On October 13 of last year, a week before the federal election, Correctional Service of Canada introduced its  staff to 12 solitary confinement reforms, part of a response to the Ashley Smith coroner’s inquest two years ago.  But, prison reform advocates say the changes do little to address numerous systemic flaws, and claim CSC has sidestepped the 104 recommendations made by the coroner’s jury.

Justin Trudeau issued a ministerial mandate letter a few weeks after becoming prime minister, calling for the implementation of all jury recommendations, specifically those concerning “solitary confinement and the treatment of inmates with mental illness.”  In late December, public safety minister Ralph Goodale reiterated the government’s intention to go beyond CSC’s current reform policies.

There is a snag, however.  Julian Falconer has said the current CSC leadership will stonewall any attempt to make substantive changes.  A Google search justifies a description of Mr. Falconer as one of Canada’s top human rights lawyers.  Jennifer Oates, former CSC Deputy Commissioner for Women, accuses CSC of having an inflexible attitude.  Lisa Kerr, assistant professor in the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University, who specializes in prison law and sentencing, adds her voice to the criticism of the prison agency.  These three are only part of a chorus of calls for major shifts in Canada’s federal penal system.

In spite of the CSC claim that the use of segregation/solitary confinement is in decline, Julian Falconer insists “they have an inbred cultural resistance to change”, and focuses his attention on current Commissioner Don Head.  Long ago, we concluded Correctional Service of Canada is abusive, dishonest, morally and ethically corrupt, and a blot on the landscape of this country.  A letter to Ralph Goodale puts in our two cents:

January 29, 2016

The Honourable Ralph Goodale,
Minister of Public Safety,
House of Commons,
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0A6

Re;      “Federal prison agency makes changes to segregation policy”
Globe and Mail, Tuesday, December 22, 2015
“Inmate segregation in decline, CSC says”
Globe and Mail, Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Dear Minister Goodale:

“…..any political leadership that is looking to actually implement serious change would be wasting tax dollars if they put Mr. Head in charge of that change,” so said Julian Falconer in response to the present government’s intention to act on the Smith inquest recommendations.

CSC did not need Ashley Smith or Edward Snowshoe’s experience in segregation to tell it things were seriously amiss in our federal prison system.

CSC did not need Ashley Smith and Edward Snowshoe’s death to show it drastic changes were overdue.

CSC did not need an inquest’s recommendations to point it in the direction it was to take.

CSC has never needed any more than the will to act.  This it does not have.  This it will not have…….until the management team at 340 Laurier Avenue West is swept away in favour of enlightened, progressive revisionists.

Yours truly,

Charles H. Klassen

cc         Jody Wilson-Raybould,
Howard Sapers
Don Head
Chris Hill

We should all spend a few hours once each year watching the proceedings in our municipal council chambers, or sitting in the gallery of our provincial and federal legislative assemblies. It would be just as important to spend a half day in a courtroom….any courtroom. Noble intentions like these are pipe-dreams for the most part, but we need be encouraged nonetheless to monitor the people we place in positions of trust and authority.

We spent most of a day in mid-January in Toronto’s College Park 501 Court which is reserved for bail applications. We watched man after man from the Toronto South Detention Centre, Ontario’s notoriously ineptly run super-jail, comment (note we did not say ‘complain’) about lockdowns, no showers for days, no lawyers, no visitors, and no meds. One lawyer had his client brought up in person, not only to hold over the process to another date, but to have the Court intervene with the jail to have the man’s heart medications available.

Jail workers claim these lockdowns are primarily caused by staff shortages, and this is one of the concerns borne out in Patrick White’s Globe and Mail “Ontario indicates that major prison-system changes are in the works”, published on Saturday, January 16th of this year. According to available figures, the union representing staff say there were more than 900 lockdowns in Ontario’s provincial jails in 2014 because of staff shortages. At the same time, that figure is zero in some other provinces.

The Toronto South experience during 2015 suggests that staff shortages in the summer occurred mostly on the weekends, when too many guards called in sick and left the institution short-handed. To some, this was a union-mandated ploy to draw attention to its cause; to others, it was “barbecue-itis”, an inmate designation.

Yasir Naqvi, Ontario’s minister responsible for jails, is calling for some welcome reforms to address the issues which have brought the system to a low regard. Perhaps the most intriguing to us are statistics that show the number of pre-trial inmates in the system currently make up 60% of the jail population, compared to 30% a decade ago. “We don’t deal with capacity issues by building more jails, but by reducing the demand for jails,” according to Minister Naqvi. Mental-health care, and health care in general, are on his list for attention too, after the staffing shortage is addressed.

We can hope the minister’s resolve to push forward his reforms in the prison file are more substantive than his efforts to eliminate police ‘carding’. We’ve written Yasir Naqvi to offer our encouragement……….

January 23, 2016

The Honourable Yasir Naqvi,
Minister of Community Services & Correctional Services,
18th Floor, George Drew Building,
25 Grosvenor Street,
Toronto, ON M7A 1Y6

Re: “Ontario indicates that major prison-system changes are in the works”
Globe and Mail, Saturday, January 16, 2016

Dear Minister Naqvi:

I spent most of a day last week in College Park 501 Court (bail applications) to update my observations on the state of the process in Ontario.

