Ruano 1

Jefferson Ruano-Beltran
Dr. Hanvey
STACC 1
29 November 2015

Baca in his Solitary Confinement

Solitary Confinement has become an issue in the United States Prisons. Inmates can be
placed in solitary confinement not only for violent acts, but also for acts such as possessing
contraband, using drugs, ignoring orders or using profanity. Most of the inmates in solitary
confinement are placed in isolated cells for 23 hours per day. Many of these cells are illuminated
only be artificial light and offer no exposure to natural daylight.

The problem with Solitary Confinement is that it causes mental health issues, it has been
misused in prison, causes torture, inmates social life aren't the same as before with their family
members or friends. Prisoners have suffered severe psychological harm by being alone in small
dark room without having anyone to talk to, having to only see a pitch black room. This issue
should be fixed by using a different method without harming them and causing humans a
physical damage. United States prisons should instead put inmates who are placed in solitary
confinements and have them all together in the same area, than having each inmate in a room to
their self. I believe that this method would work because prisons would be isolating them but
they wont be in a room by themselves, they will instead be in a room with other inmates to at
least talk to and reflect amongst them together to become a better person outside of prison.
Ruano 2

Solitary Confinement has crossed Jimmy Santiago Baca life and has caused a major
impact to change his life around. On his novel A Place to Stand he explains his life issues on
how when he was young he saw his father go to jail and being abandoned by his mother at the
age of ten and at the age of twenty-one he was convicted on charges of drug possession and
incarcerated. Baca served six and a half years in prison, three of them in isolation. He is a person
who was in prison and overcame his struggle in a solitary cell. Bacas novel is about how poetry
and literature redesigned his life in prison, and how the ability to read and write was a huge
impact to his life

When Baca was in prison he wanted to go to school but the guards thought it was
dangerous to let an inmate go to school. He felt that he was discriminated because he wasnt
treated the same way outside of prison. When he was sent to an isolated cell he did not have
anyone to talk with around him, he was in a room that was pitch black. Baca was at a breaking
point where he nearly died. He became psychologically distressed in solitary. On the poem by
Jimmy Baca Who Understands Me but Me he writes a poem describing about he felt being in
prison. How the thing he had when he was free, he didnt have them while being behind bars.
He says they paint the windows black, so I live without sunshine, they lock my cage, so I live
without going anywhere, they take each last tear I have, I live without tears ,they take my heart
and rip it open, I live without heart, they take my life and crush it, so I live without a future
Baca suffered torture in prison but he also gained some strengths. He wrote poems in his cell

Ruano 3
where his first letter was to another inmate he met. Baca learned how to read and write at prison
without having to go to school. Baca gained the ability to do literature in prison even though the

guards thought he would not learn because he was a criminal. Poetry and literature did not only
adjust his life but yet saved it.

On a interview with Jimmy Baca "Poetry is What We Speak to Each Other by John
Keene. Keene interviews Baca on one of his book Working in the Dark: Reflections of a Poet of
the Barrio. Keene questions Baca about how the school system completely failed him and how it
fails so many young people, especially so many young people of color--and how you had to
teach yourself, as a young adult and while in prison, first to read and then to write. Baca answers
to that question I sometimes don't know if I would have been able to continue to breathe had I
not been able to read poetry, because I came upon poetry in much the same way that an infant
first gasps for breath. When Baca began to read he read very slowly, and a religious man had
sent him these books that had english and spanish on opposite pages. He says on the interview
I would read most of the day and into the night, and I would pronounce the language aloud. I
pronounced adjectives and adverbs and nouns and prepositions and so forth aloud, and then early
in the morning I would wake up and begin to write in a journal. When Bacas road to learning
how to read and write, he was not alone. Baca had inmates who helped him get to the place he is
at now. Inmates had faith in him as well as Baca himself.

Ruano 4
In Conclusion solitary confinement has become a horrible issue in the United States
prison because they have only caused psychological harm, torture, and social life with family.
Not only the effects that has be given to inmates but also the misuse of solitary confinements.
People are sent to isolations because of possessing contraband or using drugs. I dont think that

those are a reason to put an inmate in isolation. We should fix this problem by having every
prisoner in the same area together than having each inmate in solitary room with no light and no
one to talk. Instead put them all together so they have some people to talk to and know that they
aren't alone and develop to become better people outside of prison.

Ruano 5

Annotated Bibliography
Aldama, Frederick Luis. MELUS. Fall2005, Vol. 30 Issue 3, p113-127. 15p. , Database:
Academic Search Premier
An interview from Frederick Aldama give to Jimmy Baca who is digging up a ton of
Jimmys background information that are in the novel A Place to Stand but in this article it gets

to the point. Telling you exactly what happened to his father and mother. Where Bacas parents
were born. I can use this source because I feel that Baca race, ethnicity, and nationality have a
major impact to why he dropped out of high school. Also to why he was tortured in prison.

Baca, Jimmy Santiago. (2002) A Place to Stand: The Making of a Poet. 1st edn. New York:
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press.

Jimmy Santiago Baca is a poet, a person who was in prison and overcame his struggle in
solitary cell. Bacas novel is about how poetry and literature redesigned his life in prison. Baca
served six and a half years in prison, three of them in isolation. While being in prison he had a

Ruano 6
desire to go to school, but the guards thought of that dangerous, so Baca taught himself how to
read and write. He became psychologically distressed in solitary. Poetry and literature did not

only adjust his life but yet saved it. I will use this source as an introduction to his background
struggles.

Baca, Jimmy Santiago. Who Understands Me but Me from Immigrants in Our Own
Land and Selected Early Poems. Copyright 1990 by Jimmy Santiago Baca. Reprinted
by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.

Jimmy Baca writes a poem describing about he felt being in prison. How the thing he had
when he was free, he didnt have them while being behind bars. I will use this part of his poem
where he says they paint the windows black, so I live without sunshine when Baca was in an
isolated cell he had no sunlight, the room was dark.

Originally published in Callaloo--A Journal of African-American and African Arts and Letters,
Winter 1994, Volume 17, Number 1
Ruano 7
John Keene interviews Baca on one of his book Working in the Dark: Reflections of a
Poet of the Barrio. Keene questions Baca about how the school system completely failed him
and how it fails so many young people, especially so many young people of color--and how you
had to teach yourself, as a young adult and while in prison, first to read and then to write. Baca
answers to that question I sometimes don't know if I would have been able to continue to
breathe had I not been able to read poetry, because I came upon poetry in much the same way
that an infant first gasps for breath. Baca explains more about how poetry was able to save him
a lot in prison, and I can use this to back up a lot of the information he gives on his book.