No Exit: Death and Despair in Texas’s “Double-Cell” Solitary Units

No Exit: Death and Despair in Texas’s “Double-Cell” Solitary Units

This story was produced in partnership with Solitary Watch. Alton Rodgers’s cellmate beat him repeatedly for a month before he died. On at least five occasions, Rodgers’s cellmate allegedly smashed Rodgers’s head against the concrete floor, walls, and other objects. According to the lawsuit that Rodgers’s family filed against the prison system, Rodgers, who was 6’3”, had weighed 167 pounds two months before his death. When prison officials remov…

Deaths of Despair in the United States

The trends and reasons for deaths of despair are more complicated than a quick look suggests.