Prisons and jails need overhaul, report says

Independent adviser pushes for new solitary confinement and inmate search policies

Provincial inmates must have access to rehabilitation programs and also need more — and more direct — contact with their families, says a new report on transforming Ontario’s corrections system that also urges the government to allow prisoners who give birth to remain with their babies.

Howard Sapers, the independent adviser on corrections reform, said the province has to better track any deaths that occur in provincial jails and implement clear rules around strip searches.

“Over150 people have died in Ontario’s correctional institutions over the past decade,” said Sapers, who released his report on Tuesday. “The majority of deaths in custody in Ontario are not subject to a thorough, fully arm’s-length and independent review. Even when such a review does take place, the extent to which the findings lead to system-wide reflection or change is limited.”

Last November, the then-minister of corrections ordered the independent review of Ontario jails, looking at how to reduce the use of segregation and improve the system overall.

In the spring, Sapers — who previously served as Canada’s correctional investigator and inmate ombudsman — released an interim report that recommended solitary confinement never be used for mentally ill prisoners, those who are pregnant or have just given birth. But he stopped short of banning the practice.

His final report makes 62 recommendations that he said will help to create a more humane and human rights-based system. It’s time for the government to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous inmates in the system, he also said.

Improving family visits will help foster information sharing, and better policy around strip searches would improve staff-prisoner relations, the report says.

Sapers noted that across the country, and globally, correctional facilities “have put in place a range of measures to help facilitate family contact and support, including childfriendly play spaces, open visiting areas that allow for barrier-free interactions, private family visiting accommodations for longer stays and mother-child programs that prevent the separation of mothers and young children.

“Ontario’s correctional institutions offer almost none of these opportunities. The vast majority of visits between inmates and their loved ones in Ontario are limited to 20- to 40-minute sessions during which visitors and inmates are physically separated by a barrier.” Corrections Minister MarieFrance Lalonde said the government is opening two facilities that will be designed to reflect modern corrections practices. It will also hire more staff. New legislation is also expected this fall. “We will not be rebuilding the jails of the past,” she said