Discipline
North America
Discipline
Canada
This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.
Source — RCI
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North America
Discipline
United States
Arizona death row inmate Scott Nordstrom lives alone in a room smaller than a parking space. He’s allowed to leave his cell a few times each week to shower or exercise alone in a similarly-sized mesh cage and is forbidden from making physical contact with visitors from the outside.
Source — The Marshall Project
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Europe
Discipline
Religion
France
With 2,500 inmates, the penitentiary institution of Fresnes, about 20 miles south of Paris, is one of the largest prisons in Europe. Like most French prisons, Fresnes is overcrowded. Built in the late 19th century, its tiny cells, each meant for one prisoner, most often house three.
Inmates scream curses…
Source — NPR
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North America
Discipline
United States
“Segregation is known to be psychologically detrimental to those who are in there for any length of time,” Bruce Busby, the state department’s director of institutions said.
Source — The Washington Times
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North America
Discipline
Canada
This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.
Source — Le Devoir
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North America
Discipline
Canada
Nearly a decade after teenager Ashley Smith died by self-strangulation in a solitary confinement cell, the Liberal government has introduced a bill that would place new restrictions on indefinite solitary confinement in federal prisons but falls short of the expectations of some prison-rights advocates.
Source — The Globe and Mail
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Oceania
Discipline
Facilities
Australia
In an effort to prevent the spread of radical Islamic ideology, Australia is to build a prison facility which will isolate militants from other inmates.
The unit, named ‘Supermax II’, will be a part of Goulburn’s high-security Supermax prison and would house 54 inmates, said the Premier of New South…
Source — Independent
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Oceania
Discipline
Facilities
Australia
The state government will spend tens of millions of dollars on a new Supermax high-security unit at Goulburn jail in a bid to prevent those convicted of terrorism from spreading extreme views, even though Corrections’ own figures show only about five inmates had been radicalised over the past decade.
And…
Source — The Syndey Morning Herald
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Oceania
Discipline
Facilities
Australia
In an effort to prevent the spread of radical Islamic ideology, Australia is to build a prison facility which will isolate militants from other inmates.
Source — The Independent
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Access to legal rights
Oceania
Discipline
Rehabilitation
Australia
The Melbourne barrister and human rights advocate Julian Burnside has warned politicians that tightening bail and parole laws at the expense of a right to justice and freedoms “is to hand victory to terrorists”.
His comments follow an announcement from the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, on Friday…
Source — The Guardian
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North America
Discipline
Canada
Canada’s prison agency is close to establishing new rules that would prohibit the placement of vulnerable people in solitary confinement and increase the time segregated inmates can spend out of cells.
Source — The Globe and Mail
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North America
Discipline
Canada
Ontario’s prisons adviser has laid out a plan that would catapult the province’s prison system from a national laggard to one of the most progressive in the world by placing hard limits on the use of solitary confinement and prohibiting the segregation of vulnerable prisoner populations.
Source — The Globe and Mail
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Discipline
United States
Victor Pate spent almost two years in solitary confinement in New York prisons, off and on. Once, he said, he was isolated for 90 days for having too many bed sheets in his room. Only two sheets were allowed per prisoner, but Pate was at his prison job when laundry pickup came, he said, so he kept a…
Source — HRW
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North America
Discipline
Canada
Ontario is facing a $600-million lawsuit on behalf of thousands of mentally ill inmates who have served time in solitary confinement since 1985, yet another addition to a glut of litigation currently facing governments in the country over their handling of prisoners in isolation.
Source — The Globe and Mail
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North America
Discipline
United States
As a teenager, Adam Brulotte relished the attention he received from getting into fights at parties. When he was 18 years old, he was arrested for burglary and aggravated assault after punching a man and breaking his jaw in seven places.
Source — Frontline
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Discipline
United States
When Kenny Moore was convicted of aggravated assault, burglary and theft and sent to Maine State Prison at age 18, he expected to serve an 18-month sentence. But after a series of fights and disruptive behavior, he was sent to solitary confinement, where his disruptive behavior only worsened. All in…
Source — Frontline
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Discipline
Suicide
South Africa
Two inmates at Helderstroom Prison in Caledon, who were held in solitary confinement, have committed suicide within three months of each other.
Source — All Africa
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North America
Discipline
Canada
Correctional investigator Ivan Zinger notes positive penitentiary trends in report.
Source — CBC
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Discipline
United Kingdom
Legal battle comes amid growing crisis in UK prisons
Source — Independent
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North America
Discipline
Canada
Canada’s family doctors are calling for an all-out ban on the use of solitary confinement in Canadian prisons.
Source — The Globe and Mail
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Discipline
Torture
United Kingdom
Investigation exposes serious allegations of international human rights breaches at young offenders institutions in the UK.
British prisons are holding child inmates in solitary confinement in an alleged breach of UN torture rules and British law, The Independent has found. Lawyers in one case have launched…
Source — The Independent
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Discipline
Torture
Juan E. Méndez stepped down from his position as United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on October 31, 2016, ending six years of investigating and reporting on the use of torture in the 193 UN member states.
Source — Solitary Watch
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Europe
Discipline
Norway
This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.
Source — Le Monde
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Discipline
United States
An always-brutal experience can be even worse for people with disabilities.
When Dean Westwood was sentenced to prison in 2014, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Convicted of theft and tax evasion related to Medicaid fraud in Oregon, Westwood tells VICE he had no prior contact with the criminal justice…
Source — Vice
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