The federal government is imposing a cap of 15 days on\u00a0holding prisoners in solitary confinement, but some say the move is not enough\u00a0to meet the international bar for human rights.<\/p>\n
Under a new bill tabled in the House of Commons Monday, Correctional Service Canada will have an 18-month transition period, during which time the cap will be set at 21 days, after it passes in to law.<\/p>\n
“The objective is to contain that to the absolute minimum. I don’t believe that should be part of our process. We’re moving away from it,” Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale\u00a0told CBC News Network’s\u00a0Power Politics\u00a0in an interview with host Rosemary Barton.<\/p>\n
He said the bill is part of an overall move by the government to\u00a0address issues related to inmates with mental illness, the over-representation of Indigenous people behind bars and the overuse of segregation\u00a0with policy, legal reforms, and budgetary spending.<\/p>\n
Proposed time limits are subject to safety and security requirements, as well as ensuring reasonable alternatives are available.<\/p>\n
Under the new legal regime, an independent external process will review when a prisoner is kept in segregation beyond the presumptive time limit, or if an inmate is placed in segregation\u00a0for 90 cumulative days in a one-year period, more than 3 times in a year when the\u00a021-day limit has been extended due to circumstances such as security.<\/p>\n
Mary Campbell, a criminal justice expert and\u00a0former director general of the corrections and\u00a0criminal\u00a0justice directorate at Public Safety Canada, said the United Nations has established 15 days as the limit, yet the Liberals are phasing in with a 21-day cap.<\/p>\n
“Are we legalizing torture for another two years? I think we can do better than that,” she said.<\/p>\n
Calls for tighter restrictions over solitary confinement grew louder after the\u00a0high-profile inquest into the death of teen prisoner Ashley Smith.Smith died in a segregated prison cell at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in\u00a0Kitchener, Ont., in 2007. A coroner’s jury ruled that her self-inflicted choking death was a homicide and made 104 recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some critics and prisoners’ advocates\u00a0have demanded a total ban on segregation, calling it cruel and unusual punishment.<\/p>\n
The bill also includes a new provision to reinstate an offender’s right to an oral hearing by the Parole Board of Canada after a suspension, termination or revocation of parole or statutory release. It would also make offenders who committed an offence before March 28, 2011, and who met the previous criteria for an accelerated parole review, now eligible.<\/p>\n
Monday’s announcement comes just weeks before a lawsuit challenging the practice of solitary confinement was scheduled to go to trial on July 4. The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, which launched the legal action, is not commenting because\u00a0the case is set to begin.<\/p>\n