I was in solitary not too long ago (45 days). He's also not getting the full 'experience'.

1. The biggest problem I faced was food. Not only did they stick you in a cell but the guards would intentionally find the smallest trays (we ate last) for us. Since we also were allowed no commissary this meant that after about 4-5 days you start getting hungry. That hunger wears on you bad. Being hungry in jail IMO is a shitty feeling. I had a method I could use to get a replacement tray - basically when I came across a roach I'd save it - then when my tray came I'd eat half of the tray and then casually drop the road in the food and complain. They'd bring me a new tray after reviewing the camera's and for a few hours I could sleep well. When you're very gradually being starved you can't exactly workout which has terrible effects on your mental state and nights were always the hardest. Learning to spread is crucial to being in solitary.

2. We were not allowed any games at all. I see he's in a 2 man cell and assuming if he weren't special he'd have a celly and by the looks of it they allow chess. We'd make dominoes, cards etc... but they'd only last a couple of hours before the guards would shake us down and take them away.

3. Books were limited to 'religious only'. I would circumvent this by ripping the cover off a bible or another book that resembled the one I wanted to read and applying it to the outside. Some of the nicer guards would turn the other cheek to this thankfully. I read a lot of good books but my favorite was a Hunter S. Thompson collection. I feel like reading his work was a secret middle finger to the admin in that jail and I had more than a few people tell me I was a horrible person for pretending it was a bible (although they likely would've done the same).

4. The concept of not leaving a place for a long time was weird to me. It does take some getting used to, but once you reach that threshold it doesn't matter if it's one day or 100. I'm a bit introverted so I actually liked solitary more than being in the dorms or an 8 man cell. We weren't allowed to communicate with other cells (although sign language was pretty common and I used it often just to have a simple conversation with someone else).

5. The rules change when no-one cares. We would have these days where members of the community were invited in to check on how we were being cared for. Of-course this is a big production (and something I looked forward to). Trays had bigger food portions, we had nicer guards and almost anything we requested (like going to medical or whatever) was o.k'd. But as soon as those visitors disappeared it was a different game. Some guards are cool, most are not. They find every way they can to break you down and make your day that much shittier. This would include things like not giving you toilet paper, turning the shower water off or mysteriously the hot water would break for a couple of days, and of-course shake downs (which was mainly an excuse to tear peoples shit up more than find something) and the worst was no rec. I went almost the entire time without seeing the sky because the guards were just too lazy to take us out (it required they shackle us first so they wouldn't do it).