EDMONTON -- Clifford Sleigh will do the hardest jail time in the Canadian prison system, says an Edmonton criminologist.

Sleigh is about to start a life sentence without chance of parole for 25 years for the brutal rape and murder of six-year-old Corinne (Punky) Gustavson in 1992.

Wherever he serves his time, it won't be easy for the high-profile killer, said Kevin Haggerty, a criminologist at the University of Alberta.

Being a child killer means that Sleigh will likely be a target of other inmates and put in segregation, which means almost constant lockdown and seclusion, with an hour of exercise each day in the yard, either on his own or with other inmates of similar status, Haggerty said.

"It's a pretty miserable existence, generally," he said, adding that even serial killer Clifford Olson has made attempts to get out of segregation.

Even in segregation there is a chance that he could be assaulted by other inmates, he said.

"People have to move around. They have to go to hospital, they have to deal with people sometimes. ..."

"As much as we see them (killers like Sleigh) as monsters, they (other inmates) see them as monsters and act on it."

For inmates serving a long sentence, the personal consequences of assaulting someone like Sleigh would not be high, and it would improve their status in the prison pecking order.

There wouldn't be a lot of tears shed in the public if Sleigh was assaulted, Haggerty said.

"One of the strange things about our society is that some people take pleasure in this," he said.

"We classify ourselves as a model society -- we don't execute people -- but we wouldn't mind if Joe Inmate did this."

Polls show that support for capital punishment among Canadians can be quite variable, he said. It is generally in the area of 40 per cent, but can go as high as 60 per cent when a high-profile killer is in the news, he said.

Sleigh's defence lawyer, Peter Royal, said after sentencing that the best place for Sleigh to serve his time would likely be the segregation unit at the maximum security Edmonton Institution, where he has been held for several years.

It would be preferable because he is an Albertan and there are programs for aboriginal inmates at the prison.

Cathy Stocki, spokeswoman for the Correctional Service of Canada, said from Saskatoon that an assessment will be done to determine where Sleigh should serve his time.

She couldn't divulge any details about Sleigh's case, but said the decision will be based on safety considerations, what level of security is needed, the inmate's needs and what programs are available.

All five regions of the prison system can handle all levels of security, with facilities ranging from healing lodges to maximum-security units, Stocki said. This means most inmates from this area stay in the Prairie region, unless there is a specific reason to go to another part of Canada.

"We don't generally go outside the region without certain specific reasons why we need to transfer," she said.

msadava@thejournal.canwest.com