'Solitary Confinement' Sentencing Explained

Statute Requires It:

'Solitary Confinement Sentencing Explained

Sentencing of Harold A. Johnson, convicted by a Washtenaw
circuit court jury of first degree murder, to life in prison "at hard
labor and in solitary confinement" yesterday touched off a flurry of
debate among newsmen and in legal circles.

Reporters were told by officials at the Southern Michigan Prison
at Jackson that the only facilities for solitary confinement there
were for discipline for inmates.

Circuit Judge James R. Breakey, jr., resolved the confusion
by explaining he was acting in accordance with statute, which
states that first degree murder shall be "punished by solitary
| confinement at hard labor in the !state prison for life."

"I pronounced the sentence in that manner so that it would con-
form to statute and couldn't later be claimed that the circuit judge
did not commit the prisoner in the right manner," Judge Breakey
explained. "Circuit judges do not tell the State Corrections Com-
mission how to operate the prisons."

The statute apparently gives prison officials the authority to
place the prisoner in solitary confinement, if need be, and put him
to hard work.

An official at the Jackson prison told The News yesterday
that "lifers" at the prison eat in the general mess hall and play
baseball and basketball with the other prisoners in the institution.

Judge Breakey, in handing down the sentence, said, "I want
the record to show that the court is convinced that this man should
be confined without question and never be allowed to return to so-
ciety under any theory of psychiatry or law. Neither the pres-
ent governor nor any succeeding governor should give any serious
consideration to him being permitted one moment of freedom.
The court says this not in the heat of consideration of the case
nor as the result of any effect it may have had on the court but
coldly and dispassionately. The court is saddened that any mem-
ber of this community could be of this nature."