Every year, thousands of New Zealand’s prisoners are put in solitary confinement. This means they are forcibly isolated from meaningful human contact for 22 to 24 hours a day. In many cases, they are not even given access to natural light or fresh air for 23 hours a day. Some cells have nothing in them other than a thin mattress on a concrete slab, and a cardboard box to pee in.
Often, the Department of Corrections will use solitary confinement in the name of prisoner management, health, and safety. But in reality, people who are exposed to these horrible conditions, especially for long periods of time, come out of them with irreparable mental and physical damage. Rather than promoting wellness and good order in the prison, it increases the risk that prisoners will hurt themselves and others.
Removing people against their will from all human contact, and other basic human needs, is degrading and dehumanising. There is no excuse for the cramped, barren, monotonous, and miserable environment that Corrections forces on thousands of people a year. It’s time to demand the end of solitary confinement in New Zealand prisons once and for all.
