So – just checking, because it seems like I might be missing something somewhere –

– solitary confinement doesn’t actually have to be the kind of monstrous soul-destroying torture that it presently is, right?

I mean, yes, humans are social creatures, one way or another you will go mad if you’re denied human company for long enough, I don’t want to underplay that.  But there’s a big difference between “you are denied human company” and “you are denied human company, and also any other form of mental stimulation, while being kept in a tiny lightless metal box.”

If you really have to keep a prisoner away from everyone else, for reasons of his safety or other people’s safety or whatever, it seems like Step 1 in terms of mitigating the problems with this scenario would be giving him some fucking books to read.