Ms Pauline McCabe:

No. I am trying to think of examples to do justice to the Deputy's question. I also - significantly in my opinion - have influenced the fact that wherever possible, there are more constructive ways of punishing people than cellular confinements. In a recently-published report, I made a point regarding circumstances in which people engage in serious bullying and cellular confinement is used as the punishment. While I believe there must be consequences when people bully, one of the most likely outcomes in such circumstances is that the minute the person in question comes out of cellular confinement, he or she will be twice as motivated to go and bully the person who he or she initially was motivating and who now has resulted in him or her having a period of cellular confinement. Consequently, I believe that in many circumstances, there are much better ways of dealing with bad behaviour and many of the reports and recommendations we have made over time have influenced that. As to whether I have made a recommendation stating that cellular confinement should never be used as a punishment, no I have not.