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A review by mariahistryingtoread
Solitary by Albert Woodfox
5.0
TW: prison abuse, medical neglect, police brutality, male on male rape (discussed but no graphic descriptions and Woodfox is never raped)
If you were looking for a sign to support prison reform: this is it. Solitary is an eye-opening glimpse at the lengths the system will go to, to exact retribution from you over imagined slights.
It's not just the fact that Albert Woodfox was punished for a crime he didn't commit that makes this so harrowing a tale; it's the fact that even after society, became 'enlightened' as to the deep disservice being done to Black people in America, those in power took pains to penalize him to the nth degree. Even when it was abundantly clear the prison system was in the wrong, when it was clear that a deep injustice was being inflicted every day, when it was clear human rights were being violated at every turn, they still chose their pride over doing what was morally right. A decades long grudge against a man for daring to ask for fair treatment was more important than doing the right thing.
It goes to show that we have not come nearly as far as they want us to think we have.
If you were looking for a sign to support prison reform: this is it. Solitary is an eye-opening glimpse at the lengths the system will go to, to exact retribution from you over imagined slights.
It's not just the fact that Albert Woodfox was punished for a crime he didn't commit that makes this so harrowing a tale; it's the fact that even after society, became 'enlightened' as to the deep disservice being done to Black people in America, those in power took pains to penalize him to the nth degree. Even when it was abundantly clear the prison system was in the wrong, when it was clear that a deep injustice was being inflicted every day, when it was clear human rights were being violated at every turn, they still chose their pride over doing what was morally right. A decades long grudge against a man for daring to ask for fair treatment was more important than doing the right thing.
It goes to show that we have not come nearly as far as they want us to think we have.