"So when you're in Iran and in solitary confinement," asks Lt. Chris Acosta, my guide at California's Pelican Bay State Prison, "was it different?" His tone makes clear that he believes an Iranian prison to be a bad place.
...
"There was a window," I say. "Just having that light come in, seeing the light move across the cell, seeing what time of day it was...." Without those windows, I wouldn't have had the sound of ravens, the rare breezes, or the drops of rain that I let wash over my face some nights. When, after five weeks, my knees buckled and I fell to the ground utterly broken, sobbing and rocking to the beat of my heart, it was the patch of sunlight that brought me back.
Here, there are no windows.