On Tuesday, California officials announced that they would be moving thousands of prison inmates out of solitary confinement.

Sparked by the years of litigation by inmates held in isolation at Pelican Bay State Prison as well as other facilities, they decided to make a new policy. Under this new legal agreement, a lot of inmates that are currently in isolation will be moved back into the general prison population. At the same time, the group of their most dangerous inmates will be put into high-security areas in a small group setting, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The policy was originally ignited by a class-action lawsuit from inmates that were at Pelican Bay State Prison for over a decade. Back in 2011 and 2013, many of these inmates held a prison hunger strike that funneled attention to their cause. And before that, the state corrections department faced pressure for changes when a panel of experts said that solitary confinement did not provide any improvement on safety in California prisons.

Today, President Barack Obama and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy have criticized the use of extended solitary confinement.

Right now, solitary confinement is used in two ways by California. For inmates that commit new crimes in prison or serious rules violations, they can be placed into isolation for up to five years. According to the new policy, those inmates will not be affected they the new rules.

Other inmates sent to isolation are those who are in prison gangs, and they are sentenced there often indefinitely. Just two years ago, after decades of this happening, the state softened the rule and required actual gang activity in order to be sent to isolation, which had them release over 1,100 prisoners from solitary. The many lawyers for the inmates made a class-action lawsuit that said many of the men were placed in solitary simply for possessing gang-related artwork or due to allegations by confidential informant. These are the inmates that will most benefit from the agreement.