Six by Nine: Solitary Confinement A narrative of Cruel Unusual Punishment

Marcel Neil served more than three years in solitary confinement, with four stints in two prisons. His daughter was born while he was in solitary. The very first moment that I went into solitary confinement was very fearful for me. It was just fear of the unknown: you walk into this building and the lights are so dim you can barely see, everything is so dark. All of the officers, they just look so much more crazier than everybody else outside of the solitary confinement, they have long beards and long hair. And you hear a lot of noise, a lot of people banging and yelling and screaming and kicking and you have absolutely no idea why theyre doing it until you get in a cell. Sometimes my daydreams took me to places where I didnt think my mind could go. Ive been in solitary for so long that it was hard for me to differentiate real from fantasy, because I would daydream for so long that Ive had officers knock on my cell door and I will completely block them out and they would have to literally