Despite international standards such as the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, and the Nelson Mandela Rules, which obligate states to treat incarcerated individuals with respect for human dignity, Solitary Watch estimates that 120,000 people in the US are living in solitary confinement. These individuals are isolated in small, closed cells with no meaningful human contact for 22-24 hours per day. On this episode of Human Rights Chat, New Tactics interviews advocates for prison reform in the US state of Michigan. These individuals and organizations are fighting to put an end to the practice of solitary confinement in their state. Check out the following organizations and resources for more information:

• The Silenced Project. Silenced is a collection of letters and art that was produced in collaboration with people inside solitary confinement.
• Michigan Citizens for Prison Reform: MICPR is a nonprofit grassroots and family-led initiative to advance the human rights of those affected by crime and punishment.
• The Open MI Door campaign: OpenMIDoor is a campaign to end solitary confinement and advance humane alternatives in Michigan.

• Zealous: An initiative that harnesses technology, media and storytelling to promote justice and policy change to right historic imbalances. Zealous collaborated with the above organizations to create the Silenced Project digital archive.

We invite you to check out other episodes of Human Rights Chat on Apple, Spotify, Google, or Soundcloud as well as the New Tactics library of more than 260 innovative human rights tactics for change at newtactics.org.