Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy, and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinement

295 Pages·2022·3.936 MB·English

by  Angela J. Hattery, Earl Smith

Way Down in the Hole
Critical Issues in Crime and Society
Raymond J. Michalowski and Luis A. Fernandez, Series Editors
Critical Issues in Crime and Society is oriented t oward critical analy sis of con temporary
prob lems in crime and justice. The series is open to a broad range of topics including
specific types of crime, wrongful be hav ior by eco nom ically or po liti cally power ful actors,
controversies over justice system practices, and issues related to the intersection of iden-
tity, crime, and justice. It is committed to offering thoughtful works that w ill be accessible
to scholars and professional criminologists, general readers, and students.
For a list of titles in the series, see the last page of the book.
Way Down in the Hole
Race, Intimacy, and the
Reproduction of R acial
Ideologies in S olitary
Confinement
Angela J. Hattery and
Earl Smith
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, Camden, and Newark, New Jersey, and London
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Hattery, Angela, author. | Smith, Earl, 1946– author.
Title: Way down in the hole: race, intimacy, and the reproduction of racial
ideologies in solitary confinement / Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith.
Description: New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, [2023] | Series: Critical
issues in crime and society | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021058190 | ISBN 9781978823785 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781978823792 (cloth) | ISBN 9781978823808 (epub) |
ISBN 9781978823815 (mobi) | ISBN 9781978823822 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Solitary confinement. | Prisoners— Social conditions. |
Minorities— Effect of imprisonment on.
Classification: LCC HV8728 .H37 2022 | DDC 365/.644— dc23/eng/20211213
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2021058190
A British Cataloging- in- Publication rec ord for this book is available
from the British Library.
Copyright © 2023 by Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, elec-
tronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without writ-
ten permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 106 Somerset
Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use”
as defined by U.S. copyright law.
References to internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither
the author nor Rutgers University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired
or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National
Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992.
www. rutgersuniversitypress. o rg
Manufactured in the United States of Amer i ca
We dedicate this book to Correctional Officers Travis, Porter, and
Daniel; and to Dr. Emma, Marina, and to all of the people we met in
solitary confinement— those incarcerated and those who work t here.
You touched us in ways unimaginable. We hope we have done justice
to your stories and your lives. We w ill never forget you.
To the tens of thousands of p eople incarcerated and working in solitary
confinement units across the United States. We hope our book renders
you vis i ble.
To our children: Travis, Emma, Porter and Marina. You are our
inspiration.
To Earl: I w ouldn’t have survived solitary confinement without you.
To Angela: I only survived solitary because of you!

Contents
Foreword by Terry A. Kupers, M.D., M.S.P. xi
Introduction 1
Part I The Hole
1 A Day in the Hole 7
2 Solitary Confinement in Context 33
3 Ideal Types 43
Part II Scholar’s Story
4 Recruiting People Incarcerated in Solitary Confinement 51
5 Fox News or CNN? 55
6 Racism in Solitary Confinement 58
7 The Cell Assignment: Race is the First Consideration 63
8 It’s “Culture” not “Race” 66
Part III CO Porter and Dr. Emma
9 Locating Prisons in Rural Settings 75
10 Prison Town— Larrabee 78
11 Dr. Emma and the Professional Staff 81
12 The Hotel 85
13 It’s Either This or the Coal Mine 88
14 CO Porter: “Sometimes I Sleep in My Car” 95
vii
viii Contents
Part IV Fifty’s Story
15 Dehumanization 101
16 Language 104
17 Studies with Monkeys 107
18 Hygiene Products 110
19 The Mirror 116
20 Food 119
21 Time 122
22 Mail 125
23 Choosing the Hole 127
24 Freelimo: The Silencing of the Po liti cal Prisoner 131
25 Extreme Vio lence 135
Part V Marina’s Story
26 Welcome to SCI- Women 143
27 The Women’s Hole 150
28 Meeting the Mass Killer: Solitary Confinement
Is Her “Home” 155
29 The BMU 157
30 Sally 162
31 CO Lisa 165
32 Wendi 167
33 “Do You Think I’ll Die Here?”— Marina 170
Part VI CO Travis
34 We Are the Essential Workers 179
35 Solitary Confinement Isn’t a Daycare! 181
36 Correctional PTSD 186
37 “Therapy” with Dr. Emma 190
38 The Grift: Faking Mental Illness to Get a Candy Bar 195
39 The Flipped Script: TVs, Trays, and [Flush] Toilets 199
40 Not Always in Sync: The Job of the CO and the Work
of the CO 203
41 Intimate Interracial Contact and Intimate Surveillance 205
Contents ix
White Supremacy and the Lies
Part VII White P eople Tell Themselves
42 The “Origin” Lie: The Negro Is the Prob lem 213
43 Emancipated Slaves and the White Sharecropper 218
44 Strangers in Their Own Land 222
45 Dying by Whiteness 225
46 Bending the Rules: Creating Humanity in Inhumane Spaces 228
47 The Lies the COs Tell Themselves 235
48 “Anything But Race” Theories 237
49 January 6, 2021: The Big Lie 240
Epilogue 245

Abbreviations and Terms 249
Acknowle dgments 251
Notes 255
Bibliography 265
Index 275