A huge plot point in the s1 finale is that isn't willing to let the villains die as casualties of the main antagonist's evil plan, and looks for a solution that allows him to defeat the Big Bad while saving the Little Bads. Which is all very commendable, except that at no point it seems to have occured to anyone either within the show or behind the Scenes that flinging them into these mini cells without any contact to the outside world except, presumably, when they get fed, qualifies as torture, and even if the cells were larger and more comfortable, it still would be trampling on the very idea of due process, what with our hero being Judge and Jury (and just not executioner because he's supposed to be the nice one).