Response to Bill C-83
Written Testimony for abolishsolitary.caBy Leilah Mouna The conflict with this form of imprisonment lies not in finding faults in its positive attributes or disproving its fundamental purpose of rehabilitation. Rather, importance lies in proving that without doubt, the current and prolonged use of solitary confinement is morally and legally corrupt. In North America, home of liberty and human rights, over 80,000 prisoners are isolated in solitary confinement. We purposely inflict such lengthened isolation, when it has been proven to cause mental illness, physical harm, a decreased ability for inmates to become members of society again, and direct infringement against the Universal…
Comments on Bill C-83
Comments on Bill C-83, An Act to amend the Corrections and conditional Release Act and another Act, by the Campaign for the Abolition of Solitary Confinement, Paul Copeland, CM, LLB, life bencher, and Lynn McDonald, CM, PhD, LLD (hon, professor emerita. Introduction: Members of the Campaign for the Abolition of Solitary Confinement are unconvinced of the government’s claim that “structured intervention units” will bring about the abolition of solitary confinement as claimed by the minister, or come close to that goal. The language is different, but there is nothing to ensure that the new measures (1) will be implemented properly (too many loopholes…
Congratulations to Yukon
Campaign for the Abolition of Solitary Confinement | 15 January 2020 Congratulations to Yukon, the first jurisdiction in Canada to adopt firm, legislated, limits on the use of solitary confinement: 15 days, no more than 60 over a 365-day period, with a required 5 day break between any new imposition of solitary. These limits are consistent with the “Mandela rules” adopted by the United Nations. The Yukon law also bans the use of solitary for pregnant women and those who recently gave birth, those who are suicidal, chronically self-harming or have an intellectual disability or mobility impairment that meet prescribed conditions. We note that…
Parts of solitary confinement replacement law to come into effect Nov. 30
Marco Vigliotti | ipolitics.ca | 21 August 2019 Penitentiaries in Canada must adopt the Liberal government’s replacement for solitary confinement in November. Sections of a new federal law overhauling the rules for solitary confinement, known formally as administrative segregation, will come into force on Nov. 30, as dictated in an order-in-council approved by cabinet this month. They include provisions authorizing penitentiaries to establish structured intervention units (SIUs). According to the government, inmates placed in SIUs will still retain access to health care and rehabilitative programming, and are entitled to four hours outside of their cells daily, instead of two under the current system,…
To Ralph Goodale on Bill C-83
Hon Ralph Goodale, MPMinister of Public SafetyJanuary 29, 2019cc: all federal MPs Dear Mr Goodale We appreciated meeting with Arif Virani, MP, Parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, and understand that he has conveyed our views to you. We urge you to redraft Bill C-83. We do not believe that it will stand the test in court, and have every reason to believe that civil liberties organizations will take you to court on it. Yes, four hours out of cell sounds a lot better than one or two, and should reduce the number of suicides, attempts, mental deterioration and…
Obtaining citizenship through court decision
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What are the conditions for parole
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All applications for inheritance must now be filed with the court
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When the creditor’s passivity helps us get rid of the execution
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An Irish strategy for ending solitary confinement
Excerpted from ‘Behind the Door’: Solitary Confinement in the Irish Penal System. Irish Penal Reform Trust, 2018 1. Elimination of the use of solitary confinement: 1.1 The Minister for Justice and Equality should develop and consult on a Strategy for the Elimination of Solitary Confinement based upon principles of decarceration. 1.2 The Irish Prison Service should ensure, as a minimum, full compliance with the Mandela Rules and should amend its policy on ‘the elimination of solitary confinement’ (IPS, 2017) accordingly. 1.3 The Irish Prison Service should set the minimum out-of-cell time at 8 hours per day. Additionally, a target should be set of at least…
To Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety: 30 January 2018
2018-02-01 abolishsolitary Hon Ralph Goodale, MPMinister of Public Safety30 January 2018 re: Abolition of solitary confinement You and your staff, no doubt, as we, are studying the two recent decisions on solitary confinement (segregation). You will presumably redraft Bill C-56 before proceeding with it in the House, unless an appeal is planned. The Marrocco decision (December 18, 2017), under appeal by CCLA, was inconsistent and unsatisfactory in many respects, but it was clear that the damage of solitary begins as early as 48 hours. The evidence for this is strong, and even acknowledged in the UN Special Rapporteur’s landmark statement of 2011. Yet the federal…
To Ralph Goodale and Members of Parliament
Solitary confinement: harm reduction is better than nothing, but not good enough We are pleased to see the announcement of the Hon Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety, that new legislation (Bill C-56) will be introduced this fall to limit, albeit with serious exceptions, the use of solitary confinement in federal prisons. The proposed limit of 21 days (later to be reduced to 15 days) will prevent some suicides and some mental deterioration, but why not do the job better? The proposal falls far short of UN recommendations, which include a 60-day limit in solitary in any year, as well as the…
To the Globe and Mail, 9 June 2017: “Ban Solitary Outright”
The Globe and Mail June 9 2017 Your editorial clearly sets out the inconsistencies, hypocrisy and injustices of solitary confinement. We agree with it also in its support for Howard Sapers’s recommendations for excluding the mentally ill and juveniles. However, his recommended cap on solitary (15 days at a time, 60 days total in a year) is based on a UN Report of 2011, which itself was a compromise. Evidence continues to mount that solitary causes harm even in shorter stays. Independent oversight would be better than the current wide-open discretion accorded prison managers. You call for “getting those minimum standards right” and…
To Hon. Ralph Goodale MP, Minister of Public Safety (with reply)
Hon Ralph Goodale, MPJune 7, 2017 Dear Mr Goodale We are pleased to see Correctional Services Canada conferring with equivalent provincial jurisdictions on reforming solitary confinement. We will not repeat the reasons for reform being needed at all levels – they are well known. Our point is to call for adequate reform – the abolition of solitary confinement – not merely the caps proposed by Howard Sapers (following the UN report of 2011) and other safeguards (albeit better than the status quo). Our prison system, at all levels, has rehabilitation as its goal; most prisoners will get out and their time inside should help…
Dr. Ruth Elwood Martin speaks with Georgia Straight about solitary confinement
Interview with CCPHE Director Dr. Ruth Martin in a 2014 Georgia Straight article “Correctional Service Canada ignores repeated calls for reform on solitary confinement,” the third and final article in a 3-part series: Part 3: Correctional Service Canada ignores repeated calls for reform on solitary confinement Part 1: Deaths in solitary confinement prompt BC Coroner’s Inquest and calls for reform Part 2: Mentally ill inmates increasingly held in solitary confinement in Canadian prisons…