Inmate’s jail time reduced due to ‘oppressive’ pretrial lockdowns
Judge’s ruling flies in face of Harper government’s cap on sentence reductions
A Toronto judge has given a man who brought a loaded handgun to a park a reduced jail sentence because of conditions created by lockdowns and inadequate medical treatment at the Toronto South Detention Centre.
The precedent-setting decision skirts the Harper government’s legislative cap on the amount of credit an inmate can receive for pretrial custody by knocking time off the actual sentence, rather than merely giving credit for time served.
The inmate’s pretrial incarceration at Toronto South was “oppressive and medically compromising,” said Ontario Court Justice Melvyn Green in his reasons for sentencing. Lawyers say the ruling could have sweeping implications for inmates serving time in Ontario’s chronically understaffed jails, where weekly lockdowns have become the norm in some institutions.
“I think this is going to be the first of many cases that use this sentencing approach to give credit for particularly harsh periods in custody,” said Daniel Brown, a Toronto director of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association. “And perhaps it will send a message to the institutions that if they don’t improve the conditions people will serve shorter sentences as a result.”
On a Sunday afternoon in October 2014, Toronto police arrested Ronald Doyle, 35, after he was found carrying a loaded handgun in Grange Park, near the Art Gallery of Ontario. Doyle and his girlfriend had been living in a homeless shelter with her child, and he told police the 32-calibre revolver was meant to protect them from a couple who had threatened to kill them. Doyle pled guilty to two charges: possession of a weapon dangerous to the public peace and unauthorized possession of a firearm. He spent 11 months awaiting trial at Toronto South.
The inmate’s remand experience was “extremely difficult” with “periods of physical discomfort and pain associated with a diabetes management protocol that failed to adequately respond to his medical needs,” Green said in his sentencing remarks. “The complete lockdown of the offender on at least a quarter of his days in remand custody is an oppressive and . . . unexplained form of pre-sentence punishment,” the judge said.
“On one occasion a guard somehow misplaced a key and the entire facility was locked down for a week,” the judge said.
The judge found no evidence of intentional mistreatment, but said the standard of care fell below what was required. Insulin injections often weren’t delivered on time and lockdowns made exercise impossible.
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services said it would be inappropriate to comment because the case is still in the appeal period.
Before 2010, it was standard practice for judges to award inmates two days’ credit for every day spent in jail before trial, a practice meant to account for delayed opportunities for early release and harsher conditions in remand facilities, where accused persons are held until trial.
The Conservatives’ Truth in Sentencing Act, which came into effect in 2010, banned double credit for time served and said1.5 days could be awarded in special cases. But in 2014 the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in R. v. Summers restored the standard that nearly all offenders deserve1.5 days for every one in pretrial custody. The decision said offenders who have suffered “particularly harsh treatment” can seek additional remedies, a provision upon which Green based his decision.
“It’s a strong message to the jails that ongoing lockdowns are not to be condoned,” said criminal defence lawyer John Erickson, who represented Doyle.
The sentencing range for Doyle’s offence was between two years less a day and three years. Green gave Doyle 22 months, which Erickson interprets as a two-month reduction. The judge himself did not quantify the credit, but called it “modest.” He also gave Doyle 16 months’ credit for his 11 months in remand — 1.5 for each day — which left the offender with a further six months to serve.
This is the second time Green has circumvented the sentencing amendments. The judge employed a similar workaround in a 2011 case involving a Toronto man caught selling $20 worth of cocaine to an undercover officer.