The Justice Bulletin INSIDE ISSUE :
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FAQs
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Shafqat Husain 1 Solitary Confinement and Pakistani Law
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Prison Diaries
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Solitary Confinement and the United Nations
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Mentally Ill and 4 under Solitary Confinement
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SOLITARY CONFINEMENT WHAT IS SOLITARY CONFINEMENT? Solitary confinement is the physical and social isolation of people in closed cells for 22 to 24 hours a day for prolonged periods of time ranging from a week to a decade. Meaningful contact with other people, including family visitation, and the outside world is reduced to a minimum. In most cases detainees may only be allowed outside for an hour of exercise. Solitary confinement is used for four primary purposes in criminal justice systems all over the world: as judicial sentencing; to isolate prisoners during an ongoing investigation; as punishment for judicial prisoners and for the protection and management of specific group of prisoners in detention facilities.
WHAT ARE THE HEALTH EFFECTS OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT? Psychological effects of solitary confinement are well-documented in medical research. Solitary confinement leads to anxiety, depression, fits of anger, and paranoia. Prisoners also suffer from visual and auditory hallucinations and psychosis that lead to self harm and suicide HOW IS SOLITARY CONFINEMENT USED IN PAKISTAN? In Pakistan, solitary confinement is commonly adopted by law enforcement agencies as a technique of coercive interrogation. During investigation, police detain suspects in isolation without charge in order to compel them into giving information. Security agencies also detain suspects in solitary confinement at secret locations, often for indefinite periods, without any charge or access to legal counsel or independent review. Solitary confinement for up to three months can also be awarded at the beginning of an imprisonment sentence for convicted offenders. Prisoners convicted of blasphemy or crimes against the state are kept under solitary confinement for the entire term of their sentences for protection and to prevent them from influencing fellow inmates. Jail authorities also use solitary confinement as a means to maintain order and punish inmates for violation of prison rules and/or other misconduct.
CASE IN FOCUS: SHAFQAT HUSSAIN Shafqat Hussain was executed on 4th August 2015 on charges of kidnapping. The only piece of evidence linking Shafqat to the conviction was a confession procured by the police through savagely torturing him while he was kept in solitary confinement for 9 days. Shafqat was14 years old at the time. “They could make you say a deer was an elephant”, Shafqat stated as he described how he was blindfolded and kept in isolation from any contact with family or legal representation. The police tortured him by electrocuting him and burning him with cigarettes until he confessed to the crime. “I was tortured so severely and for so long that in the end my mind just stopped”, he explained. Read a detailed briefing of Shafqat’s case here
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PRE-TRIAL SOLITARY CONFINEMENT Police in Pakistan routinely isolate suspects as a form of coercive interrogation. Dearth of resources and a lack of training in modern investigative techniques inevitably leads to a primary reliance on oral testimonies procured through threats and intimidation as evidence. Under S. 167(2), Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 , police can hold people in custody for a period of 15 days with the permission of a Magistrate. Given the absence of any external oversight over police remand, suspects and their families are often held under solitary confinement until they confess. Isolation also provides police the opportunity to heinously torture detainees with impunity. SOLITARY CONFINEMENT AS A SENTENCE Under section 73 of the Pakistan Penal Code,1860 a court may order a person to serve a portion of his sentence under solitary confinement, for a period of up to three months. Section 74 clarifies that no person shall be sent to solitary confinement for a period exceeding 14 days at a time, and two subsequent periods of confinement must be separated by an interval of at least 14 days between them. SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IN PRISON Section 46 of the Prisons Act, 1894 allows the Superintendent of prisons to punish any prisoner with solitary confinement for up to 3 months, for prison-offences including conspiring to escape, feigning illness and wilful idleness. Under the Act, the SP may confine a prisoner in a solitary cell without any interaction with family, prison staff and fellow inmates and with only an hour of exercise. Under the Prison Rules, 1978 every solitary confinement cell is required to have a yard attached to enable the detainee to get some fresh air without interacting with any prisoners. Additionally, no prisoner can be placed under solitary confinement unless a Senior Medical Officer certifies that his is physically and medically fit to undergo it. The rules also stipulate that every prisoner under solitary is entitled to a daily visit from a Medical Officer, who may order his release from the cell in the event that he deems such confinement to be injurious to his mind or body.
PRISON DIARIES A former inmate of Sahiwal jail describes the use of solitary confinement in prison
Asia Bibi , Christian mother of 5 has been f a c i ng bl a s p he m y charges since 2009. She has spent 6 years in solitary confinement . According to her lawyers her mental and physical health have declined rapidly during her imprisonment.
There is popular story that inmates like to recount often. Prisoners are served meat four times a week. The pieces of meat are piled in a big hollow and cooked till burnt. Thereafter a mixture of oil, water and spices is poured onto the meat where it sits in a coagulated layer. We called this “diesel”. Diesel was served in a big bucket to all the prisoners. By the time it reached prisoners in solitary they had to reach to bottom of the bucket and fish out whatever meat was left. As the meat reaches the mouth of the prisoner, he hears a distinct sound: “meow”. Starved of any external contact, revels in the prospect of any company. He is faced with a dilemma: eat the meat and return to solitude or throw it to his companion in the hopes that it returns. The latter always wins. Prisoners love to recount this story and laugh. However, there is not much that is humorous about solitary confinement. The jail laws say that a prisoner cannot be sent to solitary for a period of more than 90 days. However, I’ve seen prisoners confined for years for selling violations that range from selling drugs to failing to kneel in front of the SP. With no external contact, they have no means to report such abuses of power. Blasphemy convicts are kept in solitary confinement for their safety. I knew a Christian boy who spent five years in solitary. He would deliberately walk into walls. It was the only release he knew for the storm of frustration and anxiety that was pent up inside him. How long was he expected to run through his fears in his own head? He would often scream profanities for hours and kick the walls till his feet bled. The prison authorities would not even give him a paper and pencil as they were afraid he would use them to complain about his treatment.
