Protective custody is a type of imprisonment (or care) to protect a prisoner (or other person) from harm, either from outside sources or other prisoners.
In a prison context, protective custody is used mainly in the following cases:
- Those who are at high risk of being harmed or killed by other prisoners either for their crime or their group (ethnic or otherwise), such as pedophiles, child murderers / child abuse
Child abuse is the physical and/or psychological/emotional mistreatment of children. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts or commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential...
rs, police officers, gangA gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
members in a prison containing rival gang members, or prisoners who are gayThe term gay was originally used, until well into the mid-20th century, primarily to refer to feelings of being "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy"; it had also come to acquire some connotations of "immorality" as early as 1637....
or transgenderTransgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to diverge from the normative gender roles....
.
- Those criminals who are themselves witness
A witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about a crime or dramatic event through their senses , and can help certify important considerations to the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event firsthand is known as an "eye-witness"...
es to a crime, and might be harmed by other prisoners to either prevent them from speaking out, or for revenge.
Protective custody might simply involve putting the person in a secure prison (if the threat is from the outside), but usually protective custody involves some degree of
solitary confinementSolitary confinement is a punishment or special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is denied contact with any other persons, excluding members of prison staff. Usually cited as an additional measure of protection from the criminal, it has also been called a form of torture...
.
Protective custody is a type of imprisonment (or care) to protect a prisoner (or other person) from harm, either from outside sources or other prisoners.
In a prison context, protective custody is used mainly in the following cases:
- Those who are at high risk of being harmed or killed by other prisoners either for their crime or their group (ethnic or otherwise), such as pedophiles, child murderers / child abuse
Child abuse is the physical and/or psychological/emotional mistreatment of children. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts or commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential...
rs, police officers, gangA gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
members in a prison containing rival gang members, or prisoners who are gayThe term gay was originally used, until well into the mid-20th century, primarily to refer to feelings of being "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy"; it had also come to acquire some connotations of "immorality" as early as 1637....
or transgenderTransgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to diverge from the normative gender roles....
.
- Those criminals who are themselves witness
A witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about a crime or dramatic event through their senses , and can help certify important considerations to the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event firsthand is known as an "eye-witness"...
es to a crime, and might be harmed by other prisoners to either prevent them from speaking out, or for revenge.
Protective custody might simply involve putting the person in a secure prison (if the threat is from the outside), but usually protective custody involves some degree of
solitary confinementSolitary confinement is a punishment or special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is denied contact with any other persons, excluding members of prison staff. Usually cited as an additional measure of protection from the criminal, it has also been called a form of torture...
. In the case of a person being threatened due to his association with a certain group, moving that person to another section of the prison may be sufficient.
Other usages
Protective custody does not
necessarily imply a prisoner or a prison setting. In some usages, it might simply involve placing a person in a secure setting, with no implication of imprisonment, such as when a child is placed in temporary foster care. In some cases, non-criminals (or
defendantA defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute....
s in pending trials) have also been placed in protective custody in a prison setting, for example to protect them from being
lynchedLynching is an extrajudicial punishment meted by a mob, usually by hanging. It is an enumerated felony in all states of the United States, defined by some codes of law as "Any act of violence inflicted by a mob upon the body of another person which results in the death of the person," with a 'mob'...
.
In
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
, the German equivalent term, 'Schutzhaft', was used as a
euphemismA euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener, or in the case of Doublespeak, to make it less troublesome for the speaker...
for the extra- or para-legal rounding-up of political opponents and especially Jews, sometimes officially defended as being necessary to protect them from the 'righteous' wrath of the German population. The victims were then sent to concentration camps, where most were later exterminated.