Thursday, May 15, 2025, 5:30 pm. In the solitary confinement ward of the Réau prison, south of Paris, Saïd (his first name has been changed) began writing a journal. He noted the day, the time, and a few words about his empty day. He had just returned from a "walk" – alone in a yard just a few square meters in size – and found the director, an officer, and five guards standing in front of his cell, which they had just searched. "Underwear, socks, etc., were counted. A first in detention. Every month, a new directive against us."

With a rounded hand, sometimes hesitant depending on the day, the man in his fifties, who was imprisoned for drug trafficking, recounted his daily life in solitary confinement. After nine years in the general prison population, he was placed there in January after a phone was discovered in his cell.

Friday, May 16. 7:15 am. "I feed my new friends, the birds."

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