HC Deb 30 March 1983 vol 40 c139W
Mr. Deakins

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what definition of solitary confinement he used in his answers of 17 March, Official Report, c. 215–216.

Mr. Mellor

In my earlier reply, I took solitary confinement to be a form of punishment, the essential feature of which is to deprive the prisoner of all forms of human contact.