Foreword The following report has been produced by Dr Sharon Shalev, who has completed an independent review of seclusion and restraint practices in a number of New Zealand detention settings. Dr Shalev is an international expert in the field of solitary confinement and seclusion. She is a research associate at the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the Mannheim Centre for Criminology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She completed her doctorate on American Supermax Prisons, is the author of the influential Sourcebook on Solitary Confinementi and has recently completed a comprehensive study of segregation units and close supervision centers in England and Wales.ii Dr Shalev is well qualified to comment on the practices in place in our country. We are very grateful to her for accepting the commission to undertake this work and for providing an independent perspective on New Zealand practice. This report sets out her observations and recommendations based on her visits to selected New Zealand detention facilities during October and November 2016. The views expressed by Dr Shalev do not necessarily represent those of the Human Rights Commission or the individual National Preventive Mechanism partners. However, they provide an important catalyst for further discussion and action. Dr Shalev’s report highlights a number of serious issues. These include: • A high use of solitary confinement and restraint • Overrepresentation of ethnic minority groups in solitary confinement and restraint incidents i http://www.solitaryconfinement.org/sourcebook ii Deep Custody: the use of segregation and close supervision centres in England and Wales (2015) (http://solitaryconfinement.org/uploads/DeepCustodyShalevAndEdgar.pdf) 3