Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Long-term solitary confinement is a form of torture used by prison officials to punish inmates and isolate political dissidents. Not only is long-term solitary confinement practiced by repressive regimes throughout the world, it has also become shockingly widespread in the United States. Come hear the stories of people who survived this torturous ordeal and learn about the struggle to bring this cruel and unusual form of punishment to an end.

Speakers:

Sarah Shourd:
Sarah is an author and Contributing Editor at Solitary Watch. She was living in Damascus, Syria—working as a journalist and teaching for the Iraqi Student Project—when she was captured by Iranian forces somewhere along the unmarked border between Iran and Iraq in July ’09 in semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan. Sarah was held as a political hostage in solitary confinement for 410 days, then spent the year following her release campaigning for the release of her friend Josh Fattal and now-husband Shane Bauer. She’s written for The New York Times, CNN, Newsweek's Daily Beast and has a blog on Huffington Post. Her memoir *A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran—*co-authored by Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal—will be published by Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt in March 2014. Sarahshourd.com

Shane Bauer
Shane is an investigative journalist and author based in Oakland, CA. From 2009-2011 Shane was held hostage in Iran with his now-wife Sarah Shourd and friend Josh Fattal. Last year, Shane investigated California's use of indefinite solitary confinement in an award-winning
Mother Jones cover story . He is currently working on other stories related to the US criminal justice system.

Bo Brown:
Bo is a former political prisoner due to her involvement in The George Jackson Brigade, a revolutionary cell that was active in the Pacific North West in the 1970s. Bo now lives in Oakland and has been active supporting the hunger strikers in the California prisons. She is part of the Prison Activist Resource Center in Oakland, CA.

Kristian Williams:
Kristian is an author and activist who has researched torture extensively and written about it in two of his books, Hurt: Notes on Torture in a Modern Democracy, and American Methods. His first book, Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America, has been re-released by South End. His work on policing and torture has also appeared in Counterpunch, New Politics, In These Times, and in the collection Confrontations (Tarantula Publishing, 2007). Kristian is also a volunteer with the Committee Against Political Repression in Portland, OR.