Israel Must Immediately End Use of Solitary Confinement of Prisoners

Today, 26 June 2011, to mark the International Day Against Torture, Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights have released a new position paper calling for an end to the use of solitary confinement against prisoners held in Israel.

Approximately 150 prisoners (120 sentenced prisoners and 30 detainees) are being held in solitary confinement in Israeli prisons. Of that number, 40 are Palestinians. Some prisoners have been held in solitary confinement for years.

The solitary confinement ("separation") cells range in size from 1.5m x 2m to 3m x 3.5m. The cell door is fitted with an opening for the purpose of passing food to the prisoner which closes immediately afterwards. Prisoners have no eye contact with other prisoners or with prison guards. There is sometimes a small window in the cell, but almost no natural light or fresh air can enter from outside.

Keeping any prisoner isolated, deprived of virtually all human contact, for any reason is illegitimate given the severe, sometimes irreversible damage it causes to physical and psychological health, such as anxiety, visual and auditory hallucinations, paranoia, tremors, migraines and cardiovascular disorders. In the words of Dr. Zeev Weiner from PHR-I, an expert in psychiatry and family medicine: "Prisoners in confinement suffer twice as much from mental illness as those who are not in confinement."

The Israel Prison Service (IPS) has acknowledged the potentially severe mental consequences of solitary confinement but continues to use the practice.

Prisoners and detainees can be placed in solitary confinement during interrogation, as a disciplinary measure, or in order to separate them from the main prison population indefinitely because the security services either believe that they pose a threat to the safety of others or to state security, or because they have mental problems.

The solitary confinement of Palestinian political prisoners classified as "security prisoners" is doubly harsh because of the restrictions imposed on their contacts outside prison. Palestinian prisoners are not allowed to use the telephone, many are denied family visits, and security prisoners held in solitary confinement do not receive visits from social workers and are not permitted furloughs, unlike criminal prisoners.

Prisoners held in solitary confinement are also denied basic rights to due process, including the lack of compulsory legal representation before the courts which rule on the extension of their solitary confinement.

The use of solitary confinement is increasingly rejected under international law. The UN Committee Against Torture has sharply criticized prolonged solitary confinement as an act of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. In 1992, the UN Human Rights Committee stated that solitary confinement constituted a violation of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, and in 1990 the UN General Assembly called for the abolition of the solitary confinement of prisoners.

Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and Al Mezan call upon the Israeli government to bring the solitary confinement of prisoners and detainees to an end and enable them to have human contact and a social life. It is unacceptable and unjust that in addition to imprisonment, people are punished doubly by deliberate harm to their mental and physical health.

THIS PROJECT IS FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION JOINT PROJECT OF ADALAH, AL MEZAN (GAZA) AND PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS-ISRAEL