On November 9th, Students for Prison Education And Reform (SPEAR) is excited to be taking part in its annual 7x9 performance protest, which aims to raise awareness and facilitate conversations about the inhumane use of solitary confinement in incarceration facilities throughout the United States. In solitary confinement, incarcerated people are isolated into cells that are 6’ x 9’ or 7’ x 10’, allowed only one hour outside the cell each day to shower or go outside. While people in solitary confinement make up only 4% of incarcerated people, they make up 50% of suicides that happen in incarceration facilities.
“In many ways solitary confinement is an issue that at once encompasses and surpasses all other issues within the criminal justice system, it is used as a tool against every vulnerable group within the system: minorities, children, immigrants, mentally ill, people going through withdrawals,” said Daniel Teehan, a past leader of SPEAR’s advocacy committee. “It doesn’t even make sense from conservative standpoints: it costs up to three times as much per individual per year, it leads to higher rates of prison violence and recidivism. All of these things make the argument against solitary confinement one of the easiest to make, and the range of potential audiences vast, but because of the people that it affects, some of the least sympathetic to the American public, there are not enough people making it. That’s why we need to.”
In this performance, for a total of 23 hours, performers will sit alone in a 7 by 9 foot rectangle for an hour each. In the 24th hour, the space will be left empty for the only hour incarcerated people are permitted in a 24 hour period. “In no way does this performance represent the experience of people who have been confined in solitary cells. 7x9 is only an abstraction, an entry point or reminder for people to catalyze learning about solitary confinement,” explained Grace Li, the former president and co-founder of SPEAR.
The 7x9 performance art protest will begin at 2AM on Wednesday, November 9th and conclude on Thursday, November 10th at 1AM.
In addition to raising awareness about solitary confinement through the 7x9 performance, SPEAR is excited to offer inclined students the chance to make a difference in the life of an individual currently in solitary confinement through its Pen Pal Program Project Solidarity. This program will pair Princeton students with individuals in solitary, with the expectation that each pair will establish a written correspondence throughout the year. By doing this we hope that we can help address what many individuals who have experienced solitary report to be the least bearable part: the immense loneliness and boredom that come from being confined to a 7x9 cell with no form of stimulation. We hope that the 7x9 performance, in conjunction with the correspondence program, will challenge people in the Princeton community and beyond to recognize and confront the issue of solitary confinement and prisons as a whole in the United States. Until abolition, SPEAR.
Check out Voices from Yesteryear, a project solidarity zine written by folks in solitary confinement.
What: 7x9 Solitary Confinement Performance
When: 2AM, Wednesday November 9th - 1AM, Thursday, November 10th
Who: Princeton Students
Where: On the north side of Frist Campus Center on the Princeton University Campus and in Firestone Plaza
