Solitary Confinement in Prison
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Six
Syllabus topic 6, "Imprisonment"
Pages 576 to 580 of 806
In one line
Section 29 is one sentence long, it applies to seclusion "whether as a punishment or otherwise", and those five words are what stopped a prison from evading the safeguards by renaming what it was doing.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 29 of the Prisons Act 1894 provides that no cell shall be used for solitary confinement unless it is furnished with the means of enabling the prisoner to communicate at any time with an officer of the prison, and that every prisoner so confined in a cell for more than twenty-four hours, whether as a punishment or otherwise, shall be visited at least once a day by the Medical Officer or Medical Subordinate.
The two safeguards
Both are in that single sentence, and a candidate should separate them.
A condition on the cell. It must be furnished with the means of enabling the prisoner to communicate at any time with an officer of the prison. A cell from which a prisoner cannot summon anybody may not lawfully be used for solitary confinement at all.
A duty of daily inspection. Beyond twenty-four hours, a daily visit by the Medical Officer or Medical Subordinate.
And the scope: whether as a punishment or otherwise. The safeguards attach to the condition the prisoner is in, not to the label the prison puts on it.
Three different things called confinement
The commonest error in this topic is treating them as one. They have different sources, different limits and different decision-makers.
| Who decides | Source | Limit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solitary confinement as a sentence | A court, as part of a sentence of rigorous imprisonment | Sections 11 and 12 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 | Scaled to the term, and its distribution across the sentence is controlled |
| Cellular confinement as a punishment | The Superintendent, for a prison offence | Section 46(10), Prisons Act 1894 | Not exceeding fourteen days, with an interval of not less duration before another period of cellular or solitary confinement |
| Separate confinement as a punishment | The Superintendent | Section 46(8) | Not exceeding three months, and beyond one month it needs the Inspector General's previous confirmation under section 48(1) |
| Individual confinement in a cell | The Superintendent, administratively | Section 28 | No limit in the section; section 29 applies wherever the cell is used for solitary confinement |
And the Act's own definitions, in the Explanations to section 46, are what distinguish the two punishments.
- Separate confinement: seclusion from communication with, but not from sight of, other prisoners, with not less than one hour's exercise a day and meals in association with one or more other prisoners.
- Cellular confinement: entire seclusion from communication with, but not from sight of, other prisoners.
The rest of this chapter
Module one is free. The rest of this chapter comes with the LL.M. Criminal Law and Criminal Administration Semester 3 notes.
You are reading a chapter from a later module. Everything in module one of every subject stays free, and so does every question paper and the syllabus.
Notes + Solved papers: ₹798 Already bought it? Sign in
Or notes only: ₹499
Or solved papers only: ₹499
Free either way: question papers, the syllabus, and module one of every subject.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.