As Haney observed in a review of research findings, prisoners in solitary confinement must be able to withstand the experience in order to be allowed to return to the highly social world of mainline prison or free society.
Judges were being asked to rule on whether many of the men faced indefinite solitary confinement, something that their lawyers said would be totally unacceptable in Europe.
Mitnick was once placed in solitary confinement because prison officials were afraid he could turn his walkman into an FM transmitter that could be used to bug the wardens office.