[naviga:h3]Cheer [/naviga:h3]

Thirty-six years in solitary confinement is simply too long. It’s inhumane; cruel and unusual; counterproductive and lazy.

That’s the story of Arthur Johnson’s life for the past three-and-a-half decades. Mr. Johnson is 64 years old; he has spent more than half that time living in solitary confinement, after being convicted of murdering a man in a 1970 street fight in Philadelphia.

Yes, it’s true that Johnson was placed in solitary after several escape attempts. But it’s also true that prison officials say he’s been a model prisoner for the last 25 years.

In testimony this summer, Johnson told a judge he suffers from a variety of cognitive and emotional problems because of his solitary confinement.

Enough is enough — that’s exactly the sentiment Judge Christopher Conner put into action when he ordered prison officials earlier this week to end Johnson’s solitary confinement and come up with a plan to reintegrate him into the general prison population.

Mr. Johnson is a convicted murderer and his repeated escape attempts compromised the security of hundreds of fellow inmates and the guards tasked with policing them. But that is no reason to subject him to inhumane treatment. Judge Conner’s ruling is a reminder that our prison system needs to do better.

[naviga:h3]Jeer [/naviga:h3]

Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale must be exhausted. So much waste and incompetence to detail; so little time. But he’s not wrong: Pennsylvania’s floundering pension system, its financially hamstrung turnpike commission — and now its charter school law, which DePasquale this week called the worst in the country.

In releasing audits of Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School and the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, DePasquale’s office didn’t spare the rod: “(Founder) Nick Trombetta ... exploited every gray area in the law to get rich off the backs of students and taxpayers,” DePasquale said.

The audits show that both charter schools use the same management company — Lincoln Learning Solutions — which (surprise!) Trombetta also founded. That company was paid millions of dollars and operated with little or no state or school oversight. In one instance the management company was paid $150 million over three years for a contract that amounted to just a one page memo.

The legislative incompetence which resulted in this kind of abuse might be laughable if it weren’t so pervasive, damaging and costly.

[naviga:h3]Cheer [/naviga:h3]

As other state-owned universities struggle with falling enrollment, Slippery Rock University has been focused on growing its course and program offerings — and the effort has paid dividends.

According to the university overall enrollment at SRU is up 3.4 percent over 2015, with the university’s graduate programs — which saw an enrollment increase of nearly 20 percent — responsible for the lion’s share of the rise.

The increased enrollment is, as you might expect, a wonderful sign for SRU’s health. But we want to take a minute and focus on that rise in graduate student enrollment: it is truly noteworthy.

Students want degrees that will get them jobs and enhance their prospects of professional success. That has increasingly meant reaching for postgraduate degrees like a master’s or doctorate. In 2015 the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 12 percent of Americans had such a degree — up from 8.7 percent a decade ago.

As educational attainment rises in general, students will find themselves pushed to achieve more in the classroom to remain viable candidates in the job market. They’ll need degrees from well-regarded institutions that don’t overburden them with debt as they begin to carve out their lives as young professionals.

SRU is already out in front of this calculus; students know it and are responding by signing up for class. The rest of the state system might do itself a favor by pulling up a chair and taking note.