Solitary confinement is used to keep prisoners who aren’t following the rules or they are in there for their own protection. They could be sent there for violation of rules, Illegal contraband,assaulting another inmate or employee, starting riots and other various reasons.Solitary has been around since the 18th century especially in Europe and here in the United States and lately it’s becoming an issue about the practice of it mostly because it was being used on juvenile delinquents and Barack Obama just got rid of it in federal prisons. A typical Solitary cell is about 60 to 80 square feet, with only a small bed,toilet,sink and one door that has a small slot in it like one where you can push mail through used for delivering daily meals. Typically they have a small window that lets light through or bright lights in the rooms. It’s heard that it can disrupt their natural sleep cycles and circadian rhythms. In some prisons the are able to be taken out their cell for an hour a day for showering or exercising. In the tougher prisons it can be once a week for 5 hours. If they are even able to exercise it’s in an area in the prison indoors and they are by themselves and shacked. Because of certain housing policies people who are LGBT,pregnant,or have infectious diseases are put in solitary or have their own cell block as a group to keep them safe from the other prisoners. The United States has more prisoners in Solitary than any other country with Texas and California having the largest number and New York with the largest mentally ill prisoners. Prisoners who have a mental illness of some sort are most likely to be at risk to be in solitary because they can 't comprehend the prison
