In life, so much of who we are is defined by the choices we make, how we see the world, and how we relate to the people around us. Solitary takes away all that. We may call it SHU or segregation or medical observation, but whatever words we use are a shorthand for the truth, a coded way of saying: You are nothing, and now you have nothing. Your world is only a tangle of dreams and reality drifting through the sterile air of a nine-by-six coffin. On the fourth day, Tompkins County finally sent over proof we’d already been tested for tuberculosis, and we were cleared for general population.
...more
