There are three men who know what it would it be like to spend 29 years in solitary confinement in this cell. Three men who have undergone such injustice because they were black, because they were in the American deep South, because they worked to improve the conditions of one of the most infamous prisons in the country. They are called the Angola 3, and while Robert King has been released from prison, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace remain there. The years continue passing, 37 and counting.

The rest of us cannot know what this is like, but that should not stop us from trying to understand, both the cost of such imprisonment on a human being, and the intersection of racism, corruption, and capitalism that make such a thing possible. The Guardian ran a piece this weekend trying to give a taste of this experience in King's own words, as he says "I talk about my years in solitary as if it was the past, but the truth is it never leaves you. In some ways I am still there."

It is a short taste only, the documentary In the Land of the Free (which you can watch online if you are in the UK at www.brightwide.com) does more to connect interviews with King to the details of the case, the history of the prison, the larger context of injustice. Film can help bring this kind of reality to life in a way few things can, and more than one person has commented on the courage of these three men's convictions.

And there is of course, Robert's autobiography, From the Bottom of the Heap, which opens up the experience of growing up poor and black in Louisiana in an entirely different way, and a few more stories from his book tour in Southern California.

The campaign to free the Angola 3 in ongoing, and there are many ways to get involved. For the latest updates you can follow the Angola 3 news blog, and check out the following websites: www.angola3.org, www.angola3action.org, www.a3grassroots.org, www.kingsfreelines.com, www.hermanshouse.org.