The cramped and crowded conditions make it hard to stop the spread of coronavirus, and in the U.

S, authorities have turned to solitary confinement as a way of limiting transmission.

There are an estimated 60,000 inmates in solitary confinement in America, although that number is now believed to be much higher, and many of them have been held in solitary for years.

Yet the United Nations considers more than 15 days in solitary confinement to be a form of torture because of the psychological damage that it can cause.

And for some inmates, the impact is indeed devastating.

This special report by our correspondent Hilary Anderson, does contain some distressing details.

We've all now experienced lockdown in our homes, but try to imagine being confined to a room the size of your bathroom for 22 hours a day.

That's solitary confinement.

In New York, I met Candy Haley.

Candy was held on remand at Rikers Island jail here for a crime she didn't commit.

Then accused of breaking prison rules, she was put in isolation.

If hell had a description or definition, it would be solitary confinement.

The cell was like, uh, elevated that you're stuck in for 24 hours with no indication of how long she would be there.

Candy could only see one way out.

I wanted to kill myself.

I swallow pills.

I cut my arms, a pencil pen, whatever I could find.

Cut my arms up.

How long can a human endure isolation for candy?

It was three years for Albert would Fox.

It was 45.

He spent most of his life in a cell alone trying not to lose his mind.

The very first time I experienced a claustrophobic tag was sleeping and I woke up and the bulk above me was was right there, you know, about a couple of inches from my face.

And that was your perception.

Yeah, and I couldn't move is relaxed.

The atmosphere itself is closing in on, you know, you get this feeling where you're being smuggled almost, you know, would.

Fox, accused of killing a prison guard, has long maintained his innocence.

He was released in 2016.

The length of his incarceration shocked many around the world.

He's become a leading figure in the fight against solitary for years.

This man, Burl Cain, was his jailer.

Cain didn't want to comment on specific inmates.

He's had years of experience with maximum security prisoners and believes solitary is essential to prison safety.

The United Nations has defined more than 15 days in solitary as torture.

Do you?

What do you say about about that?

I'm not torturing them because I'm gonna feed them good.

And we're gonna try every day to get them to come out of there and live peacefully with the others.

But until he says that until he wants that right, I have no choice but to protect the others.

Leave him over here.

Some American states are trying to reduce the use of solitary confinement.

But in others, like here in Louisiana, solitary is still widely used, sometimes even for Children.

That's him.

I met Ronnie Peterson.

This Solan has adopted 13 year old son, have lots of friends.

He made friends really easy and just wanted to have a good time with everyone.

Two years ago, Solan, who had 80 HD set fire to have been at school.

He was taken to juvenile detention.

Like many young offenders, he was put in solitary for misbehavior.

I could talk to him through a little bitty four inch window and you can tell it was kind of breaking him down.

We were told that he was going to get out that night or at the latest the next morning.

But he didn't.

This is footage of soul and cellblock.

On his fifth night in solitary, a guard sees that Solan has hanged himself.

I got a phone call at two o'clock in the morning and saying that he was dead.

Solans parents gave permission for use of this footage to highlight the horrific consequences of putting their 13 year old in solitary.

You don't really feel a whole lot in the moment.

Um, uh, you kind of go numb and you're in shock.

I mean, he's normal teenage boy, and he was happy most of the time.

Solans family thinks solitary confinement should be banned, but many Americans would see that as going soft on prisoners.

So more than 60,000 inmates remain in solitary today alone with their minds.

Hillary Andersson, BBC News.