A trans woman with HIV spent years in solitary. She sued to make Missouri change its policy

Honesty Bishop could hear the screams of other people in solitary confinement. Sometimes it was so cold in her cell, she could see her breath. She dealt with scabies and mold. Her days and nights were spent in extreme isolation.

The Missouri Department of Corrections kept her locked in a cell about the size of a parking space for over six years.

She wrote letters to her sister, Latasha Monroe, in St. Louis. They both wondered why Bishop continued to be held in such severe conditions at Jefferson City Correctional Center, a men’s facility.

Interviews and records on Bishop’s years in solitary confinement paint a dark picture of a person who felt alone and hopeless, and, in the depths of despair, was driven to self-harm.

Bishop, a transgender woman, initially landed there after her cellma