Prisoners of Isolation: Solitary Confinement in Canada

What is it really like in 'the hole'? On what basis do prison officials employ the most drastic of carceral punishments – solitary confinement – and to what effect? Michael Jackson, lawyer, professor, activist, made a point of finding out.

Approached in 1974 by a group of prisoners in the British Columbia Penitentiary, Jackson listened to their stories, investigated, and became convinced that these prisoners were being held in solitary confinement under unlawful conditions and for arbitrary...