💡 Solitary Confinement
Also known as: separation ward, Solitary confinement cell, punishment ward, Safety of the Incarcerated Person, Mailboxes, Isolation Unit, Punishment Area, Well, PSAC, solitary confinement unit
Section of a penitentiary unit where incarcerated people are confined separately from the general population, usually as a disciplinary measure (punishment) or for security reasons. Liberté considers solitary confinement to be torture.
The isolation ward is a specific area within a penitentiary unit designed to keep incarcerated people separated from the general prison population. Its use may respond to disciplinary or institutional security reasons, or in some cases to the person's own request for protection — though it frequently fails to comply with established legal procedures or judicial oversight. In practice, it involves a severe restriction of communal life: access to educational, work, recreational, and social activities is limited, with no meaningful visual or auditory stimulation or human contact.
From a human rights perspective, prolonged isolation is challenged by national and international bodies, which in extreme cases equate it with cruel or degrading treatment. In the context of Cooperativa Liberté and the Unidad Penal N°15 in Batán, the conversion of Ward 7 — historically used for isolation — into a space with a different purpose represents a concrete step toward more dignified conditions of confinement oriented toward integration. Liberté holds that isolation is torture.