Book Talk | Ending Isolation by Deborah Zalesne and Christopher Blackwell

Come and be a part of a timely and thought-provoking dive into the U.S. Pr*son system as seen through the eyes of authors Deborah Zalesne and Christopher Blackwell (via Zoom).

Join Deborah Zalesne as she reads passages from Ending Isolation: The Case Against Solitary Confinement and leads a Q&A about the psychological harm and real-life consequences of our current incarceration system. Author Christopher Blackwell will call in from Pr*son to answer questions and share a perspective rarely disclosed to the general public.

The injustice, cruelty, and degradation that are so enmeshed within the U.S. carceral system find their barbaric apogee in the practice of solitary confinement. Once judged by the U.S. Supreme Court to be an impermissible form of torture, the use of solitary confinement has grown to become a “solution” to the overcrowding and violence that have defined life on the inside.

So what exactly does it mean to be sent to “the hole?” What damage is inflicted on the body and the mind by being locked in a cell the size of a parking space, for months or even years? Most of us can only imagine. For Christopher Blackwell and Kwaneta Harris, it is an experience they’ll never forget.

Ending Isolation weaves together Christopher's and Kwaneta’s vivid, first-hand accounts of their years spent in solitary confinement, Chris in a Washington State Pr*son and Kwaneta in Texas, with the legal expertise of co-author Deborah Zalesne and medical expertise of Dr. Terry Kupers. With chapters covering juveniles in solitary, mental illness, racial injustice, and even environmental issues, the book argues that the practice is an unconstitutional form of cruel and unusual punishment that must be abolished.

Christopher Blackwell is an award-winning journalist currently incarcerated at the Washington Corrections Center, serving a 45-year Pr*son sentence for M**der -- something he takes full accountability for. He is the co-founder and executive director of Look2Justice, a grassroots organization that transforms the legal system by providing education for incarcerated people. He is also the co-founder, with Deborah Zalesne, of the Writers Development Program, which uplifts the voices of incarcerated writers in the mainstream media. His writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Boston Globe and HuffPost, among many other outlets.

Deborah Zalesne is a tenured professor of law at the City University of New York School of Law. She has published extensively in the areas of criminal justice, race and gender justice, legal pedagogy, and issues relating to the use of contracts to empower disenfranchised groups. She has authored/co-authored three books and more than 50 scholarly articles for legal publications such as the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, the Columbia Journal of Race and the Law, and the Harvard Women’s Law Review. In 2025, she co-wrote Ending Isolation: The Case Against Solitary Confinement with incarcerated journalist Christopher Blackwell (Pluto Press). Deborah co-founded and runs a Writers Development Program that pairs aspiring incarcerated writers with inside and outside volunteer mentors who support their writing and help pitch it to media outlets.

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