If solitary confinement is torture, why are we still doing it?

In 1973, Jack McCann escaped from a federal prison in British Columbia. Of all the places he could go, he headed straight to the Vancouver Sun. The reason? Jack McCann had been held in solitary confinement for 754 days at that point. He sought to publicize his case and the circumstances faced by others in solitary confinement in the federal penitentiary system in Canada.

The end result of his efforts, two years later, was a landmark case argued in front of the Federal Court of Canada. The plaintiffs, including Jack McCann, won an admission by Justice D.V. Heald that solitary confinement, as it had been used in these cases, constituted "cruel and unusual punishment." Unfortunately, solitary confinement is still used in federal prisons today, often as a stop-gap to deal with mentally ill offenders. This practice harms the individuals involved, and also highlights a fundamental flaw in our conceptions of, and solutions to, crime and punishment in this country.

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http://rabble.ca/news/2010/06/if-solitary-confinement-torture-why-are-we-still-doing-it