Stories from the SHU is a collection of 20 stories and poems written by either people with psychiatric disabilities who were formerly or currently incarcerated in a SHU (Special Housing Unit) or by their loved ones.

Despite its sensitive sounding name, a SHU is actually a segregated, punitive portion of the prison meant to isolate those inmates with discipline problems from the rest of the prison population. These inmates are kept in solitary confinement for either 23 or 24 hours each and every day.

The problem is that there are over 1,000 people in these units in New York State alone who do not have disciplinary problems, but suffer with psychiatric disabilities. Their behaviors have been misinterpreted because their illness is quite often misunderstood.

After reading these often horrific tales, I dare anyone not to feel both sad and enraged. Just imagine that you are suffering from a severe depression, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia or other psychiatric disability. Because you hardly ever get to see a psychiatrist in prison (if at all) to get proper mental health treatment, you “act out” as a result of your symptoms. You are now labeled a “trouble maker” or a “disciplinary problem” and sent to the SHU (also called “the Box”).

Now imagine having a severe psychiatric disability and being locked in solitary confinement for 23 or 24 hours every day for AN AVERAGE OF 38 MONTHS! It is no small wonder that more than 50% of all prison suicides occur in solitary confinement, although the SHU only accounts for 7% of the entire prison population.

In addition to the total isolation, as if that was not horrible enough, many of the writers told of their deplorable conditions and maltreatment. One writer remembers word-for-word what the officer screamed at an inmate upon his arrival at the SHU: “You are now in our house. You do not speak unless asked to. You do not make any sudden moves or gestures. If you move without being told, we will interpret that as a sign of aggression and protect ourselves accordingly….You will then stick your head deep into the corner, where it will remain. If you take your head out of that corner, we will interpret that as a sign of aggression and protect ourselves accordingly.”

Another author described the SHU as a 7'x8' concrete cell with practically no light and just a slot in a thick metal door for the food to be sent through. And speaking about the food, more than one author spoke about the constant diet of solely bread and cabbage, nothing else. This “diet” was actually approved for use in SHUs as a “disciplinary measure.”

Perhaps just as painful to read were the many statements alluding to the fact that the writers were fully aware of their inhumane situations. One person wrote, “I could not figure out how being secluded from society, spending 23-hours-a-day alone and not having anyone to talk to was going to help me with this disorder that I was told that I had.”

Another wrote, “I was sent back there (the SHU) to rot, to sink further into the depression…I lay there day after day getting sucked back into a depressive vortex.” A third author summed it up very succinctly: “In SHU, time stops.”

The stories written by loved ones are just as tragic. One mother wrote of a particular five-month period in which her son saw a doctor a total of two times. Her attempts at outreach to her son's “professionals” were fruitless. The counselor said he was taken off the mental health caseload once placed in the SHU. The psychiatric nurse said he was doing fine, basing this solely on the fact that he stopped yelling after three days. The psychiatrist simply explained that he had a caseload of over 150 and that her son was not a top priority.

I highly recommend Stories from the SHU for anyone, even someone like myself who considered himself knowledgeable on the subject, because as much as you might know about the SHU, hearing the words from those directly involved and affected by it is a powerful experience.