Protective custody

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Protective custody (PC) is a type of imprisonment (or care) to protect a person from harm, either from outside sources or other prisoners. Many prison administrators believe the level of violence, or the underlying threat of violence within prisons, is a chief factor causing the need for PC units. Prisoners have the opportunity to request protective custody if they get the impression that the environment they are living in is harmful to their well being. Their request may be granted if the officials rule that the prisoner is truly at risk. 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 segregation or solitary confinement. For people who are threatened because of their association with a certain group or gang, moving them to another section of the prison may be sufficient. Throughout modern history, the term "protective custody" has sometimes been used as a euphemism for extrajudicial punishment. Most notably in Nazi Germany, where protective custody (Schutzhaft) was used as a quasi-legal cover for the elimination of political opposition and ethnic cleansing. Far from offering protection to the detainees, it was a central tool of repression designed to protect the Nazi regime from those it deemed "enemies of the state." Many inmates at Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, were falsely publicly said to be in "protective custody" -- a notable example being journalist Fritz Gerlich.