First Solitary at Age Twelve

OA1216 - We welcome incarcerated journalist and advocate Christopher Blackwell, calling from his home at the Washington Corrections Center. Chris is the co-founder and Executive Director of Look2Justice, a non-profit which empowers and advocates currently and formerly incarcerated people through an “inside-out” organizing model. He is also a writer whose work has appeared in (among other places) The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and The Nation, and is a co-author of the new book Ending Isolation: The Case Against Solitary Confinement. Chris joins to share his story and his own deeply personal perspective on the inhumanity of solitary confinement.

1. Look2Justice’s website

2. Ending Isolation: The Case Against Solitary Confinement, Christopher William Blackwell (Author), Deborah Zalesne (Author), Kwaneta Harris (Contributor), Terry Kupers (Contributor) (September 2025)

3. Christopher Blackwell’s published work in the New York Times

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