MA Court Rules Solitary Confinement Must Be Governed by Due Process
No more throwing people in the hole and forgetting about them
BOSTON -- Ruling today in LaChance v. Commissioner of Correction--a case involving an inmate held in solitary confinement for 10 months at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Mass., following an original incident in which Mr. LaChance threw pudding at another inmate--the Massachusetts Supreme Court reaffirmed the principle that use of solitary confinement is a harsh punishment that must be balanced with firm legal protections. The American Civil Liberties Union, which submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, hailed the ruling for its significance both in Massachusetts and across the country.
Specifically, the Court ruled that the state Department of Corrections (DOC) can no longer use labels such as "administrative segregation" as an end-run around legal protections designed to prevent prisoners from being held in solitary confinement without end and without due process. The Court also found that placing a prisoner in solitary without due process for over 90 days is unlawful, and ordered the DOC to put into place regulations to prevent such confinements in the future.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?