Solitary confinement is “the most extreme form of punishment we have other than death,” Piper Kerman told the audience during the “Censorship and the Rights of Prisoners” talk on Monday.

Kerman was invited to speak at the Milton and Ethel Sorokin Symposium, a public education event of the ACLU of Connecticut, that is co-sponsored ad hosted by the UConn School of Law.

Kerman’s timing could not have been more appropriate. Right now, Connecticut has a juvenile housed in an adult facility in Niantic, where she is reportedly isolated from the population for 22-23 hours each day. That Jane Doe is in lock down without being charged for a crime has been overshadowed by the details of her needs as a transgendered youth.

Kerman, who did not spend time in solitary housing herself, did say that it is “not used for ‘the worst of the worst'” exclusively, but that isolation is “used as a disciplinary tool for low level infractions.”

An audience member who described herself as someone who works in a jail confirmed that “suspected gang members” can be “segregated” for up to six weeks, simply for having an alleged association, which she said can happen for something as simple as wearing what someone thinks are gang colors. During segregation, she said, those in jail do not have phone privileges.

Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black, explained in her talk that prisoners are supposed to lose some freedoms, not all freedoms. So, when phone privileges are blocked — in Connecticut, we were told, inmates are not able to place calls to cell phones — or when inmates are not given mail from family members, the message is sent to prisoners, Kerman said, that their “lives don’t matter much.”

That’s not to suggest inmates have unfettered access to correspondence. Kerman acknowledged the need to inspect incoming mail for contraband, but that practice, she said, does not explain or excuse prison staff from failing to give letters to inmates. David McGuire, staff attorney for the ACLU of Connecticut, confirmed that the organization receives many complaints from inmates in state not receiving their mail.

“Prisoners are in so many ways faceless and nameless,” Kerman said, and that the function of prison is to marginalize. She was upfront about the amount of privilege she walked into prison with, and described constantly being witness to “inequality” as one of the hardest things about her own experience in prison.

McGuire and Kerman were asked about ways that the “everyday person” could work toward justice reform. Kerman described her focus as being on sentencing reform, public defense reform (some are deprived of their Sixth Amendment rights, she said), and how children are treated by the system. She emphasized the need for people to speak with elected officials, something that McGuire echoed. Kerman also suggested people donate books to prison libraries and volunteer in prisons. Perhaps more important than volunteering inside, she said, was giving time to at-risk youth.