Journey to Justice Tour: The Case Against Solitary Confinement

Join Look2Justice and Unlock The Box Campaign in partnership for the Journey to Justice Bus Tour for a special event focused on gaining a strong understanding on how solitary confinment is causing serious harm to our fellow citizens, help humanize those who've experienced solitary, and aid in the fight to end this horrific practice in Washington state.

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Once judged by the United States Supreme Court to be an impermissible form of torture, solitary confinement has grown to become a "solution" to the overcrowding and violence that define life on the inside. Every day in American jails and prisons, 122,000 people are confined to a cell the size of a parking space; some have been there for months, years, and in some cases, decades. While the devastating physical and psychological effects of solitary are well documented, black-and-white statistics can never fully capture the toll it takes on the people who endure it.

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The event will provide testimony from four individuals who've been forced to spend years inside those small, isolated concrete cells. You'll hear the effects it had on them individually, and the harms they witnessed being inflicted upon other incarcerated people. After these testimonies there will be a Q and A session to allow space and time for the audience to learn and interact with our speakers.

Panelists:

Christopher Blackwell: Christopher Blackwell is an award-winning journalist currently incarcerated in Washington state. He is the co-founder and current Executive Director of Look2Justice. His writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many more.

Gail Brashear: Gail Brashear is a paralegal at The Seattle Clemency Project where her experience as a formerly incarcerated woman provides unique support to clients seeking post-conviction relief. At age 15, Gail was sentenced to 50 years in adult Pr*son and served 25 years before earning early release in 2019. She serves on DOC’s Lived Experience Advisory Team, is a board member of the Washington Pr*son History Project and regularly shares her knowledge of the carceral system as a guest lecturer and speaker.

David Heppard: David Heppard was sentenced to life at 16 and released after serving 24 years. David co-founded the Black Rose Collective to continue dismantling systems of oppression and supporting healing in impacted communities. As former Executive Director of Freedom Project, he helped grow it into a national model for reentry and anti-oppression. David believes, “People don’t change, they heal.”

Jessica Phoenix Sylvia: Jessica Sylvia is a formerly incarcerated trans woman currently living on Squaxin Island ancestral land in the State of Washington. She is a core member of Study and Struggle and co-founder of the campaign to Free the Mississippi 5. Jessica is a published essayist and enrolled citizen of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.

Bonus Panelist:

House Representative Strom Peterson (D): Strom Peterson has fought for years with concerned citizens and impacted people to end the use of solitary confinement. He will be sharing the hurdles/struggles we face to pass meaningful legislation in protecting our incarcerated population from enduring by torture chambers.

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Look2Justice is a grassroots organization of system-impacted organizers cultivating justice, fairness, and accountability in Washington's criminal legal system through civic education, narrative change and restorative justice practices. We operate an inside-out model, led by currently incarcerated individuals collaborating with formerly incarcerated organizers, impacted community organizers, academics, and policy/legal experts.

The Journey to Justice Bus Tour is a cross country bus tour focused on blending artivism, public education, and immersive experiences to fuel this crucial movement against the use of solitary confinement throughout U.S. prisons, jails, detention centers and carceral facilities nationwide.

Unlock the Box Campaign is a national advocacy campaign aimed at ending solitary confinement in all U.S. prisons, jails, detention facilities, and juvenile facilities, and bringing the United States into full compliance with the UN’s Mandela Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners within 10 years.

Additional Presenting Organization Partners:

• Disability Rights Washington
• End Solitary WA
• Elliott Bay Books
• Social Documentary Network
• Washington Pr*son History Project