“IN THE LARGEST prison protest in California’s history, nearly 30,000 inmates have gone on hunger strike.
“Their main grievance: the state’s use of solitary confinement, in which prisoners are held for years or decades with almost no social contact and the barest of sensory stimuli.
“The human brain is ill-adapted to such conditions, and activists and some psychologists equate it to torture.
“Solitary confinement isn’t merely uncomfortable, they say, but such an anathema to human needs that it often drives prisoners mad.
“In isolation, people become anxious and angry, prone to hallucinations and wild mood swings, and unable to control their impulses.
“The problems are even worse in people predisposed to mental illness, and can wreak long-lasting changes in prisoners’ minds.”
Read more at Wired.com
