Solitary confinement is a form of torture that the United States practices to punish individuals for disobeying correctional facility rules. In 2012 the New York State chapter of the ACLU published the Boxed in report that showed that five out of six disciplinary infractions given to prisoners in New York State were for non-violent rule infractions.

Solitary confinement has been used to break people of color for nearly 400 years in America and is one of the punishments still used in regularity that was birthed from the chattel slavery era. It’s part of 400 Years of Inequality. Plantation owners would dig a hole in the middle of the cotton fields and bury a person in a metal box so others would witness the suffering and know there is a greater pain than physical punishment.

Source: http://www.centernyc.org/portraits-from-solitary-confinement?mc_cid=c2b253eb92&mc_eid=92d414d023