At many U.S. prisons and for too many years, the path of least resistance for disciplining unruly inmates has run directly to solitary confinement — and often it’s been a one-way trip. Prisoners who mouth off, smuggle contraband or get in fights are warehoused in windowless, parking spot-sized cells for all but an hour or two a day, kept in isolation and deprived of human contact for weeks, months or, not infrequently, years at a time. Continue reading...