Prolonged Solitary Confinement (Administrative Segregation) and the Human Rights of a Serving Prisoner

Solitary confinement is the harshest method of social control that can be applied to a prisoner. There is considerable research which establishes that prolonged solitary confinement may have profoundly negative effects. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the "Mandela Rules") stipulate that solitary confinement should only be used "in exceptional circumstances as a last resort for as short a time as possible" and that solitary confinement should be "subject to independent review and only pursuant to the authorization by a competent authority". In Owen-D'Arcy v Chief Executive, Queensland Corrective Services [2021] QSC 273, a prisoner had spent over six and a half years in continuous solitary confinement. The Queensland Supreme Court held that the decision to continue the solitary confinement was not compatible with the prisoner's human rights pursuant to s 30 (humane treatment when deprived of liberty) of the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld).