The role of Israeli judges in authorising solitary confinement placements: Balancing human rights and risk, or neutralising responsibility?

Abstract

This paper explores the role of judges in authorising the extension of placements in solitary confinement in Israeli prisons for lengthy periods of time. It qualitatively examines, through content analysis of 354 Israeli court decisions, how judges negotiate and rationalise the harmful effects of solitary confinement when balanced against the prison authorities’ reasoning for subjecting prisoners to it. Finding an overall tendency to defer to the expertise of prison authorities, we examine what Sykes & Matza termed ‘techniques of neutralisation’ used by judges to distance themselves from the responsibility for solitary confinement placements and the hardship they inflict. The paper further discusses the socio-legal and organisational structures and contexts which incentivise the prioritisation of prison security/discipline over the protection of prisoners from the ‘pains of solitary confinement’.

30 years of solitary confinement: what has changed, and what still needs to happen

“…The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has stated in its General comment No. 10 (United Nations CRC, 2007) that solitary confinement of children is strictly forbidden under Article 37. of solitary confinement in women's prisons in New Zealand, for example, found that despite being a highly vulnerable population with high levels of trauma and multiple and complex needs, women (mostly Māori) were segregated significantly (73%) more often than men, including stays lasting several months (Shalev, 2021). My research suggests that women may experience the pains of solitary confinement even more acutely than men, and the rate of self-harm amongst segregated women is particularly high (ibid.…”

“…For example, in 2000, as part of efforts to limit the use of solitary confinement, Israel introduced a law requiring any extension of solitary confinement stays for longer than 6 months (already a very prolonged time, of course) to be authorised by a judge (Dagan & Shalev, 2021). However, an analysis of 354 court decisions made in the course of 20 years found that whilst judges recognised the harms and particular pains of solitary confinement, they nonetheless approved 93% of requests to extend solitary confinement stays, including very prolonged ones.…”