Another Take: One prisoner’s fight to end solitary confinement
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 31 August 2024
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every Saturday, we revisit a story from the archives. This originally aired on August 3, 2023. None of the references from that time have been changed.
In a Texas maximum security prison, Dennis Wayne Hope has served 27 years in solitary confinement – more than half his life. On any given night in the US, more than 120,000 prisoners are isolated just like him. United Nations experts have strongly urged a global ban on solitary confinement that lasts more than 15 days, denouncing it as a form of psychological torture. Today, the story of how Dennis set out to change that and what it says about prison in the United States.
In this episode:
- Rhana Natour (@RNatourious), correspondent for Al Jazeera's Fault Lines
Episode credits:
This episode was updated by Sarí el-Khalili. The original production team was Khaled Soltan, Miranda Lin, and our host, Kevin Hirten, in for Malika Bilal.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Adam Abou-Gad is our engagement producer.
Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
Connect with us:
@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and YouTube
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Hi, it's Saril Khalili, a senior producer with a take, and this is another take, where we bring you episodes from the archive. |
| 0:19.7 | The U.S. Senate is looking into a bill that could finally put an end to solitary confinement. |
| 0:25.6 | This bill comes after years of prisoners speaking out, saying that the isolation is a form of psychological torture. |
| 0:35.6 | One of the voices in this fight is Dennis Wayne Hobe, who spent 27 years in solitary confinement. |
| 0:43.7 | Last year, we talked with Al Jazeera correspondent Rana Natur, who followed his case. |
| 0:50.2 | Here's that episode now. |
| 0:52.3 | But remember, none of the dates or other references have changed from August 3, 2023, when it originally aired. |
| 1:22.6 | Dennis Wayne Hope was arrested in 1990 in the U.S. state of Texas and sentenced to 80 years in one of its toughest maximum security prisons. In 1994, he orchestrated a daring escape through a pre-cut area of the prison fence just four years into his sentence. |
| 1:32.1 | He is the only person in Texas that's ever escaped from a non-escapable prison. |
| 1:39.2 | For two months, he was on the run. Then he was caught. |
| 1:43.2 | And since then, Dennis has spent 27 years in solitary confinement. |
| 1:49.1 | That's more than half his life, alone in a tiny cell. |
| 1:53.3 | From my bunk, I can take three steps. |
| 1:55.9 | Then you're at the door. |
| 1:57.0 | And you turn around, it's three steps back. |
| 1:59.6 | It's designed really for you to lay down. |
| 2:01.9 | And that's really what they want you to do. |
| 2:04.4 | More than 120,000 prisoners are isolated like Dennis in the U.S. on any given night. |
| 2:11.9 | United Nations experts strongly urged a global ban on solitary confinement that lasts more than 15 days, denouncing |
| 2:18.7 | it as a form of psychological torture. |
| 2:21.1 | It's designed to break you. |
... |
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