30 years of solitary confinement: what has changed, and what still needs to happen

Authors

  • Sharon Shalev SolitaryConfinement.org

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/torture.v32i1-2.131384

Keywords:

solitary confinement, torture, human rights, Nelson Mandela Rules, Medical ethics, history of torture, torture journal

Abstract

Solitary confinement cells are where those considered to be too dangerous to themselves or to others, too troublesome, too mentally unwell, or simply different, will be locked away, spending 22-24 hours a day alone, out of sight and out of mind.

Solitary confinement is an extreme and harmful practice on the cusp of prohibited treatment of people deprived of their liberty, with potentially grave consequences for the individuals concerned and the societies to which they eventually return.     

This article reflects on some of the achievements, and remaining challenges, around the use and regulation of solitary confinement practices internationally in the last 30 years, drawing on recent developments and the author’s work in the area.

References

Akil, H. (2019). The Brain in Isolation. In:

Lobel, J., & Smith, P. S. (Eds.). (2019).

Solitary confinement: Effects, practices,

and pathways toward reform. Oxford

University Press. pp 199-2019. DOI:10.1093/

oso/9780190947927.001.0001

Blake, W. (2016), A sentence worse than death. In:

Casella, J., Ridgeway, J., and Shourd, S. (Eds.)

Hell Is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary

Confinement. (2016) The New Press, New York

London.

British Medical Association (BMA), Royal College

of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) and Royal College

of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).

Joint position statement on solitary confinement

of children and young people. September 2018.

https://www.bma.org.uk/media/1859/bmasolitary-

confinement-in-youth-detention-jointstatement-

pdf

Casella, J., Ridgeway, J., and Shourd, S. (Eds.) Hell Is

a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement.

(2016) The New Press, New York London.

Cloud, D. H., Augustine, D., Ahalt, C., Haney, C.,

Peterson, L., Braun, C., & Williams, B. (2021).

“We just needed to open the door”: a case study

of the quest to end solitary confinement in North

Dakota. Health Justice, 9(1), 28. https://doi.

org/10.1186/s40352-021-00155-5

Cohen, S., (2001) States of Denial: Knowing about

Atrocities and Suffering. Polity Press: Cambridge.

Cohn, M. (Ed.). (2011). The United States and

torture: Interrogation, incarceration, and abuse.

NYU Press

Coppola, F., The Brain in Solitude: An(other) Eighth

Amendment Challenge to Solitary Confinement,

Journal of Law and the Biosciences, 1–42 (2019)

DOI:10.1093/jlb/lsz014

Dagan N., Shalev S., The role of Israeli judges in

authorising solitary confinement placements:

Balancing human rights and risk, or neutralising

responsibility? Punishment & Society. May 2021.

doi:10.1177/14624745211019112 (open access)

European Committee for the Prevention of Torture

(CPT) Country Reports and Standards. Available

at https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/humanrights.

Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Primer on

“Cross Cultural Rapport-Based Interrogation”,

/1/2010, released to the American Civil

Liberties Union in May 2012 (unpublished).

Finely, B. (2009). Supermax too full for Guantanamo

detainees. Denver Post, 21 May 2009 https://www.

denverpost.com/2009/05/21/supermax-too-fullfor-

guantanamo-detainees

Ginbar, Y. (2008) Why not torture terrorists? moral,

practical, and legal aspects of the” ticking bomb”

justification for torture. Oxford University

Press on Demand. DOI:10.1093/acprof:

oso/9780199540914.001.0001

Haney, C. (2018) Restricting the use of solitary

confinement. Annual Review of Criminology

(1): 285–310. doi 10.1146/annurevcriminol-

-092326

Haney, C. (2018). The psychological effects of

solitary confinement: A systematic critique.

Crime and Justice, 47(1), 365-416. https://doi.

org/10.1086/696041

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons. Thematic

report on the Separation of children in young

offender institutions, January 2020. https://www.

justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wpcontent/

uploads/sites/4/2020/01/Separation-ofchildren-

thematic-Web-2019.pdf

Huber, A. The relevance of the Mandela Rules in

Europe. ERA Forum 17, 299–310 (2016). https://

doi.org/10.1007/s12027-016-0427-2

Human Rights Watch, Turkey: Small Group Isolation

in F-type Prisons and the Violent Transfers

of Prisoners to Sincan, Kandira, and Edirne

Prisons on December 19, 2000, 5 April 2001,

D1302, available at: https://www.refworld.org/

docid/3bd023992.html [accessed 18 November

Jeffreys, D. (2013). Spirituality in Dark Places: the

ethics of solitary confinement. Springer.

Morgan, R., & Evans, M. (2002). Combating

torture in Europe: the work and standards of

the European Committee for the Prevention of

Torture (CPT). Council of Europe.

Morgan, R. D., Gendreau, P., Smith, P., Gray, A. L.,

Labrecque, R. M., MacLean, N., Van Horn, S.

A., Bolanos, A. D., Batastini, A. B., & Mills, J.

F. (2016). Quantitative syntheses of the effects

of administrative segregation on inmates’ wellbeing.

Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 22(4),

–461. https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000089

O’Donnell, I. (2014). Prisoners, solitude, and time.

Oxford University Press.

O’Keefe, M. L., Klebe, K. J., Metzner, J., Dvoskin, J.,

Fellner, J., & Stucker, A. (2013). A longitudinal

study of administrative segregation. Journal of

the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law

Online, 41(1), 49-60.

O’Mara, S. (2015) Why torture doesn’t work: the

neuroscience of interrogation, Harvard University

Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674915510

Penal Reform International (2017). Essex paper

: Initial guidance on the interpretation and

implementation of the Nelson Mandela Rules.

