NEWARK, NJ — Could you survive being locked in a space as small as your bathroom for years on end – without any human contact – for up to 23 hours a day? If the thought seems like "torture," then you now have a glimpse into the desperation about 1,500 New Jersey inmates in solitary confinement face every day, a group of activists says.

Earlier this month, a coalition of former inmates, their families and advocates released a series of videos that feature gut-wrenching, firsthand testimony from people who have lived through solitary confinement. The footage was put out by the New Jersey Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (NJ-CAIC), which includes several Newark-based organizations. (Watch videos below)

The group has been active in the quest to end solitary confinement in the Garden State, pushing for bills such as A-314 / S-3261, which would ban isolation for more than 15 consecutive days. The proposed law would also prohibit any member of "vulnerable populations" – such as youth under 21, senior citizens, people with developmental disabilities and people with serious medical conditions – from being put in solitary confinement. See related article: New Jersey Bills Would Protect Prisoners' Rights, Supporters Say "This practice has been thoroughly condemned by national and international human rights bodies, by medical and mental health professionals, by leaders of faith communities, and most loudly by those who have survived this trauma and who live with its lingering aftereffects," the NJ-CAIC states on its website. "The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture equated the U.S. application of isolation to torture. This bleak description has been corroborated by countless testimonies of current and former prisoners."

Lydia Thornton, a woman who endured more than nine months in solitary confinement, said that people often ask her why they should care about prisoners who have committed crimes. "I'll tell you right now why you should care," she says in the NJ-CAIC video. "93 percent of the people inside our jails and prisons are coming home."

According to Thornton, the question is: do you want them to come home better, or worse?

The following accounts of solitary confinement come via NJ-CAIC interviews: Mark Hopkins – "A couple guys were trying to kill themselves. One guy across from me was screaming, banging his head on the glass until it was just blood everywhere. He was eating his own fecal matter. The only thing they did with him would just beat him up more and then strap him to a chair and then put a needle in him after he begged them not to – 'I'm gonna calm down, I'm gonna calm down.' They just put the needle in him anyway." (Read more of his story here)