" Although solitary confinement was present throughout the twentieth century in American corrections, the use of the practice expanded exponentially in the 1970s amid a confluence of changes in the legal and philosophical landscape of the United States. Sentencing policies—including guidelines for probation and parole—grew even stricter, giving rise to a substantial increase in the country’s incarceration rates that would continue to spike during the “War on Drugs.” Between 1985 and 1995, the government cut back dramatically on prison education and treatment programs where they were not completely eliminated. The goals of incarceration shifted from rehabilitation to a correctional strategy intended purely to “incapacitate and punish. "

― Christine Montross , Waiting for an Echo: The Madness of American Incarceration