New York has agreed to overhaul the system of solitary confinement in state prisons, following a three-year legal battle by the New York Civil Liberties Union. Currently, New York state holds 4,000 prisoners in solitary confinement in 6-foot-by-10-foot cells for 23 hours a day, often for years. The new agreement seeks to reduce dramatically the number of people in solitary confinement and the length of their stay. It imposes a maximum sentence of three months in solitary for most disciplinary violations and bars the use of solitary confinement for first-time violations for drug use or possession. New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman wrote: “No prison system of this size has ever taken on such sweeping and comprehensive reforms to solitary confinement at one time. Today marks the end of the era where incarcerated New Yorkers are simply thrown into the box to be forgotten under torturous conditions as a punishment of first resort.”