Campaign for the Abolition of Solitary Confinement
Newsletter, January 2 2018
Lynn McDonald, co-founder
Next Meeting
To be held on January 11 2018, at 12 noon, Toronto. Please indicate, if you are not a regular attendee, if you can come; anyone who can take part by skype or conference call, please say. Info@abolishsolitary.ca
Quebec is a Distinct Society!
Two items demonstrate this: a class action lawsuit, Arlene Gallone vs AG of Canada, 2017, a Quebec woman released from (the federal) Joliette Prison for Women, after eight months of solitary. Her lawsuit aims at compensation, $10,000, for prisoners held in solitary for anything over 72 hours, as a violation of Canadian Charter of Rights and the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.
Then we finally have an editorial calling for the abolition (yes, the A-word), of solitary confinement, no, not the Toronto Star but the McGill Daily (“Canada Must End Solitary Confinement,” February 13 2017).
The Colorado Example: Can we use it?
Beginning in 2011, Colorado substantially reduced its use of administrative segregation from 1500 (or 7% of prison population) to 800, then by 2017 to 160. The state instituted, as a replacement, a Restrictive Housing Policy” for the most violent inmates, with programs to progress through and back to the general population. It eliminated administrative segregation for the mentally ill and eliminated indeterminate terms. By now less than 1% of the prison population is in Restrictive Housing.
The state eliminated direct release to the community from administrative segregation, for the sad reason that, in 2013, the then director of Corrections, Tom Clements, was assassinated by a prisoner who had been released on parole directly from many years of administrative segregation.
In Restrictive Housing, de-escalation rooms were established, with soothing music. No firm data are available on their success, but the director of Corrections, Rick Rameisch, explains that “many frontline workers report that these rooms seem to prevent incidents of offender-on-offender and offender-on-staff violence, as well as self-inflicted injuries.”
There have been no suicides so far in the new Restrictive Housing Unit (Rick Rameisch and Kellie Wasko, Open the Door -Segregation Reforms in Colorado. Dept of Corrections website). The director is convinced: “Our data has shown that the less you use it, the safer your facilities are, and that the safer your facilities are, the safer your community is once they get out” (J. Lantigua-Williams, “More Prisons Are Phasing Out the ‘Box’,” The Atlantic Dec 1 2016).
Campaign for the Abolition of Solitary Confinement
Newsletter, January 24 2018
Lynn McDonald, co-founder
Two excellent comment articles have come out on the recent legal decisions, by Lisa Kerr and (Senator) Kim Pate:
- B.C. solitary ruling: A bold move that may finally bring about change. Lisa Kerr, The Globe and Mail, 18 January 2018
- Segregation in prison must be banned. Kim Pate, The Globe and Mail, 22 January 2018
Next meeting
Next meeting date for the campaign is February 13, 2018 at 12 noon (419 Carlton St., free parking, 506 streetcar). Anyone wanting to take part by telephone or skype, please let us know: info@abolishsolitary.ca
Agenda
- Report on meeting with Citizen Advisory Board, Toronto South Detention Centre (January 25, 2018)
- Our next letter to the federal minister, the Hon Ralph Goodale in response to the Marrocco and Leask decisions (he will have to revise the bill they presented in June 2017, unless they appeal successfully)
- Review of Ontario situation, planned bill based on Sapers report.
Campaign for the Abolition of Solitary Confinement
Newsletter, November 2, 2018
Lynn McDonald, co-founder
The Campaign’s next meeting is on Friday, November 23, 2018, 12 noon, at Massey College, 4 Devonshire Pl., University of Toronto. Ian Waddell, visiting fellow, is our contact.
This is a lunch meeting (pay for your own).
- For those who already said they are coming, this is a reminder (Phyllis, Keith, Bev, Ian, Paul, Mary).
- If not on the list above, please say if you are coming — email a reply saying, yes, attending.
Agenda
- Federal: Response to Ralph Goodale’s Bill C-83; “structured intervention units” as constituting end of solitary????
- B.C.: Opportunity to press the new BC government to move to abolition
— report on comments by the Hon David Eby, Attorney-General (and taking advantage of Ian Waddell being with us) - Ontario: what next, with the new provincial government?