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Solitary cells are 8 feet wide and 10 feet long and are located side by side in the punishment ward. There is a bed on one side and an open toilet on the other. The atmosphere inside reeks of smells from the toilet and is a hotbed of infection. Several inmates have contracted tuberculosis during their time in these cells. Each cell is attached to a small yard like space where the prisoner may be let out for an hour a day for exercise. Inmates in solitary are each given a plastic bowl and a blanket infested with lice. Most people lose their minds during their confinement. You often hear them scream out of loneliness and break things for attention. Often it is only the chirping of the birds that keeps them sane. They experience fits of paranoia where they think they’re being spied on by enemies or the walls are mocking them. No jail official ever gets into any trouble for not following prison rules. There was once a guard named “Shah Shah” who was a despicable human being. He once tortured a person so badly that he was paralysed. Upon complaint the SP suspended him for a brief period of 15 days. Upon his return he went straight to the man he had tortured, looked
“I found solitary confinement the most forbidding aspect of prison life. There is no end and no beginning; there is only one’s mind, which can begin to play tricks. Was that a dream or did it really happen? One begins to question everything.” Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
UNITED NATIONS AND SOLITARY CONFINEMENT On 18 October 2011, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture called upon states to prohibit Solitary Confinement except under very exceptional circumstances and for as short a time as possible. The UN expert stated that solitary confinement of juveniles and mentally ill prisoners under any circumstances constitutes as torture and should be banned completely. Committee Against Torture Recognizing the harmful psychological effects of solitary confinement, the CAT has recommended that solitary confinement, particularly pre-trial confinement, be abolished or at least be strictly and specifically regulated by law and limited to the most exceptional circumstances. The CAT also states that the authority to award solitary confinement should rest solely with the judiciary and not be exercised by jail authorities. Human Rights Committee The HRC has noted that prolonged solitary confinement of a detained or imprisoned person amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment under Article 7 of the ICCPR. Additionally, the HRC has also recommended an end to solitary confinement as a sentence. (CCPR/C/RWA/CO/3,para 14)
MENTALLY ILL AND IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT Prison authorities in Pakistan use solitary confinement as a substitute for mental health treatment. Mentally ill prisoners are prone to violent outbursts that make them the target of attacks by their fellow inmates. Instead of providing them access to the requisite medical treatment, they are made to serve their sentences confined to cells in medical wards with little access to the outside world. Khizar Hayat, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, was confined to a small cell in the prison hospital in 2012 despite repeated requests by his aged mother to transfer him to a medical facility. Khizar has no idea why he is in prison or that he is scheduled to be executed this month. Here, Adan Abid, casework lawyer at JPP, shares his reflections upon visiting Khizar in his cell. For years, mentally ill prisoners like Khizar are thrown into an abyss of solitude - a long journey to the end. At their peak, summers in Pakistan can be a challenging time for all; but for prisoners in solitary the heat compounded by unhygienic living conditions is beyond comprehension. The first time I saw
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Khizar in his rectangular cage, he sat cross-legged behind the bars of his cell. “My time does not pass! My time does not pass!”, were his first words as he met his lawyers on a Thursday noon at Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore. In the morning and evening, Khizar narrated, the inmates of the ''Mental Cell'' are given a few hours of movement outside their dingy rooms-cum-lavatories. The cleaning staff only visits his room once a week. The atmosphere in the cell is humid as the smells of the toilet waft through the air. The jail caretaker tells us that there are currently a total of 35 prsioners in the Mental Cells, 8 of whom are on death row. The caretaker, whom Khizar’s mother calls 'Sohna' (The Beautiful), is Khizar's only friendly human contact during his long tough years in imprisonment. Khizar’s speech is incoherent and delusional - his demeanor almost child-like. At every mention of the word execution he cracks into laughter, clearly oblivious to the gravity of his own situation. Khizar seems to have lost touch with reality. He frequently speaks in urgent hushed tones of the 'Dooms Day', his voice laden with helplessness and despondency. He experiences frequent outbursts where he has no one to scream at but the tiles on the walls. As we approached the end of the visiting hours, we left behind a Khizar sitting in the same position - shirtless and spiritless. What years of miserable loneliness can do to a man! I could see for myself but never can I even begin to relate.
Justice Project Pakistan, or JPP, is a non-profit human rights law firm established in Lahore in December 2009. JPP provides direct pro bono legal and investigative services to the most vulnerable prisoners in the Pakistani justice system, particularly those facing the death penalty, victims of police torture, mentally ill prisoners and victims of the "War on Terror". The Monthly E-Bulletin aims to create awareness about Police Torture in Pakistan and provide legal and policy updates that can be used as a basis of advocacy for lawyers and activists. It also provides a voice to victims of torture to narrate their stories. For further information and submissions please contact: Zainab Malik, Program Manager. Email: zainab.malik@jpp.org.pk