Is solitary confinement a form of punishment that violates the eighth amendment?

The crucial holding of the majority opinion is the refusal to put any limit upon the period of solitary confinement. It is the unusual duration and the open-ended nature of the isolation that the district court and the experts regarded as inflicting the worst psychological harm. Accordingly, as we did in Wright v. McMann, supra, 387 F.2d at 526, I would hold that the punishment here, "which could only serve to destroy completely the spirit and undermine the sanity of the prisoner," runs afoul of the eighth amendment.