- Outreach: to organizations to advocate abolition
Note: At Massey College, meet at the Common Room, on the ground floor to the left, after entrance; then we will go upstairs to eat (if late, go to the dining room)
Press release from the BC Civil Liberties Association(November 13, 2018)
Release – Solitary confinement: rights organizations fight against federal government attempt to overturn solitary confinement victory
VANCOUVER (Coast Salish Territories) – Today and tomorrow, the BCCLA will be at the BC Court of Appeal to defend its historic win striking down the cruel federal solitary confinement regime as unconstitutional. Despite recently promising to end solitary confinement, the federal government continues to fight to overturn the court ruling that concluded that Canada’s current practices violate fundamental human rights.
“Why is the government dragging this back into court?” asked Josh Paterson, Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association, one of the plaintiffs in the successful court challenge that the federal government is seeking to overturn. “They say they want to end solitary confinement, and they even said in public that they wanted to end the litigation. Yet they are fighting to uphold this cruel practice.”
Courts in B.C. and Ontario concluded that Canada’s existing law on solitary confinement violates s. 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as it places prisoners at increased risk of self-harm and suicide and causes psychological and physical harm. The B.C. Court further held that that the laws are unconstitutional because they discriminate against the mentally ill and disabled, and against Indigenous prisoners. The B.C. Court held that the laws are unconstitutional in that they permit prolonged, indefinite solitary confinement, fail to provide independent review of segregation placements and deprive inmates of the right to counsel at segregation review hearings.
Neither organization is satisfied with the new legislation, Bill C-83, that the federal government has proposed to replace the law that has been struck down. Catherine Latimer, Executive Director of JHSC, stated: “The bill is just not good enough. There is no limit on time spent in the new form of isolation, called “Structured Intervention Units”. In addition, the Bill is missing a key feature that the BC Supreme Court found to be essential – an independent decision-maker, outside of the prison system, to review and make decisions on whether and how long prisoners should be held in isolation.”
BCCLA will appear before the B.C. Court of Appeal on Nov. 13 and 14.
BCCLA and JHSC are represented by Joseph Arvay, Q.C., and Alison Latimer of Arvay Finlay LLP, Vancouver.
Campaign for the Abolition of Solitary Confinement
Newsletter, April 25, 2019
Lynn McDonald, co-founder
April 25, 2019, by Lynn McDonald, co-founder
Federal: We sent a letter to the Minister for Community Safety, Hon. Ralph Goodale, in January. However, two court decisions have changed the situation, to the better.
The federal government lost its appeal on the Marrocco decision of 2018. Justice Mary Lou Benetto, writing for the court,
Campaign members met with Arif Virani, MP, Parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Justice in January, 2019.
Provincial: Justice Perell has certified a class action suit for inmates subjected to solitary confinement. The province is not opposing the certification.
Campaign for the Abolition of Solitary Confinement
Update: 16 January 2020
Yukon takes the first step
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 meets prescribed conditions.
We note that these measures are similar to those adopted by the previous Ontario government (under Premier Kathleen Wynne), but not implemented under the current (Doug Ford) government.
What next? The Campaign for the Abolition of Solitary Confinement looks to other provinces and territories to do at least as much. We would strongly urge that a ban on solitary for those under 25 be added to any legislation –young people can be harmed more by solitary, and as their brains are still developing, the damage can be long-term.
This is a start and we look forward to the next steps.
Next meeting date for the campaign Friday, February 7, 12 noon
at 33 Lombard St., 4004
Letter to B.C. ministers
Notes for meeting January 10, 2020
Yukon: The legislation adopted by Yukon late November was discussed, including how we can use it prompt other jurisdictions into going at least that far, desirably
B.C.: Myim Bakan Kline reported on his telephone conversation with the Hon David Eby, Attorney General (and his MLA), on getting solitary abolished in B.C. The minister explained that the government is looking at changes, which could be either legislated or by regulation. The Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, the Hon Mike Farnworthy, is in charge. On discussion, it was agreed that we would write ministers Farnworthy and Eby on what we hope will be achieved. At the minimum, we hope to see what Yukon has legislated, plus a ban on solitary for those under 25, and a lower limit to solitary than 15 days/60 days per year. See below.
Pro-bono legal assistance, Denton’s
Ian Morrison and Pauline Couture reported on the (excellent) work done by two articling students at Denton’s, under the supervision of Catherine Coulter, a partner. We now have a thick file by province and territory, setting out the relevant legislation, with notes on legal cases for that province or territory. Most are now available, B.C. and Ontario (the most cases) still to be completed.
Letter to B.C. ministers
Hon Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General
and Hon. David Eby, Attorney General
Dear Mr Farnworth and Mr Eby 16 January 2020
We were encouraged to hear that the B.C. government is looking at the issue of solitary confinement (separate confinement/segregation), possibly by legislation, possibly by regulation. Naturally we would prefer legislation, as it is harder to undo it when put into place than regulations.
