New probe into use of segregation

Ombudsman to investigate after surge in complaints

A dramatic rise in complaints about inmates in segregation — including murder suspect Adam Capay at the Thunder Bay jail — has prompted Ontario’s new ombudsman to launch an investigation.

Paul Dubé said Friday he will probe “how the province tracks and reviews” the placement of prisoners in solitary confinement, given that there have been175 complaints since April alone.

That compares with 186 in the preceding 12 months, said Dubé, whose staff recently visited Capay, a young aboriginal man who spent more than four years in solitary confinement awaiting trial after a series of delays in his case.

Roughly 7 per cent of Ontario’s 8,000 inmates are placed in segregation for safety, disciplinary or medical reasons — although prisoners can be segregated indefinitely over safety or health concerns.

Capay was charged with firstdegree murder in the maximum security Thunder Bay Correctional Centre after fellow inmate Sherman Quisses was stabbed in the neck in a jailhouse confrontation and bled to death in June 2012.

Controversy over Capay’s lengthy time in solitary, prompted Correctional Services Minister David Orazietti to announce in October that the time inmates could be held in segregation for disciplinary reasons was being cut in half to 15 days and used only as a “last resort.”

Capay, 23, was moved to a standard cell five weeks ago.

New Democrat corrections critic Jennifer French said she looks forward to the ombudsman’s report and expects ‘the Liberal government to take immediate action to oversee and limit the use of all forms of segregation in the province’s jails.”