Colorado prison director recounts experience in solitary confinement

Georgia Valentine, an intern with the legal Services for Prisoners with Children, hangs a poster calling for the reform in the use of solitary confinement in California prisons during a demonstration at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013. Members of the Assembly and Senate public safety committees held the first of several joint hearings in response to a massive inmate hunger strike this summer protesting conditions for gang leaders held in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison and three other state prisons.

Last week, at a Senate subcommittee hearing, Senator Dick Durbin called the practice, "a human rights issue we can't ignore." Among those who testified at that hearing is our next guest, the head of Colorado's Department of Corrections Rick Raemisch.

The movement to reduce solitary confinement in prison is gaining steam.

Last week, at a Senate subcommittee hearing, Senator Dick Durbin called the practice, "a human rights issue we can't ignore." Among those who testified at that hearing is our next guest, the head of Colorado's Department of Corrections Rick Raemisch.

He said solitary confinement is "overused, misused, and abused," and he would know. He recently decided to spend 20 hours in solitary confinement himself.

Raemisch joins the show to talk about his experience.