All-Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group (PHRG) and the APPG on Penal Affairs held a joint event on solitary confinement on 2 November, at which the two surviving members of the Angola 3, Albert Woodfox (AW) and Robert King (RK), spoke about their experiences of decades of solitary confinement.

They were joined by Tessa Murphy, former Amnesty International campaigner (TM), and Louise Finer, Co-ordinator of the UK National Preventative Mechanism (LF).

The PHRG would like to thank PHRG Chair, Ann Clwyd MP, for chairing the meeting.

The main points which arose were as follows:

• In the UK, there are practices which amount to solitary confinement, e.g., practices which use segregation, isolation and lock-down for prolonged periods of time. Short periods of isolation are also used in relation to children. There is inconsistency in how such practices are used and a lack of appropriate safeguards and conditions. There are also cases of informal isolation in prisons often because of staff shortages. There are good practices, however, especially in health settings. There should be strict adherence to the ‘Mandela Rules’, i.e., UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. The NPM is developing comprehensive guidance for its members in connection with the monitoring of isolation. (LF)
• Internationally, the US, as well as Japan, raises concerns as regards the use of solitary. In the US, 25,000 people are held in federal Super-Max prisons and 100,000 in some sort of segregated facility, which amounts to 2-3% of the prison population. Segregation and isolation has become a tool to manage the prison population. (TM)
• Inmates can be held for decades in solitary confinement in the US. Prisoners held in solitary confinement are often “nuisance” prisoners, gang members or political prisoners, or sometimes even those being held for minor infractions of prison rules. Many of those in solitary are also mentally ill. Over 50% of suicides in US prisons occur in isolation units. There are often no contact visits, and there is sensory deprivation. It is important that solitary becomes better regulated, so people are not subjected to it for years at the whim of prison officials. (TM)
• Albert Woodfox was held in solitary confinement for 43 years in Angola prison, Louisiana, and was released in February this year. He refused to renounce his membership to the Black Panther movement and other political activities, and was subsequently placed in isolation. Robert King was held in solitary for 29 years. They fought, and continue to fight, against injustice, and to remember the sacrifice of Herman Wallace, the other Angola 3 member, who died in 2013 just after his release from jail.
• There has been a study on the effects of solitary confinement on the brain; the findings illustrate that the brain physically shrinks in size and the prisoner is dehumanised. (RK)
• To get through their time in solitary confinement, Albert and Robert followed the news and turned their cells into places of learning for themselves. They also worked to protect other inmates in the prison.
• Albert and Robert will continue with their campaign on the misuse of solidarity confinement in the US, and to support those who are its victims.

After having campaigned for years on the Angola 3 case, the PHRG was honoured to host Robert and Albert in the UK Parliament and to hear them speak so movingly about their experience and their continuing campaign. The PHRG will continue to monitor the use of solitary confinement across the world and to raise concerns with relevant interlocutors.