Province hit with suit on segregation in jails

Documents claim administrative policy is ‘contrary to principles of justice’

EDMONTON The Alberta correctional service has been named in a class-action lawsuit alleging misuse of administrative segregation in provincial jails.

The documents filed with the Court of Queen’s Bench claim inmates in segregation have acquired skin conditions, gone weeks without seeing the sun, been fed only two sandwiches a day, and developed sores from sleeping on concrete.

The file alleges that placing inmates in administrative segregation is handled “secretly and idiosyncratically” in Alberta correctional centres, its use “hidden behind opaque bureaucratic walls.”

“Administrative segregation constitutes an incremental punishment, over and above the sentence that a court has imposed and for which the inmate was convicted,” it reads.

“Such confinement … has no possibility for outside review, contrary to principles of fundamental justice.”

Inmates in segregation are held for 23 hours a day in special cells — usually smaller than ordinary cells.

Because the single hour of release time rotates each day, the document says, those inmates sometimes to go for 36 hours without any time outside their cells, which is contrary to United Nations rules for the treatment of prisoners.

The lawsuit, launched by lawyer Tony Merchant, doesn’t cover segregation used as punishment (when an inmate starts a fight, for example), only when it’s applied through policy or an administrative decision.

In an interview with Postmedia, Merchant said that includes instances where inmates have mental health issues, guards are “power tripping ” or prisons decide a prisoner has gang ties.

He has lodged similar claims against the Saskatchewan and federal governments.

Prisons are supposed to rehabilitate prisoners, Merchant said.

“What we’re trying to do is not continue to spend $75,000 to $100,000 each year holding someone in prison,” he said.

He insists that haphazardly throwing inmates into administrative segregation works against that goal.

“It ingrains in the mind of a prisoner that the system isn’t working, that it’s unfair,” he said.

According to an Alberta government snapshot of February 2018 numbers, 247 inmates in Alberta correctional and remand centres were housed in administrative segregation, compared to 24 held in solitary for disciplinary reasons.

The Alberta government wouldn’t comment on the lawsuit directly.

However, justice department spokesman Dan Laville said in an email that administrative segregation is used for inmates who have concerns for their safety, threaten the safety of other inmates and staff, or may jeopardize the security of the facility.

Laville said his department isn’t aware of any instances of segregation misuse.

He said those who are placed in solitary have their circumstances reviewed twice a week by a committee which includes the centre director, correctional service workers and medical staff.

There is a process in place to deal with any concerns, he said.