Governments must restrict use of prison ‘segregation’
TheStar.com – Opinion/Editorials – A 50 per cent drop in the use of solitary confinement at federal prisons shows that the practice can be dramatically reduced.
Oct. 13, 2016. Editorial
It’s amazing what shining a spotlight on a problem can achieve.
In December 2014 Canada’s prison service flatly rejected recommendations from a coroner’s jury into the death of Ashley Smith that it curb its use of solitary confinement, saying it would hobble the “safe management” of the system.
But under constant scrutiny from human rights organizations, an ombudsman and even a judge, that’s exactly what Correctional Service Canada (CSC) has done.
First, over the past two years it cut in half the use of indefinite solitary confinement. In the 2015-16 fiscal year, 247 federal prisoners spent more than 120 days in “segregation,” down from 505 in 2013-14.
Second, according to new information released by the CSC, it halved the numbers held in solitary confinement on a daily basis. On August 14, 2016, there were 361 offenders held in segregation, down from 775 on April 13, 2014.
And, contrary to its own predictions, CSC did not lose control of its prisons, demonstrating that the critics were right: the prison service can curb the excessive use of solitary confinement.
Still, as federal prisons ombudsman Howard Sapers warned the Star, that could change if the current spotlight on solitary confinement dims. That’s why the federal, provincial and territorial governments should legislate changes to ensure that segregation is, indeed, a limited, last resort at prisons across the country and that no one like Ashley Smith is placed in solitary again.
Appallingly, Smith choked herself to death in 2007 at the age of 19 as guards watched. In the final year of her life, she had been on “segregation status” for more than 300 days and was forcibly restrained and injected with drugs. She should have been in psychiatric care.
The prison service admits that recent reductions came about partly by “looking more closely at alternatives” to solitary confinement, including sending some prisoners to mental health services and ensuring inmates admitted to segregation are released at the earliest and safest time.
Still, prisoners continue to be forced unjustifiably into segregation cells. Just last August an Alberta judge freed three inmates from solitary confinement at a federal prison, ruling that the decision to send them there was “not reasonable.”
What’s clear is that every day that goes by without government action is another day that prisoners across the country are thrown into segregation cells when other alternatives might be just as safe — and more humane — for them and their fellow inmates.
And for that there is hope. In Ontario, then-correctional services minister Yasir Naqvi announced a review of the province’s policies on segregation for inmates back in March 2015. It’s due out shortly. And in Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directed Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould last November to implement recommendations stemming from the death of Smith. Trudeau added that solitary should not be used to control mentally ill inmates.
Now it’s time for governments to stop pondering and start acting. There is only so much that public pressure, alone, can achieve.
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Tags: corrections, disabilities, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
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