(UNDATED) A former inmate at Wisconsin’s Supermax prison has won a court victory. A federal appeals court yesterday ruled that the inmate’s claim of cruel and unusual punishment deserve a jury trial.

Nathan Gillis first filed suit in 2002 claming his constitutional rights had been violated by a guard at the Boscobel prison. His attorney, Pam McGillivray, says Gillis was subjected to a behavior modification program that included stripping him down to his underwear and forcing him to sleep on the floor and eat only nutriloaf for 12 days. The punishment was for violating a prison rule requiring inmates to sleep with their heads facing the rear of their cells. McGillivray says the purpose of program was to inflict punishment beyond what is already the worse punishment you can get in the state of Wisconsin at the discretion of that guard.

A lower court rejected his claim, but this week’s ruling compares the Boscobel prison to a Soviet gulag and grants Gillis’ Madison attorney McGillivray the right to present his case to a jury. She says this allows a jury to look at these conditions in which an inmate is held without clothing, without a mattress, without a blanket and without anything and determine whether that meets our standards of decency.

Prison officials told the court the Gillis got the punishment because he smeared blood and feces on the window of his cell. They also claim the severe isolation measures taken against Willis are no longer used at the prison.

McGillivray says if Gillis wins, it will send a message to other high-security prisons around the country about what the limits of severe punishment really are.

Gillis was serving time for rape committed in 1993 he has since been released and re-incarcerated for violating his parole.