[mallaidh]

A note: Herman Wallace was released on October 1, 2013 because of advanced liver cancer. The state reindicted him on October 3, but he died the next day a free man. Albert Woodfox was released in February 2016. The Angola 3 were held in solitary confinement for more than 100 years combined, with Woodfox's 43 years of solitary being the longest of any American prisoner.

[coldtea]

Anything beyond a few weeks or a month in solitary confinement should be illegal and punishable by law the same as torture.

And with no loopholes for joining many smaller stays to a long big stay.

[mallaidh]

Even a week is too long, the effects on the brain can be measured by EEG within a few days, specifically a state of stupor and delirium. The psychological effects are dangerous and permanent.

[nieksand]

How would you deal with an inmate that murders or rapes another inmate?

[Broken_Hippo]

Design the prisons so that folks have private showers and room to begin with. Make sure the environment doesn't invite such behavior. Treat the prisoners like humans.

If it still happens, one can design a segregation unit that isn't as inhumane. One can lose a bit of freedom or gain some by not doing such things. Actual freedoms, like being able to move to a lesser security place. And so on.

[CobrastanJorji]

Protecting inmates from a troublesome inmate can be accomplished without putting that inmate in a small, windowless room with no distractions by themselves for 24 hours a day.

[Noumenon72]

But after you've tried environmental design, incentives, threats, guards, and surveillance, then can it be accomplished without the small, windowless room? I'd guess not at a reasonable cost.

[metasean]

In the first 14 years of Norway's Highest Security Department (SHS), their version of solitary confinement, they only had to put 11 prisoners there! [0]

The Wikipedia descriptions of Anders Breivik's confinement describe SHS [1]

According to a recent Business Insider video [2]:

- "With few exceptions, judges can only sentence criminals to a maximum of 21 years" which is less then these three men did in solitary!

- "In Norway, only 20% of prisoners return to jail. Compared to the US where 76.6% of prisoners are re-arrested within five years."

Which is even more impressive when you learn that as of August of 2014 Norway's incarceration rate was 75 per 100,000 people, in contrast to 707 per 100,000 in the U.S. [3]

So we Americans incarcerate almost 10 times as many people as Norway with a recidivism rate more than 3.8 times as high as Norway - clearly our focus on "reasonable cost" is justifiable!</sarcasm>

[0]: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik#Prison_...

[2]: http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-norways-luxurious-maxi...

[3]: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-norways-prison-system-is-...

--- edited to separate bullet points

[TheCoelacanth]

Why would a small windowless room ever be necessary? How would an unarmed person harm someone from inside a normal prison cell?

[coldtea]

With non-solitary confinement.

They can't kill anybody if they're in a normal cell by themselves next to the other cells -- and with stuff like tv, radio, books, internet, etc still available.

[mallaidh]

If you're implying what I think you are, that's still not justification for torturing the aforementioned person.

[Karunamon]

Agreed. That's a good reason to keep people physically away from that person, but not a good reason to not allow basic socialization via remote. Even something as simple as IRC chat or video calling would do wonders.

[komali2]

Solitary confinement is not an effective method of societal reintegration. I'm not sure why it's implemented at all.

[giarc]

43 years. I wonder if he has been asked whether he would prefer death.