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The Box: Minds Lost in Solitary Confinement Film by James Burns and Shal Ngo Text by Jackson Vail September 7, 2022A documentary—from the directors James Burns, who was previously incarcerated, and Shal Ngo—follows three former inmates as they revisit their traumatic time in solitary day, in prisons and jails across the United States, some eighty thousand people are held in solitary confinement, isolated and deprived of human contact. A growing body of scientific evidence shows that such conditions cause the brain to wither and can lead to permanent neurological damage. Per the United Nations’ “Nelson Mandela Rules,” which, in 2015, were adopted as minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners around the world, prolonged use of the practice amounts to torture and should be abolished. All of this research and regulation reinforces what is already intuitive: taking away individuals’ ability to interact with the world around them strips them of what it is to be human. Thi
