When most Americans hear the familiar constitutional phrase “cruel and unusual punishment” they can tell you what it means, at least to them. Hanging. Flogging. Chopping a hand off. Chain gangs.

Putting juvenile offenders in solitary confinement is high on my list of “cruel and unusual punishment.” What else do you call locking up fifteen, sixteen year olds, some even younger, in total isolation for 24 hours a day, in some cases for months at a time, never leaving their cells?

Now that three of the nation’s largest newspapers–the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and New York Times–have editorialized about the unacceptable conditions of the still-untried Bradley Manning, and a high-level State Department official was forced to resign over his remarks about Manning’s treatment, you can no longer plausibly deny that the issue hasn’t risen to the attention of the President of the United States. As such, he is now fully and directly responsible. To paraphrase Harry Truman, the buck has now stopped.