After decades of holding thousands of inmates in concrete, sometimes windowless isolation cells, where some stayed for 20 years or more, California prison officials are about to drastically reduce their use of solitary confinement.

In a settlement Tuesday with inmates who filed a class-action suit in 2012 — and backed up their legal action with a series of hunger strikes — the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced changes that will return as many as 1,800 inmates to the general prison population. They will regain access to prison vocational and educational programs, phone calls, mail deliveries, and family visits. ...

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