Watchdog Tells Canada to Stop Locking Mentally Ill Patients in Solitary Confinement

Canada's correctional investigator wants to see limits on the use of solitary confinement in the country's jails and more attention paid to the disproportionately high rates of Aboriginal prisoners — who now make up one quarter of all federal inmates.

The use of solitary confinement, also known as segregation, is a main focus of a new report from Howard Sapers, Canada's prison watchdog, who recommends that segregation of mentally ill inmates be stopped, that a 30-day limit be placed on segregation stays and that administrative segregation no longer be used as an alternative to discipline.

"Locking a person up, 23 hours a day, for prolonged periods of time, in a space about the size of an average bathroom with limited interaction is a risky and damaging practice," Sapers said. "The law is clear — segregation should be used sparingly."

So-called "administrative segregation" is supposed to be used for the security of a penitentiary or the safety of a prisoner, but is not meant to be a form of punishment, according to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.

Sapers also points out that while disciplinary segregation requires due process, includes safeguards and a 30-day maximum, there are no regulations for administrative segregation.

"One of the most disturbing elements in the evolving administrative segregation framework is that it is used as a punitive measure to circumvent the more onerous due process requirements of the disciplinary segregation system," Sapers said in the report.

Kim Pate, executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, would like to see an end to the use of segregation, especially for people with mental health issues and women, many of have mental health issues and a history of abuse.

The United Nations has said that segregating a prisoner for more than 15 days is torture, Pate said.

"If 15 days is torture, anything less than that is cruel and unusual punishment," she said.

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As of March 2015, almost half of all prisoners — 48 percent — had been in segregation. In 2014-15, 26 percent of male inmates and 25 percent of female inmates had been in segregation that year. One-third of Aboriginal inmates had been in segregation, the report states.

Inmates with behavioral, cognitive or mental health issues were more likely to be placed on administrative segregation, with more than 20 percent also having spent time in a psychiatric hospital.

Between 2014 and 2015, there were 209 placements in disciplinary segregation compared to 8,309 placements in administrative segregation and the average stay in administrative segregation is more than double that of disciplinary segregation, the report states.

Segregation of mentally ill inmates — an issue that gained prominence in Canada with the case of Ashley Smith, a teenager who died by self inflicted strangulation while under suicide watch in a penitentiary — was cause for concern in Sapers report. He called the Correction Services of Canada's response to her death while in custody "frustrating and disappointing."

Sapers recommends that more be done to identify prisoners at risk of self harm and overall improvements to access to mental health care.

Pate thinks major changes need to made to how mental health issues are handled. Correctional officers aren't expected to know how to appropriately handle medical conditions like cancer, but that isn't the case with mental health.

"We need to have people taken out (of prison) for mental health reasons, not left in prison languishing or left in segregation or self injuring or committing suicide" she said.

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Sapers also wants more attention be paid to the increasing number of Aboriginal people in custody.

While the overall prison population jumped by 10 percent between 2005 and 2015, the number of Aboriginal inmates ballooned by 50 percent. Indigenous people make up less than 5 percent of Canada, and yet represent 25 percent of the people in jail, the report found.

"The issues that give rise to their disproportionate rates of incarceration require far more attention from our federal correctional service as it manages the sentences of Indigenous men and women," Sapers said.

The report states that Aboriginal prisoners are especially overrepresented in segregation and maximum security facilities and are more likely to return to custody. They are also more likely to be convicted of violent crimes and be released later in their sentence.

Sapers recommends a report about the impact of Aboriginal social history and its influence on correctional decisions be released and followed by an action plan.

Pate says there needs be more of a focus on finding ways to have Aboriginal people, especially women, serve their sentence in their communities where they have access to more supports to help them once they've completed their sentence.

Other issues discussed in the report include the aging prison population and access to health care.

Follow Nicole Riva on Twitter: @NicoleRiva