The last time, in 1988, they’d put me in solitary confinement for more than eight months to get me to do what they wanted: as soon as I signed their plea agreement, they put me in with the general population. And this time, the government wasn’t shoving me into this hellhole to protect the public from me, or me from other inmates. It was coercion, pure and simple. The message was clear: all I had to do was agree to the prosecutor’s demands and waive certain rights, and agree to only call my immediate family and legal counsel, and they’d be more than happy to let me out of solitary, into the general population.