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Stories from the SHU (Solitary Housing Unit) includes personal stories and observations from people with psychiatric disabilities in solitary confinement in New York State.

If Ken Kesey was asked to write a screenplay to merge his 1963 work One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with the 1978 movie of Midnight Express, the result might well be Stories from the SHU.

A heartbreaking collection of stories of abuse, denial of services and helpless friends and loved ones, Stories from the SHU is made that much more painful because it is non-fiction.

Full of facts, feelings and poetry, this 59-page book produced by the advocacy group Mental Health Alternatives to Solitary Confinement (MHASC), will enlighten all readers to the horrors of life behind bars for those with mental illnesses.

The book opens with a preface that matter-of-factly states that its purpose is “To give a voice to those who have experienced solitary confinement.” The next page is chillingly helpful in making that point—a glossary of words and abbreviations such as “bid” (to serve a prison sentence) and “SHU 200” (a freestanding solitary confinement unit on the grounds of a prison).

Many of the short stories have increased emotional impact as the most painful points are highlighted or capitalized. Starting with the first one, “SHU is not an Abstract Place,” which highlights, “…significant SHU time assures a lifetime of being just not right, no matter how subtle.” This story takes one through the process of admission to a SHU for an inmate with mental health needs, sharing the abuse, pain and violation of human dignity for the person who is being placed in solitary confinement.

“I’ve been in some of those SHU strip rooms where blood was splattered all over the walls from years of beatings,” the anonymous first author states.

Landon Hughes Corney writes of his own experience in surviving the SHU, “Seven days you have to eat some sort of loaf that tastes like bile, and cabbage for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

Mr. Corney was one of the relatively lucky ones sentenced to a mere six months in the SHU where he actually did eight. One man, S.D., was sentenced to 25 years in SHU. Time in SHU is compounded by minor infractions committed by people who cannot cope with what is happening to them and can reach many years in duration.

Twenty-three hours a day, 365 days a year, in a six-foot by nine-foot space.

It is best summed up in a poem from Richard Sunday, whose two poems close the book, “We vegetate in their plunder of our life…”

Deserved applause goes to MHASC for getting these stories out to the public with a special ovation to Raymond Ortiz and Vuka Stricevic for their efforts to make it happen.

To help fight for the lives of consumers in the SHU or to keep them out, please contact MHASC or RIPPD.