Stop the secrecy

When a person dies behind bars, the government has a clear moral duty to be sensitive and transparent with the loved ones left behind. Yet a recent report from prison ombudsman Howard Sapers suggests Correctional Service Canada (CSC) is consistently failing to fulfil that duty.

Sapers’ report, “In the Dark,” paints a picture of an insensitive agency that too often obscures the truth around the circumstances of prison deaths, skirting public scrutiny and compounding the anguish of grieving loved ones in the process.

It is required by law that when an inmate dies from non-natural causes, an investigation be conducted and a report issued. But in several cases, Sapers found CSC redacted portions of reports, altering or obscuring their meaning. Of particular concern was a tendency to black out details that might implicate correctional officers for failing to follow policy or worse.

The examples Sapers provides are deeply troubling. In one report about a death that occurred between 2013 and 2015, any mention of the fact that the prisoner in question had threatened to kill himself was excised from the report. But this was information essential for evaluating the conduct of the correctional officers involved. Another family whose loved one died during the same period received an 88-page report that had 44 pages blacked out.

It’s not just at the report stage that the agency is apparently secretive. “CSC withholds as much information as possible at all points — from notification of death through the investigative process,” Sapers said.

And, according to the report, when it does communicate with families, it often does so inhumanely. In one case a family member arrived to view the body of his loved one at an appointed time, but was informed the inmate had already been cremated. Later, without warning, the prison couriered the ashes to the family. “Sending someone in the mail . . . it’s just not right,” a family member told Sapers’ office.

While some of the agency’s redactions are no doubt legitimate, such as those that protect the privacy of a prisoner’s cellmate, Sapers found that many appeared to be a misuse of the access to information and privacy laws. That harms not just the families of those who die in government custody, but also the public.

CSC has the discretion, Sapers notes, to release information in the public interest. That ought to be the default. In recent years, prison deaths tied to Canada’s cruel overuse of solitary confinement have finally started to come to light. The problem, and others like it, must not be allowed to recede into the shadows. Those affected by our penal policies have little public voice. It is on issues such as the humane treatment of prisoners, whose plight might easily be ignored, where government opacity can be most damaging.

Ottawa should take a close look at Sapers’ recommendations for reform and act quickly to fix this unjust, anti-democratic practice.

Howard Sapers’ report found that some redactions appeared to be a misuse of access to information and privacy laws