Time for action
The federal government has been handed another warning that it needs to get moving on overhauling the use of solitary confinement in Canada’s prisons.
It comes in the form of a ruling from the associate chief justice of Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice, Frank Marrocco. He found this week that the way the system of solitary confinement is administered in federal prisons is unconstitutional.
In particular, he ruled, the lack of independent oversight over decisions to keep prisoners in what is officially known as “administrative segregation” runs counter to the “principles of fundamental justice.” The same person who puts an inmate in solitary, in other words, shouldn’t have the final say on how long he stays there.
Justice Marrocco didn’t go as far as some advocates would like and condemn the entire practice of solitary confinement. But he gave the federal government a year to fix what is universally acknowledged as a broken system.
This is an ongoing problem for all governments. Solitary has been badly misused in both federal prisons and provincial jails as a way of controlling inmates, even those with mental illnesses. In some infamous cases, such as that of Adam Capay, prisoners have been kept isolated for months, even years, at a time.
That can have terrible effects on a prisoner’s mental health, as everyone from the United Nations to the former federal prisons watchdog, Howard Sapers, have said. Both have recommended that the use of solitary be limited to a maximum of 15 days.
The federal government has taken important steps toward changing the system. The use of solitary has dropped sharply in recent years, and in June the government introduced Bill C-56, which would put an end to indefinite administrative segregation by imposing a 15-day limit on the practice.
That bill could still be strengthened. It provides for an 18-month transition period to the 15-day limit. And its oversight provisions leave too much to the discretion of the correctional system. The bill should be improved and passed as soon as possible.
Ontario is grappling with the same issue. In a report last May, Sapers laid out a series of recommendations to make the provincial correctional system more humane, including limiting the use of solitary confinement.
Ontario’s correctional services minister, Marie-France Lalonde, promised to introduce legislation this past autumn to reform the system. But as the year ends, there’s no sign of action on that front from Queen’s Park.
Both governments need to take concrete steps to end abuses in their prison systems. In Ottawa, that means improving and adopting Bill C-56. In Ontario, it means ending the foot-dragging and bringing in much-needed reforms.