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Notable Canadian ruling on extreme prison confinement

By Douglas A. Berman

A helpful reader from north of the border sent me this note about a notable and high-profile (and very lengthy) ruling about prisoners' constitutional rights in Canada: I thought you may wish to write about this significant decision from a Canadian trial court about the meaning of cruel and unusual punishment in Canadian law.  Your blog emphasizes American developments, but this case has an American emphasis as it relies upon expert opinion evidence provided by Craig Haney, and there is discussion as to the importation of American ?supermax? style imprisonment.  The case is quite long [and can be found here]: Media coverage can be found here. The media coverage is, of course, a bit sensational.  From a prison lawyer perspective, the critical parts of the decision are at paragraphs 318?335 which indicate a new standard for interpreting long-term administrative segregation as constitutionally impermissible; as contrary to legitimate penological objectives...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 10, 2010 (boomark / email).