A class action lawsuit has been certified in Quebec that alleges federal prisons are abusing a practice known as âadministrative segregation,â which the lawsuitâs backers call âsolitary confinement.â
Former federal inmate Arlene Gallone is representing the prisoners. Her suit seeks financial compensation for all mentally ill prisoners exposed to the practice, along with all prisoners who were segregated for 72 hours or more, over a particular three-year period.
Gallone, who went to the Joliette Institution for Women after being convicted in an armed robbery, says she spent two three-month stretches in âthe holeâ as punishment for alleged infractions.
Gallone says she is still negatively affected by memories from her time in segregation.
âImagine being locked up with no windows in your room, no nothing, they feed you through a trap in the door,â she said.
Gallone says she couldnât receive phone calls, was never told in advance how long she would be separated from the other prisoners and that the windows in her cell were blocked so she couldnât see out.
âI donât know how I got through it, honestly,â she said. âThere was times when I just wanted to finish it. I just wanted to get it over with. I was like, âWhat is the point of me even being alive?ââ
Her lawyer, Clara Poissant-Lesperance, says that Correctional Service Canada uses segregation as a management tool when it should only be used in emergencies.
Clara Poissant-Lesperance called it ânot human,â and pointed to research showing it can lead to lost appetites, anxiety and distress.
Jason Godin, from the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, says that solitary confinement doesnât exist in Canada and that âregular programmingâ and psychological services are available to âadministratively-segregatedâ prisoners.
âOnly difference is,â according to Godin, âtheyâre moved away from other populations for their own safety or the safety of others.â
Godin warns against taking away a âtoolâ that he says is used as a last resort and makes prisons safer.
âOur institutions are managing on any given day over 2,000 gang members in our system,â he said. âSo you try to get them all getting along in one spot or another.â
Godin added that the union has been unable to convince the Correctional Service of Canada to provide âalternative toolsâ which might reduce use of segregation, such as âa special handling unit for high-risk women offenders who self-harm, who are aggressive and who have mental health issues.â
The issue has also made headlines in Ontario recently, after it was revealed late last year that accused murderer Adam Capay had spent
In his 2014-15 former Office of the Correctional Investigator Howard Sapers wrote that segregation âis so overused that nearly half (48 per cent) of the current inmate population has experienced segregation at least once during their present sentence.â
He pointed out that the UN Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment recommends solitary confinement in excess of 15 days be prohibited.
Sapers noted that although there are mandated procedural reviews of segregation that take place at the five-day, 30-day and 60-day marks, there are âno legal limits on how long an inmate can be held in administrative segregation.â
In his mandate letter to Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked her to implement changes to the âuse of solitary confinement and the treatment of those with mental illnessâ in prisons.
The Correctional Service of Canada said, in response to Sapersâ report, that it was working on a strategy âto reduce the reliance on segregation by creating better options and finding more innovative alternatives for safe reintegration.â
With a report from CTV Montreal