Events Calendar

Please join the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab (PJIL) for a film screening and panel discussion about “Solitary Confinement in Prison” on Monday, October 7, from 5:15 – 6:45 pm at the Law School (TNH 2.137). We are screening the 2023 short film “The Box: 27 Years in Solitary,” which explores the use of solitary confinement in prison. It focuses on the case of Dennis Hope, a man who spent 27 years in solitary confinement in a Texas prison and who took a lawsuit about his situation to the US Supreme Court. After the screening will be a panel discussion with Jeremy Young, Senior Producer for Fault Lines, Al Jazeera’s current affairs news program, and the producer of the film; Molly Petchenik, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project which represented Dennis Hope in his Supreme Court challenge; Chanel Jones from the Lioness Justice Impacted Women's Alliance who has lived experience in solitary in a Texas women's prison, and Robert Lilly from Grassroots Leadership, also with lived experience in solitary. The panel will be moderated by UT LBJ/Law professor and PJIL Director Michele Deitch. The event is organized by the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and is co-sponsored by the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law at the Law School. Please register for the event and help spread the word about it. Open to the Austin community.