The High Court found that a prisoner’s nearly year-long isolation at Wheatfield Prison breached his constitutional rights to bodily and psychological integrity and humane treatment. Mr Justice Cregan also held that the prison’s current direction separating him from other prisoners was unlawful on its face and disproportionate to the safety risk it was intended to address.
The judgment, delivered on 17 February 2015, arose from judicial review proceedings brought by Daniel McDonnell. He had been convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in January 2014. The prison authorities said confidential information indicated that he faced a significant risk of serious harm from other inmates connected to the deceased. McDonnell disputed that he was at risk and did not want to remain separated.
From March 2014, he was subject to 11 successive directions under Rule 63 of the Prison Rules, which allows a vulnerable prisoner to be kept apart from prisoners reasonably likely to cause significant harm. The court described his conditions as solitary confinement: he spent 22 or 23 hours a day in his cell and had about an hour for exercise, alone. He also had a weekly family visit, phone calls and a television. The prison said he had declined some exercise, education and psychiatric appointments; McDonnell said he wanted to take part in activities and engage with services.
The court considered evidence from a psychologist arranged by McDonnell’s solicitors. The report described raised anxiety and depression scores and concern about his wellbeing. The judge found a real and substantial risk to McDonnell’s mental health if the conditions continued.
Two defects also made the current Rule 63 direction unlawful, the court held. It did not state when the separation would end, as the rule requires, and the evidence did not show that the prison governor had personally decided separation was necessary. The judgment said those defects could be remedied by a fresh direction that met the rule’s requirements.
The judge found that Rule 63 permitted separation from prisoners reasonably likely to cause significant harm, not a blanket bar on association with everyone on McDonnell’s landing or wing. He also found that denying reasonable access to structured activities with other prisoners was disproportionate. After more than 11 months in isolation against his wishes, the restriction was itself a breach of his constitutional rights.
Cregan J concluded that the breach was unlawful and neither necessary nor proportionate to the perceived threat. He did not elaborate on the European Convention claims, saying his constitutional findings made that unnecessary. Although McDonnell had sought several forms of relief, the judgment’s concluding orders state these findings; they do not specify that the court quashed the directions or grant a separate remedy.