it is a mistake to think that this happens due to a singular driving factor. In fact, such situation happens due to a large compounded number of "it's not my problem" and a lack of incentives to actually care.

So I'm saying this is not caused by some insitutional entity doing something, but rather, by many of them not doing certain things (usually to reduce cost).

Thanks, let me rephrase: what are the systemic issues in American prison system that make solitary confinement such a common practice? What are the drivers behind this?

My understanding is that some of the reasons might include:

- a privatised prison system - systemic racism - the % of US citizens in prisons being relatively high compared to the rest of what we call developed countries

Obv. all of these are intertwined and it’s a very complex issue.

I’m still struggling to understand how people in an advanced democracy like the US would allow for these things to happen. It seems like it’s considered the norm.

It not cheaper. Prisons are part of the expanded military-indistrial complex, where the goal is to spend more money for the same results so that more can be skimmed off for corruption. US prisons are the great-grandchildren of slave plantations, with broadly similar motivations.