Changes in solitary confinement procedures in California prisons are at the core of a legal settlement announced Tuesday.

The agreement in federal court between the state and a group of inmates held in solitary confinement for more than 10 years at northern California's Pelican Bay State prison calls for a change in the use of solitary confinement as a means of dispersing gang members within prisons. The landmark agreement is expected to reduce the number of inmates held in isolation units, a practice regarded as ineffective by analysts and as torture by human rights activists. ...

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