Nice opin­ion piece in a pub­li­ca­tion called CT Mir­ror from “Twelve Con­necti­cut Quak­ers,” Quak­ers and soli­tary con­fine­ment: We thought it was a good idea. Now we don’t!

It starts with the well-known sto­ry of nine­teenth cen­tu­ry Quak­er prison reform­ers who with good inten­tions invent­ed soli­tary con­fine­ment at the East­ern State Pen­i­ten­tiary in Philadel­phia. It then goes on to talk about mod­ern prison-reform advo­cates. It namechecks Michelle Alexan­der, talks about the U.S. Soli­tary Con­fine­ment Study and Reform Act of 2019 and sim­i­lar leg­is­la­tion in states.

Almost two cen­turies after the East­ern State Pen­i­ten­tiary opened, Quak­ers and their orga­ni­za­tions (e.g. local and region­al Meet­ings, Amer­i­can Friends Ser­vice Com­mit­tee, Friends Com­mit­tee on Nation­al Leg­is­la­tion) are work­ing to end the prac­tice that we had a hand in cre­at­ing. We urge you to join us! 

Toward the end they quote a minute from the meet­ing. I’m some­times a lit­tle weary of polit­i­cal min­utes that nev­er see the light of day out­side of the busi­ness meet­ing but this arti­cle is a great exam­ple of inte­grat­ing that into a strong arti­cle in a local news out­let. Kudos to the twelve Con­necti­cuters (yes I had to look up that denonym).