Jean Casella is director of the Solitary Watch, which publishes original reporting and first-hand accounts of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and jails. Her work has also been published by The Guardian, The Nation, Mother Jones, Al Jazeera, and others, and she is co-editor of the anthology Hell Is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement. She has received a Soros Justice Media Fellowship and an Alicia Patterson Fellowship for her writing on prisons.
After a bold campaign promise, the president has remained almost silent as thousands languish in solitary in federal prisons. Advocates say they remain hopeful that he will find his voice on the issue.