Liberals propose “entirely different” approach to solitary confinement in federal jails

The Liberal government has proposed to overhaul the existing system of solitary confinement for federal prisoners.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale introduced a piece of legislation Tuesday morning that represents what he calls an “entirely different” approach to how to separate certain inmates from the larger population within federal prisons.

The highest courts in B.C. and Ontario ruled within the past year that prolonged solitary confinement is unconstitutional. The Liberals’ new proposal comes in the aftermath of these decisions.

The new bill is also meant to carry out recommendations made by a coroner’s inquest into the 2007 death of 19-year-old Ashley Smith at the Grand Valley Institution for Women located in Kitchener, Ontario.

Smith strangled herself to death in an isolation cell while her guards videotaped her. The guards later explained that they were under strict orders not to enter her cell. Smith’s death was eventually ruled as a homicide.

The newly proposed legislation, or Bill C-83, is meant to reform the existing Corrections and Release Act. It would place prisoners who can’t exist safely with other inmates inside “structured intervention units” (SIUs), where they are still alone, but have regular access to rehabilitative programs and daily visits from healthcare and mental health professionals.

The bill also increases the time inmates are allowed to spend outside of their cells from two to four hours per day. Additionally, they’d also be allowed two hours per day of “meaningful human contact.”

“The key word here is ‘intervention,’ whereas under the other system it’s, ‘segregation,’” Goodale said to reporters Tuesday afternoon. “So the whole system has been inverted, if you will.”

“The criticisms of administrative segregation [solitary confinement] was because of the very limited access to human beings in any meaningful portions of the day,” Goodale said. “That’s being changed now by the new approach.”

Calling the proposed changes “urgent,” Goodale noted that the broader goal is to prevent released inmates from breaking the law and getting locked up again.

The closest thing to a globally accepted definition of solitary confinement is contained in the 2015 United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, other wise known as the “Nelson Mandela rules.”

In it, solitary confinement refers to “the confinement of prisoners for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact.” Strictly speaking, the Liberals’ proposed SIU system still falls within this definition, since it only allows for two hours of such contact per day and no more.

“I think this is an important bill in that it seems to shows that Canada is waking up to that fact that solitary confinement must end,” said Grace Pastine, Litigation Director at the BC Civil Liberties Association. But she also warned that it’s still too early to know exactly what the bill will look like after a period of debate.

“It’s true that solitary confinement costs too much, does nothing to rehabilitate prisoners, and exacerbates mental illness,” she said. “But will this bill actually result in meaningful change? We don’t know yet.”

Pastine also points out that Bill C-83 gives segregated inmates the “ opportunity” to access time outside along with two hours of meaningful human contact, and that it’s still unclear exactly what that means in practice.

Bill C-83 proposes a number of other changes, including allowing prison officials to use body scanners to search for contraband on inmates rather than conducting strip or cavity searches. It also increases health services for all inmates, as well as providing them with broader access to patient advocacy services meant to keep them informed of their healthcare rights.

The term “Indigenous” would also replace “Aboriginal” throughout the Act, and all correctional decisions for Indigenous inmates must be made with background and systemic factors in mind.

Victims who attend the parole hearings can request to access audio recordings of the proceedings after the fact.

Cover image of Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Ralph Goodale on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa on Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press