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Actually, that sort of isolation was tried in some of the early 19th century prisons: the idea was to give them a bible and solitary time to reflect. Apparently far too many prisoners went insane under those conditions for even the Quakers who first advocated them to stomach it.

I would not be against prisoners in the type of environment I describe having access to educational materials, magazines, newspapers, etc. No question, some type of stimulation of their minds would be required to combat the potential of insanity. However, I would rather take my chances with a few inmates going insane because of not having the mental fortitude to make it through their sentences, than a bunch of prisoners brutalize each other, become involved in the in prison drug trade, and plan for their criminal exploits when they get out. And while I have no numbers on the rates of insanity in the current system, I would think it would not be a stretch to assume a good number of prisoners get pretty screwed up mentally from hard time spent in today's prison hellholes.