"Hyperbole"
This is from the National Library of Medicine. If anyone can't read it, I'll copy the whole thing and put it behind a spoiler so others don't have to scroll through it. It's long. There are 70 links to reverences at the very bottom of the article.
The history of solitary confinement in the United States stretches from the silent prisons of 200 years ago to today’s supermax prisons, mechanized panopticons that isolate tens of thousands, sometimes for decades. We examined the living conditions ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
LIFE IN SOLITARY
(excerpt)
Living conditions in solitary confinement are physically unhealthy, extremely stressful, and psychologically traumatizing. The typical cell is 60 to 80 square feet, with a cot, a toilet, a sink, a narrow slit for a window, and sometimes a small molded desk bolted to the wall. In many facilities, cells have a steel door with a small slot for delivering meals.
Inmates have little exposure to natural sunlight; bright fluorescent lights illuminate each cell, often through the night, disrupting natural sleep cycles and circadian rhythms. Some solitary confinement units are nearly silent except for sudden outbursts; others subject prisoners to an incessant cacophony of clanking metal doors, jingling keys, booted footsteps, and distressed voices reverberating off thick walls. In more modern units, electronic doors, search cameras, and intercoms create a mechanized environment that minimizes face-to-face interaction. Prisoners are typically taken out of their cells for only 1 hour on weekdays for recreation or a shower, or, in some systems, once a week for 5 hours. Before being moved from their cells, prisoners are cuffed and often shackled at the waist and placed in leg irons. Recreation usually occurs in either an open cage outdoors or an indoor area, sometimes with an open, barred top. Some prisons offer group therapy sessions, but, in many facilities, participants are chained to metal chairs that are mounted to the floor of a cage.
Many people live in these conditions for years without the opportunity to engage in the types of human interaction, treatment, job training, and educational experiences that would help them adjust when reentering the general prison population or society.
23–27 In the federal system and in at least 19 states, policies permit locking people into solitary confinement indefinitely.
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