Judge says inmate’s detention in special unit at Kent unlawful
The detention of a former gang associate in a special unit at Kent maximum-security prison has been declared unlawful by a judge.
Sylvester Raju, 25, who is serving a four-year prison term for firearms offences, was placed in the structured intervention unit (SIU) in February after reports he was involved in assaults of other inmates.
In November last year, the SIU regime in Canada’s federal prisons was created to replace administrative segregation, what was once called solitary confinement.
At Kent, SIU is a more restrictive setting than other units, according to a B.C. Supreme Court ruling in Raju’s case.
Before being put in SIU, Raju had been living in a protective custody unit because he had “incompatibles” in the other units due to his prior association with the UN gang, says the ruling by Justice Michael Tammen.
He was transferred to SIU after a report that documented his alleged violent behaviour toward others, both through direct assault of other inmates and by organizing assaults on other inmates.
In March there was a hearing before the warden that confirmed the transfer.
Raju applied to set aside the warden’s decision and argued in court that he was not treated fairly by prison officials, a claim the judge accepted.
“In my view, there has been substantial procedural unfairness visited on the applicant in these proceedings,” said the judge. “Significant disclosure on which the warden relied in reaching her decision was not disclosed to the applicant. Here, I refer to CCTV footage showing some interaction between the applicant and another inmate, said to depict an assault.”
Raj could not make submissions on what was shown on the CCTV footage because it was not disclosed to him, said the judge. The footage shows the other prisoner following Raju into his cell and six seconds later the other prisoner falling backward into the hallway, appearing to put his right hand up to the side of his face before immediately getting to his feet and re-entering the cell, he said.
The judge directed that Raju be released from SIU to a maximum security federal prison. Since the ruling, he’s been transferred to a prison in Edmonton.