I worked as a health care provider in a prison for 9 years. There are definitely guys who would need cages to be around others. There is a certain group of inmates, very small, that are extremely violent and have no self control. Being imprisoned generally makes this behavior worse, unfortunately. They often attack or kill their cell mate over some real or imagined slight. Or they attack or kill someone on the recreation yard or dining hall. Prison systems have a tiered system. The least violent with the strongest community ties and shortest sentences are housed in very lenient settings, sometimes without even bars or fences. They do their time and go home. Medium risk prisoners have fences but often no bars, or the bars are not locked. Maximum, locked bars and fences but they can associate with one another. The guys who can't live within those environments end up like these fellas in the picture. Total isolation. It isn't to help them, it is to protect others. As most correctional professionals will tell you, a guy has to earn this through violent misbehavior. And when prison officials make a mistake classifying the risk an inmate poses, people die. The last one in the federal system, where I worked, was June 20, 2008. Two inmates from Guam, one who had already murdered a correctional officer there and should never been in general population, murdered Officer Jose Rivera. For no good reason, just because they could. Those inmates, Jose Sablan and James Guerrero, should be in cages for the rest of their natural lives till their death sentences are carried out.