Every Saturday, we revisit a story from the archives. This originally aired on August 3, 2023. None of the references from that time have been changed.

In a Texas maximum security prison, Dennis Wayne Hope has served 27 years in solitary confinement – more than half his life. On any given night in the US, more than 120,000 prisoners are isolated just like him. United Nations experts have strongly urged a global ban on solitary confinement that lasts more than 15 days, denouncing it as a form of psychological torture. Today, the story of how Dennis set out to change that and what it says about prison in the United States.

In this episode: 

• Rhana Natour (@RNatourious), correspondent for Al Jazeera's Fault Lines

Episode credits:

This episode was updated by Sarí el-Khalili. The original production team was Khaled Soltan, Miranda Lin, and our host, Kevin Hirten, in for Malika Bilal. 

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Adam Abou-Gad is our engagement producer.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.

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