Men in the United States are being tortured every day, sometimes for up to twenty years, and yet there is no complaint. The method? Solitary confinement.

More than 80,000 people were in solitary confinement in the United States in 2005, the last time the federal government released such data. In California alone, at least 11,730 people are housed in some form of isolation. What is unique about Pennington—if being one of thousands can be considered unique—is that he doesn’t know when, or if, he will get out of the SHU. Like at least 3,808 others in California, he is serving an indeterminate sentence.

The author of the story served time in an Iranian prison, and comments that he much prefers the one in Iran, home of our supposed barbaric enemy.

Should we feel sympathy for Americans locked up in solitary confinement, or let them rot as they are? I guess that depends on the type of society you feel yourself a part of.

Read The Article: Solitary in Iran Nearly Broke Me. Then I Went Inside America’s Prisons