Ending the torment

For years the Ontario government has turned a blind eye to the mental and emotional torment that inmates in its 26 prisons were subjected to by being held in solitary confinement for weeks, months and even years at a time.

Nothing appeared to move the province’s various ministers of correctional services to implement controls on this cruel practice. Not a United Nations report stating that anything longer than 15 days in segregation amounted to torture. Not a study from provincial ombudsman Paul Dubé recommending a15-day limit. Not a demand from Ontario’s Human Rights Commission for an end to any length of solitary confinement, period.

Indeed, it emerged recently that one provincial prisoner, Adam Capay, had been kept in solitary under 24-hour-a-day lighting for more than four years while he awaited trial.

In fact, he was locked up under those inhumane circumstances last month even as Correctional Services Minister David Orazietti was hypocritically announcing a 15-day limit on the number of consecutive days prisoners can spend in segregation. So much for that promise.

Now, at last, there’s a positive sign that the province is serious about restricting the use of solitary confinement.

Orazietti has smartly named respected federal prisons watchdog and ombudsman Howard Sapers to review the use of segregation in prisons and deliver an interim report with recommendations within 60 days, with a final one due next spring.

Sapers, who begins work Jan. 1 when his 12-year term with the federal government is up, is primarily tasked with finding ways the government can reduce the number of people held in segregation and the length of time they spend there.

He will also look at alternatives to segregation for prisoners with acute mental-health issues, ways to ensure solitary confinement is used only in rare circumstances, and how to improve training and recruitment processes for prison staff.

Importantly, he will also advise the government on how to update legislation, regulations, policies and procedures. Hopefully that will ensure recommended changes are actually implemented and followed by prison managers.

All this is good news for the roughly 7 per cent of Ontario’s 8,000 inmates who are held in segregation at any given time, and the human rights experts who have been fighting on their behalf.

It’s been a long time coming, but the Wynne government is finally on track to reduce the inhumane overuse of solitary confinement in Ontario’s prisons. For that it should be commended.