Description

Book Synopsis

What is it really like in 'the hole'? On what basis do prison officials employ the most drastic of carceral punishments – solitary confinement – and to what effect? Michael Jackson, lawyer, professor, activist, made a point of finding out.

Approached in 1974 by a group of prisoners in the British Columbia Penitentiary, Jackson listened to their stories, investigated, and became convinced that these prisoners were being held in solitary confinement under unlawful conditions and for arbitrary and unjustified reasons. He then helped launch proceedings on their behalf to have the imposition of solitary confinement in the B.C. Penitentiary declared 'cruel and unusual punishment.' Jackson sets out the facts and legal arguments presented to the Federal Court of Canada against a background of the historical evolution of solitary confinement and penitentiary discipline. Successfully argued, the McCann case (1975) was unique in Canadian judicial history.

Since then

Prisoners of Isolation

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    A Paperback / softback by Michael Jackson

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      Publisher: University of Toronto Press
      Publication Date: 15/12/1983
      ISBN13: 9780802065148, 978-0802065148
      ISBN10: 0802065147
      Also in:
      Penology and punishment

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      What is it really like in 'the hole'? On what basis do prison officials employ the most drastic of carceral punishments – solitary confinement – and to what effect? Michael Jackson, lawyer, professor, activist, made a point of finding out.

      Approached in 1974 by a group of prisoners in the British Columbia Penitentiary, Jackson listened to their stories, investigated, and became convinced that these prisoners were being held in solitary confinement under unlawful conditions and for arbitrary and unjustified reasons. He then helped launch proceedings on their behalf to have the imposition of solitary confinement in the B.C. Penitentiary declared 'cruel and unusual punishment.' Jackson sets out the facts and legal arguments presented to the Federal Court of Canada against a background of the historical evolution of solitary confinement and penitentiary discipline. Successfully argued, the McCann case (1975) was unique in Canadian judicial history.

      Since then

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