This story ran Tuesday, outlining the current state of Richard Poplawski's incarceration:

"...the accused killer of three Pittsburgh police officers, has a window, a cot, a latrine and the clothes on his back. Other than that, his 8-foot by 10-foot cell is bare, and he's on his own. Mr. Poplawski, 22, is being kept in administrative custody -- effectively solitary confinement -- for 23 hours a day. His one free hour is used for indoor recreation. He showers by himself and takes his meals alone. Mr. Poplawski is not allowed contact with anyone from the outside world except for his lawyer. And jail officials have not granted him access to any reading material -- not even a Bible. There are 25 other cells in his unit, and a guard sits in the middle of them all watching Mr. Poplawski through a window in each metal door -- just in case Mr. Poplawski tries to kill himself."

I imagine some of our teabagging (and "rightwing extrem[ist]") friends might suggest that Mr. Poplawski deserves whatever inhumane punishment the authorities decide to inflict upon him, but I direct you toward this recent New Yorker piece, which makes a strong argument about the ineffectiveness of solitary confinement (in addition to a strong argument about solitary as cruel and unusual torture):

"A considerable number of [prisoners kept in solitary] fell, after even a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition, from which it was next to impossible to arouse them, and others became violently insane; others, still, committed suicide; while those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed, and in most cases did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent service to the community."

So, there's an irony here: Officials want to isolate Poplawski "until [they] decide whether he is suicidal or stable," but studies show that solitary confinement increases the human tendency toward suicide and in fact causes extreme instability -- in the form of incoherence and violent insanity. Keeping that in mind, is solitary confinement really the smartest option for Richard Poplawski's incarceration?

Also, Poplawski is 23, not 22. Thanks, Ann Coulter, for clarifying.