A new government bill that the Liberals claim will end the use of solitary confinement in federal prisons should prompt action to end similar practices in provincial jails, the provincial NDP says.
Bill C-83, which was introduced earlier this week, would put a halt on disciplinary and administrative segregation as it currently exists. Instead, inmates who require segregation for safety reasons would be transferred to “structured intervention units” while maintaining access to programming and health care. The bill would also ensure prisoners transferred to these structured intervention units are offered the opportunity to spend four hours a day outside their cell, and a minimum of two of those hours would include human interaction.
The government says the bill is a direct response to recommendations from a coroner’s inquest into the 2007 death of a 19-year-old New Brunswick woman, Ashley Smith, who killed herself in a segregation cell.
Several provincial Supreme Courts have also ruled that current solitary confinement practices are inhumane and in some cases unconstitutional.
Claudia Chender, MLA for Dartmouth South and the NDP’s justice critic, said this move should signal to the provinces that it’s time to follow suit.
The Nova Scotia NDP has long advocated for a third-party review of the use of separation in provincial correctional institutions.
Earlier this month, a proposed class-action lawsuit was filed against the provincial government on behalf of people who have been in solitary confinement in Nova Scotia’s correctional facilities for 15 consecutive days or longer, something that the United Nations has defined as torture.
A May report by the Nova Scotia auditor general’s office also found that provincial policies surrounding solitary confinement are not always being followed.
“I think what the federal legislation signals is that the enormous amount of pressure from advocates and lawyers and others around a real need to investigate the practice of solitary and how it’s administered as well as obviously commentary from the UN and others is moving the needle,” Chender said.
“Whether it has moved the needle far enough is going to be a big question, but the needle is moving so I think it’s time for that to happen provincially as well .”
El Jones, who has been a public advocate for better treatment of inmates in Nova Scotia, says the federal legislation offers nothing more than a name change.
“They aren’t ending the practice of segregation, people can still be segregated on ranges. The big issue is Correctional Service Canada still has the authority of who is placed in confinement,” Jones told The Chronicle Herald.
Judicial oversight is a key recommendation in the 1996 Louise Arbour commission.
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“They are saying ‘OK, well now you’re allowed out four hours a day,’ but people are still confined, so all they’re doing is renaming the practice and saying they ended it.”
Jones also said staffing and resources are still a major issue in Canadian prisons.
Jones’ concerns have been echoed by others, including the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and Sen. Kim Pate.
“We know that solitary confinement is overwhelmingly directed at people with mental health problems,” Jones said. “We have to demand not that we rename this practice, or shuffle it around, or cut a couple of days here, or give a couple more hours out there. Jails are not a treatment facility for mental illness. Until we recognize that, nothing we do is going to address that issue.”
West Nova MP Colin Fraser, a lawyer who sits on the House of Commons justice committee, said he’s heard criticism of the bill from both sides.
“As I understand it, the Conservatives might not be supporting it because they feel that it might not be harsh enough on prisoners and then there are people on the other side that have expressed concerns that the structured intervention units might not be sufficiently different from administrative segregation,” he said.
Fraser said it’s important to strike a balance between ensuring there are options for segregation when it is needed for safety reasons, and respecting the constitutional rights of prisoners.
“The idea of these structured intervention units is that it will be different than administrative segregation and (prisoners) will still be able to get access to some of these things that will help them while still making sure that everyone is safe,” he said.
In an emailed statement, Heather Fairbairn, spokeswoman for the provincial Department of Justice, said the province has been taking steps to reduce the use of close confinement for several years now.
Some of those measures include the Transitional Day Room program, a partnership between Correctional Services and the Nova Scotia Health Authority, which Fairbairn said has reduced the use of administrative close confinement for inmates who cannot function in the general population, as well as other policy changes which have resulted in reducing the average number of days for disciplinary close confinement from 5.4 days to 3.3 days per incident.
“We are always seeking approaches and alternatives that may enhance outcomes for inmates,” she said.