Online: https://www.penalreform.org/resource/

guidance-on-implementation-the-nelsonmandela-

rules/

Perez-Sales P. (2016). Psychological Torture:

Definition, evaluation and measurement.

Routledge Books. London https://doi.

org/10.4324/9781315616940

Physicians for Human Rights (2007) Leave No

Marks: Enhanced interrogation techniques and

the risk of criminality. Physicians For Human

Rights, Boston, NJ.

Raemisch, R. (2019). Colorado Ends Prolonged,

Indeterminate Solitary Confinement. In: Lobel &

Scharff Smith, op cit., at 311.

Reyes, H. (2007) The worst scars are in the mind:

psychological torture. International Review of the

Red Cross Volume 89 Number 867 September

Online at: https://international-review.icrc.

org/sites/default/files/irrc-867-5.pdf DOI: https://

doi.org/10.1017/S1816383107001300

Rodley, N., & Pollard, M. (2009). The treatment

of prisoners under international law. Oxford

University Press on Demand. DOI:10.1093/acpr

of:osobl/9780199693566.001.0001

Scharff-Smith, P. (2008) Solitary confinement:

An introduction to the Istanbul Statement on

the Use and Effects of Solitary Confinement

February 2008 Torture Journal 18(1):56-62

Shalev, S. (2021) First, Do No Harm: segregation,

restraint, and pepper spray use in women’s

prisons in New Zealand. New Zealand Human

Rights Commission, Wellington.

Shalev, S. (2015) Solitary confinement as a prison

health issue. In: Enggist S, Moller L, Galea G,

et al. (eds) Prisons and Health: A World Health

Organisation Guide to the Essentials in Prison

Health (2nd ed.). Copenhagen: WHO, pp. 27–35.

Shalev, S. (2009) Supermax: controlling risk through

solitary confinement. Willan: Abingdon.

Shalev, S. (2011) Solitary Confinement and

Supermax Prisons: A Human Rights

and Ethical Analysis, Journal of Forensic

Psychology Practice, 11:2-3, 151-183, DOI:

1080/15228932.2011.537582

Shalev, S., Lloyd, M., (2011) Though this be method,

yet there is madness in’t: Commentary on One

Year Longitudinal Study of the Psychological

Effects of Administrative Segregation.

Corrections & Mental Health

Snacken, S. (2010). Resisting punitiveness in Europe?

Theoretical Criminology, 14(3), 273-292. https://

doi.org/10.1177/1362480610370165

Smith, C. S. (2007). Bad men: Guantanamo Bay and

the secret prisons. Weidenfeld & Nicholson.

Sprott, J. B., Doob, A.N., & Ifene, A. (2021). Do

Independent External Decision Makers Ensure

that “An Inmate’s Confinement in a Structured

Intervention Unit Is to End as Soon as Possible”?

Fourth report on Correctional Service Canada’s

(CSC) “Structured Intervention Units” (SIUs).

Online: https://www.crimsl.utoronto.ca/news/

reports-canada%E2%80%99s-structuredintervention-

units

Sykes GM and Matza D (1957) Techniques

of neutralization: A theory of delinquency.

American Sociological Review 22(6): 664-670. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2089195

Wildeman, C., & Andersen, L. H. (2020). Solitary

confinement placement and post-release

mortality risk among formerly incarcerated

individuals: a population-based study. The Lancet

Public Health, 5(2), 107-113. DOI:https://doi.

org/10.1016/S2468-2667(19)30271-3

Wright, T. (2019). Canada’s new solitary confinement

bill makes it easier to put inmates in isolation,

senator says. The Canadian Press, 5 May 2019.

Online: https://globalnews.ca/news/5241955/

canada-solitary-confinement-bill-inmatesisolation/

United Nations Basic Principles for the Treatment of

Prisoners, adopted and proclaimed by General

Assembly resolution 45/111 of 14 December

United Nations General Assembly GA/SHC/4014, 18

October 2011

United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women

Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for

Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules)

(resolution 65/229, annex)

United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles

Deprived of their Liberty (resolution 45/113,

annex), 1990

United Nations Committee on the Rights of the

Child (CRC) General comment No. 10 (2007)

Article 37 of the CRC (Children’s Rights

in Juvenile Justice, 25 April 2007, CRC/C/

GC/10, available at: https://www.refworld.org/

docid/4670fca12.html [accessed 25 November

)

Victorian Ombudsman, OPCAT in Victoria, A

thematic investigation of practices related to

solitary confinement of children and young

people (Final Report, 2019).

Washington Post Editorial, Rethinking solitary

confinement. Editorial Board, October 19,

Online: https://www.washingtonpost.

com/opinions/rethinking-solitaryconfinement/

/10/19/1c38cb6c-5579-11e4-

e-602188e70e9c_story.html

Cases cited

United States

Ashker v. Governor of California, No. 4:09-cv-

-CW (N.D. California, 2012)

C.B., et al. v. Walnut Grove Correctional Authority,

et al., Case No. 3:10-cv-663 (S.D. Miss. Feb. 3,

).

Madrid v. Gomez, 889 F. Supp. 1146, 1261 (N.D.

Cal., 1995).

Ruiz v. Johnson, 37 F. Supp. 2d 855, 908 (S.D.. Tex.

European Court on Human Rights

Ramirez Sanchez v. France. [GC], 2006, § 120

Downloads

Published

2022-06-13

How to Cite

Shalev, S. (2022). 30 years of solitary confinement: what has changed, and what still needs to happen. Torture Journal, 32(1-2), 148–162. https://doi.org/10.7146/torture.v32i1-2.131384