Changes to solitary rules long overdue

THE SPECTATOR’S VIEW

The federal government this week introduced long overdue legislation to restrict indefinite solitary confinement in federal prisons. Once passed, the law would limit an inmate to no more than 21 days in solitary confinement; that cap would drop to 15 days once the law has been in place 18 months.

The new law also creates a new position of external reviewer, who would look at all cases where a prisoner is in solitary for longer than those limits, or who is sent to solitary more than three times in a year.

It’s been nearly a decade since 19-year-old Ashley Smith strangled herself in a segregation cell at Kitchener’s Grand Valley Institution in October 2007.

The deeply troubled teen had spent most of the last three years of her life in segregation before dying of self-inflicted strangulation.

Her situation, while particularly horrific, is not unique. Adam Capay spent more than 1,600 days in solitary in Ontario jails before a judge ordered that he be removed from such conditions. On any given day, around 500 federal prisoners are in segregation. Hundreds more languish alone in cells in provincial jails across the country.

Confining someone to a cell for 23 hours a day with no meaningful human interaction and with no limits on how long a prisoner will stay there can amount to torture, the United Nations says.

Such treatment violates fundamental principles of justice and humanity. It does nothing to help inmates prepare for life after prison, and only worsens the mental troubles of many inmates in solitary.

There have been frequent calls for change since Smith’s death.

In 2010, Howard Sapers, the ombud for federal prisoners, recommended limits to segregation, saying the federal system relied too heavily on segregation as a way of dealing with overcrowded prisons and highneeds inmates.

In 2013, the inquest into Smith’s death urged an end to indefinite solitary confinement and a ban on the use of segregation beyond 15 days for female inmates with mental-health problems.

These changes, while tardy, are sorely needed and most welcome. They will put Canada at the vanguard of the best correctional practices. But in many respects, the changes fall short. The bill should have a hard cap of no more than 60 days that any prisoner can spend in solitary in a year.

There should be a process by which inmates can appeal and, possibly, end to their segregation.

No inmate who is pregnant, suffers from mental illness or who has shown suicidal tendencies should be sent to solitary. Period.

And the new regime limiting solitary confinement must be held up to public scrutiny. The external reviewer must report annually.

Those advocating for prisoners, and legislators themselves, should push hard for these enhancements as the bill makes its way into law.

We owe it to Ashley Smith and to all those who have languished in solitary in our prisons.