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For nine months, Pfc. Bradley Manning was held in a in Quantico, Virginia, for , at times with , while awaiting trial for .

This is the definition of solitary confinement.

And yet, yesterday, while that the punishment Manning endured was 鈥�,鈥� the judge insisted that he was not subject to solitary confinement because he had some limited contact with other human beings.

Manning's defenders argued the military judge should have dismissed all of the charges against him because of the former Army intelligence analyst was subjected to at the hands of his Marine jailors.

While the judge did agree that Manning鈥檚 treatment was and could not be justified as a legitimate government interest, she did not dismiss all the charges, but instead held that any sentence he may receive if convicted will be

What happened here?

Regardless of your stance on Manning鈥檚 charges, one thing is very clear: the judge was simply wrong when she found that he was not subjected to solitary confinement. Unfortunately, her opinion displayed an all too common misunderstanding of what solitary confinement is and the damaging effects it imposes on human beings.

Here鈥檚 the truth.

No prisoner is ever held in total isolation; there's always incidental contact with prison staff who deliver meals and perform other essential tasks. In this country, solitary confinement has always gone by many names, whether it occurs in a so-called 鈥渟upermax prison鈥� or in a separate unit within a regular prison called disciplinary segregation, administrative segregation, control units, security housing units (SHU), special management units (SMU), or simply 鈥溾��. But by any reasonable definition, .

Indeed, in this country have routinely defined solitary confinement as the practice of placing a person alone in a cell for 22-24 hours a day with little human contact or interaction. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture has also adopted this definition in a on solitary confinement, presented to the United Nations General Assembly, which called on all countries to ban the practice, except in very exceptional circumstances, as a last resort, and for as short a time as possible.

Not only is does segregation in a cell by yourself for 22-24 hours a day fall squarely within the definition of 鈥渟olitary confinement,鈥� the practice is well recognized as painful and difficult to endure. 鈥淚t's an awful thing, solitary,鈥� U.S. Senator John McCain wrote of his time in isolation as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. 鈥溾�� Senator McCain鈥檚 experience is reflected in the . In fact, the harms are so well known that the top psychiatric doctors in this country, the , recently issued a formal position statement that prisoners with serious mental illness should almost never subject to such treatment and in the rare event that isolation is necessary, they must be given extra clinical supports.

Our military鈥檚 failure to understand the grave harms and risks inherent in its solitary confinement practices needs to be addressed immediately and in keeping with national and international standards. Observing human rights at home and abroad -- in peace and at war -- is a fundamental American value. The men and women who serve in our military deserve nothing less.

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