Thomas FreeMe

Please join us in commemorating the extraordinary life of Frank De Palma, this Sunday. bit.ly/3WibEw3

Good morning, Twitter friends, This is Mary Buser, Frank’s co-author and dear friend. I am writing with the heartbreaking news that Frank De Palma has passed away. He died of natural causes, quickly and painlessly. As most of you know, Frank spent 22 years and 36 days in solitary confinement at Nevada’s Ely State prison. His isolation was extreme - no TV, no tablet, no books, magazines, no pen and paper — no outside agencies fighting his cause. He was consigned to stare at a wall for 22 years. It is unbelievable that he survived, and even more unbelievable that we would subject a human being to such treatment. During the last six years, he fell into a catatonic state and became nothing more than a hand reaching for a food tray. Miraculously, Frank came out of this state, no longer fully whole, but with his spirit fully intact. Released from prison at 62, Frank struggled, enduring homelessness, hopelessness, and failing health. Yet somehow he hung on, with only his precious writings in his pockets. Bit by bit, he met people who took an interest in him. Frank was a very likable person. As his story got around, he was asked to testify before the Nevada Senate Judiciary Committee as they were considering reforms to solitary confinement in their prisons. His testimony was devastating. It is there that I first met Frank, and as we got acquainted, we knew that his powerful writings were the basis for a book and together, we wrote, “Never to Surrender!” The first chapter is entirely in Frank’s words. The last few years were good. Frank had stable housing, new friends, and a dedication to what became his life’s purpose: “abolishing solitary confinement, and having it put on the books as a crime.” Frank was unabashed about telling anyone and everyone about solitary. There was not one Uber driver who did not learn about it, about his book, and about his story. In one of our recent conversations, Frank expressed frustration that ending solitary wasn’t happening fast enough. He would lay awake at night thinking about the estimated 122,000 people sitting in isolation cells across the country, despite the fact that humane options are available. As his health was failing and his mobility decreasing, Frank told me that if he had to, he would sit in a wheelchair on street corners passing out pamphlets on solitary & telling people his story. And he would have. Thankfully, he did not wind up in a wheelchair, but his broken body finally gave out. The good part of it was that he died as a free man, in the warmth of his home, while his precious blues music was playing in the background. Though Frank is gone, his story and his mission will continue. We will abolish solitary confinement. And now I will unabashedly ask all of you to learn more about Frank and solitary confinement. Please read his book, learn & together we can all end this torture. Frank De Palma is the most remarkable human being I’ve ever known, and I pray that he is resting easy now, his work done. Frank and I were in the habit of checking in every evening, just to say a quick good night, and as we hung up, he never failed to say to me, “ Sleep with the angels, Mary” And now, dear Frank, I say to you, “Sleep with the angels.”