A federal jury in New York recently returned a verdict in favor of an inmate who was unlawfully subjected to solitary confinement for nine years, marking what may be one of the first decisions to find practices in New York state prisons to be cruel and unusual under the high standards of the Eighth Amendment.

Following the five-day trial that began on Sept. 16, U.S. District Judge Brenda K. Sannes of the Northern District of New York confirmed the jury's verdict against state prison defendants in a civil rights lawsuit brought by inmate Wonder Williams, who argued that he was deprived of basic human needs during his incarceration for convictions of conspiracy, assault and criminal possession of a weapon.