NCJ Number
93058
Date Published
1983
Length
340 pages
Annotation
After tracing the history of the use of solitary confinement in the prisons of England, the United States, and Canada, this book examines the Canadian court decisions that have had a bearing on its contemporary use, monitors the implementation of court decisions in Canadian prisons, and offers reform proposals, including a model segregation code.
Abstract
This historical review explains that the use of solitary confinement in prisons was initially introduced as part of a reform movement designed to change the nature of the prison and the inmates for the better, only to become the most abused and abusive aspect of modern prison conditions and practices. Its inhumane character has emerged and persisted primarily because of the absence of any rules limiting the power of the correctional authorities in determining its invocation and application. The conditions of solitary confinement were revealed to the public in the case of McCann et al. v. the Queen and Dragan Cernetic, which was heard in the Trial Division of the Federal Court of Canada on February 19, 1975. McCann and a selected group of prisoners from the British Columbia penitentiary (seven plaintiffs) claimed that their confinement in the special correctional unit (SCU) constituted cruel and unusual punishment and that the conditions of their confinement violated Penitentiary Service Regulations. The second primary claim was that they were subjected to confinement beyond the intention of their sentence without the exercise of rights encompassed in due process guarantees. While the court ruled that the conditions of the SCU at the British Columbia penitentiary did constitute cruel and unusual punishment, the court denied the inmates' claim of due process rights in deciding that the placement of the inmates in the SCU was an administrative and not a judicial decision. The court decision resulted in only minor cosmetic changes in the use of solitary confinement, including the changing of its name to the special handling unit. The debilitating psychological impact of the special handling unit was indicated by interviewed inmates to be the same as that of the SCU. The special handling units are viewed by the penitentiary authorities as a necessary and successful response to the problem of the dangerous prisoner. While a mechanism for handling dangerous inmates should exist in prisons, there is a need for the development of a segregation code that will specify the criteria and procedures for such a placement and mandate conditions and programs that will eliminate the debilitating psychological effects currently accompanying segregation. Sixty-seven notes and a subject index are provided.