The Horrors of Solitary Confinement

Many people assume that the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay is an aberration in the American system of justice. But one punishment tactic used in Guantanamo is rampant throughout American jails and prisons: solitary confinement. The acclaimed journalist Ted Conover, who has gone undercover to write about prison guards at Sing Sing and life in an industrial slaughterhouse, reports on the psychological damage that punitive isolation inflicts upon Guantánamo and American prisoners alike. His new story in Vanity Fair is "From Gitmo to an American Supermax, the Horrors of Solitary Confinement."