You are aware that Yukon is the first jurisdiction to legislate limits on solitary: 15 days at any one time, a 5 day space between, and a maximum of 60 days over a 365-day period. This is the same as that legislated by the Ontario government in 2018, just before the provincial election that resulted in a change of government, hence no implementation. (The NDP supported the then Liberal government’s bill, the Progressive Conservatives, now the government, opposed it.)
The Yukon legislation is a start, but we hope that BC will go further, at the very least to add a complete ban for the use of solitary for those under 25, for young people are more likely than older to suffer long-term consequences of such isolation.
We would urge you to reduce the limits, say 10 days, for a maximum of 40 days per year. You perhaps realize that the 15-day limit, the “Mandela Rules,” is not based on any evidence that 15 days is a safe limit for solitary, that harm only occurs after it. The 15 days was evidently a compromise, for jurisdictions that had not had any limits. Nelson Mandela himself never proposed anything of the kind, but he was clear that solitary confinement was soul destroying.
Campaign for the Abolition of Solitary Confinement
Report by Lynn McDonald, co-founder
22 April 2020
Two good news items!!
In a decision 20 April 2020, by the Superior Court Judge Paul Perell, on the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act, 2019 (an issue not our concern here) upheld the class-action suit by Ontario inmates held in solitary—it will go ahead. In the course, Justice Perell made damning remarks about the use of solitary, even citing Orwell on “doublespeak” for calling solitary confinement “administrative segregation.” He called solitary a “dungeon within a prison” that causes “severe psychiatric harm” and is “grossly disproportionate to its stated purpose.”
Second, federal: ministers Bill Blair and David Lammetti announced the abandonment of the federal government’s appeal against two decisions (Ontario and B.C.) on solitary 15 days and over as “cruel and unusual punishment.” This is likely a tactical withdrawal: they feared a blistering decision by the Supreme Court of Canada denouncing the practice of solitary. We were rather looking forward to it!
Abandonment of the appeal, however, does not alter the fact that the federal government continues with its own “doublespeak,” by setting up “structured intervention units” to replace solitary, allowing inmates out 4 hours a day, two (if they get it) with “meaningful human contact.” Whether or not this is adequate to prevent suicides, attempts, mental illness and self-harm is not known. Significantly, there are no time limits in these “units.” The 15-day limit is NOT based on evidence; it was put forward by the United Nations, with acknowledgement that inmates can suffer lasting harm in only a few days. We know that Soleiman Faqiri died in 2016 on day 11 in solitary in an Ontario provincial prison.
Letter to the Ontario Attorney-General
Please reply if you wish to co-sign this letter. It is being sent to all people on our list, but we especially want people in Ontario to co-sign it. info@abolishsolitary.ca
Hon Doug Downey
Attorney-General of Ontario 22 April 2020
Dear Mr Downey
We were pleased to see, but hardly surprised by, the decision of Superior Court Judge Paul Perell on the government’s Crown Liability and Proceedings Act, 2019. Our concern is not with that law as such, but the ongoing use of solitary confinement, which the judgement describes as being a “dungeon within a prison” that causes “severe psychiatric harm” and is “grossly disproportionate to its stated purpose.” The judgement even cites Orwell that it is “doublespeak” to call solitary “administrative segregation.”
We urge the Government of Ontario NOT to appeal the decision but, finally, to see the light on solitary. Numerous court decisions have gone against its use and the federal government has just abandoned its appeal of two decisions (Ontario and B.C.) to the Supreme Court of Canada. This is doubtless a tactical retreat, to avoid a blistering decision by the SCC on solitary as “cruel and unusual punishment.”
That Indigenous persons are grossly over-represented in solitary (as they are in the prison population generally) was not a subject of this latest litigation, but is an ongoing shame. We call on the Government of Ontario to move to the abolition of solitary confinement. We expect that nothing less will suffice to end the decades-long tendency to send Indigenous inmates to solitary.
We note that Yukon has legislated a 15-day limit on the use of solitary, very much in line with the act adopted by the previous Ontario government but not in force here We recommend, as an immediate, intermediate step, that the province legislate a ban on the use of solitary for inmates with psychiatric illness, pregnant women and those who have recently given birth, inmates with physical disabilities and the young (under 25, those who suffer the worst long-term consequences of solitary). Limits of 15 days, or better still 10 days, then 5 days, should be put in place.
Yours sincerely