Section two Focus on detention issues There should be procedural safeguards for all instances of solitary confinement, which should last for the shortest possible time. They also require that prisoners are provided with a satisfactory programme of activities: ‘prisoners cannot simply be left to languish for weeks, possibly months, locked up in their cells, and this regardless of how good material conditions might be within the cells’. Regimes should provide eight hours or more a day outside their cells, engaged in purposeful activity of a varied nature, including at least one hour of exercise in the open air daily.54 Where isolation and solitary confinement occur Across the UK, prisoners can be isolated in special units or cells (‘segregation’, ‘care and separation’ or ‘separation and reintegration’ units). In England and Wales, this can be for the maintenance of ‘good order or discipline’ or in prisoners’ ‘own interests’ (Prison Rule 45(1)). Prisoners can also be placed in these units under ‘cellular confinement’ as a punishment (Prison Rule 55 (1) (e)) or pending adjudication (Prison Rule 53(4)). ‘Special cells’ are used for isolating prisoners who are ‘refractory or violent’ and should be used only for short periods.55 In Scotland, prisoners may be isolated to protect the health and welfare of themselves or others (Prison Rule 41), for ‘good order of discipline’, to protect the interests of any prisoner and ensure the safety of others (Prison Rule 95), or for punishment (Prison Rule 114).56 In Northern Ireland, most formal segregation arises on the basis of restriction of association for good order or discipline, to ensure safety or in the prisoner’s own interests (Rule 32).57 In many instances, prison inspectors in England and Wales found that the regimes in segregation units amounted to solitary confinement. In addition, in England and Wales, the ‘close supervision centre’ (CSC) system (a form of deep custody within the high security estate) is a form of administrative segregation that removes individual prisoners from the mainstream population for the maintenance of good order or discipline or for reasons of safety (Prison Rule 46). Some prisoners on the ‘managing challenging behaviour scheme’ are also kept apart from the mainstream population in discrete units or segregation units.58 In England and Wales, inspectors found that prisoners on basic regimes59 or if unemployed were often locked in their cells for long enough periods for the regime to amount to solitary confinement. They also found prisoners isolated while placed in health care units. 54 European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (2015), CPT Standards, CPT/Inf/E (2002) 1 – Rev 2015, paras 47-48, 5364; Shalev, S. (2008) A Sourcebook on Solitary Confinement. London: Mannheim Centre for Criminology, London School of Economics. 55 The Prison Act 1952 s14 (6) at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6and1Eliz2/15-16/52/contents (accessed 14/10/15). 56 The Prisons and Young Offenders Institutions (Scotland) Rules 2011. At: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2011/331/ contents/made (accessed 14/10/15). 57 The Prison and Young Offenders Centres Rules (Northern Ireland) 1995. At: https://www.dojni.gov.uk/publications/northernireland-prison-service-prison-rules (accessed 14/10/15). 58 HM Inspectorate of Prisons (2015), Report on an unannounced thematic inspection of the Close Supervision Centre system by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, 9-20 March 2015. 59 See National Offender Management Service, Prison Service Instruction 30/2013, Incentives and Earned Privilieges, at: http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/offenders/psipso/psi-2013/psi-30-2013-1.doc#section4 (accessed 14/10/15) 23