I agree that it is a very interesting experience to be locked up once. But in my example, it really changed me. It was only one week at Evin prison in Iran, but it was the first and only time that I had one full week of being able to think. I was in solitary confinement, no outside contact at all, no newspapers, nothing. No phone ringing, no e-mails to check, no appointments to keep, no serious plans to make. This one week was very useful for me to reflect on my life and to change it quite a bit upon my release.
Having said that, there were of course also very terrifying elements to it, from the interrogations, to the fear, to being treated like an object rather than a human being, to hearing the screams of other prisoners, to going mad myself one night, so I would not recommend this experience or portray it in any positive light. Maybe I could have gotten the same effect out of a one-week retreat at a monastery, but then I always would have known that it would only be for a week. At Evin, I reflected deeply on my life because I didn’t know how long I would be stuck there (and after the first 2 days I expected it to last for 2 to 3 years, from the way the interrogations were going).

I’ll really have to get to finally finish writing this whole story one day…