Man after man was called up from Toronto South Detention Centre, commenting about lockdowns, no showers, no lawyers, no visits, no meds. Access to lawyers and medications in particular should raise red flags in your Ministry, given the potential liability the provinces faces for damages.

Ontario has a way to go to match operational standards in some other provinces. Too, your intention to reduce the need for jails is both ambitious and warranted.

Be bold!

Yours truly,

Charles H. Klassen

Back in July of 2014, the Globe and Mail reported that our federal prison system was using solitary confinement beyond UN recommendations, at the same time other jurisdictions understood the negative impact of isolating prisoners and were moving away from it. Correctional Service of Canada, under Commissioner Don Head, paid lip service to prohibiting the practice “in principle”, but were making no move to change.

Our July 14 letter to Mr. Head criticized the lack of action and suggested new policies could be in place within 72 hours under his direction. In response, a two-page letter from Assistant Commissioner Scott Harris attempted to sidestep the matter by defining solitary confinement as something different from CSC segregation policies. This is one of those examples we often hear of CSC employees looking one straight in the eye and lying without batting a lash. We more or less told Mr. Harris that when his letter was answered on August 23.

Forward to “Great! But, will they comply?”, published on November 18 of this year.

Assistant Commissioner Harris again wrote us:

December 1, 2015

Dear Mr. Klassen:

Thank you for your correspondence of November 18, 2015, addressed to the Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), Mr. Don Head, in which you express concerns regarding his testimony at a Senate Committee hearing in March 2015.

At the onset, I would like to clarify that the Commissioner/s testimony before the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology on March 12, 2015, related to Bill S-208, An Act to Establish the Canadian Commission on Mental Health and Justice and not specific to the case of federal inmate Edward Snowshoe.

As I previously explained in my letter dated July 30, 2014, administrative segregation is often compare to solitary confinement and segregation as recognized in Canada.

For more information on federal corrections, including administrative segregation, please consult the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA), the Corrections and Conditional Release Regulations (CCRR), and Commissioner’s Directive 709: Administrative Segregation, all of which can be found on CSC’s website at the following link: http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/acts-and-regulations/index-eng.shtml.

Thank you for taking the time to write

Sincerely,

Scott Harris
Assistant Commissioner
Communications and Engagement Sector

And again, we responded:

December 16, 2015

Scott Harris, Assistant Commissioner,
Communications and Engagement Sector,
Correctional Service of Canada,
340 Laurier Avenue West,
Ottawa, ON K1A 0P9

Assistant Commissioner Harris:

I’m as baffled today by your December 1st letter as I was when writing on August 23 last year in answer to the July 30th letter you referenced.

When any person or persons employed by Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) removes an inmate to isolation in an institution, confines that inmate to a cell for 23 hours per day or more, and where that inmate is without property previously in their possession, access to programs and/or jobs, and the contacts with population and staff they had prior to the move, that is solitary confinement. You may call it by whatever name you wish, and categorize and sub-categorize it ‘til the cows come home, but it is and always will be solitary confinement.

The government’s intent is to restrict this practice of isolating prisoners, and so it should, in spite of what will no doubt be the protests of CSC’s NHQ. The prime minister and his justice minister may in the end need to appoint at-arms-length compliance officers deputized to enforce PMO instructions without recourse to appeal or delay, as counterpoint to a recalcitrant bureaucracy.

However this will unfold, there are many of us in the community who will be watching.

Yours truly,

Charles H. Klassen
cc Justin Trudeau
Jody Wilson-Raybould
turnoverarocktoday.com

Sadly, controlling the civil service is like herding cats. It can take more resources than most people are willing to give, and some circumstances leave us suffering unnecessarily.

“Liberals to curtail solitary confinement” ran over Patrick White’s byline in the Globe and Mail’s Saturday, November 14 edition. The story was subtitled, “Trudeau directs Justice Minister ban long-term isolation and implement recommendations from inquest into Ashley Smith’s death.”

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the John Howard Society filed a January suit claiming solitary confinement contributes to prisoners’ deaths, indiscriminately targets mentally ill and aboriginal inmates, and is unconstitutional. Separately, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies also filed a lawsuit asserting the federal practice is unconstitutional.

Don Head, Correctional Service Canada Commissioner, denied federal prisons use ‘solitary confinement’ when he testified last March at a Senate Committee hearing into the death of Edward Snowshoe. Mr. Head is full of bovine excrement! A short letter copied below tells him so.

The move would bring Canada into line with guidelines set down by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and the direction both the United Kingdom and the United States are taking. Needless to say, it also reverses the so-called ‘tough on crime’ agenda of the previous government.

“This is a good start,” according to Howard Sapers, our federal inmate ombudsman. But, like him, before we celebrate an end to our medieval penal practices under a new and enlightened Liberal government, let’s remember that while it is one thing to order change, it may be quite another for a sometimes obstreperous civil service to enthusiastically carry out those orders.

November 18, 2015

Don Head, Commissioner,
Correctional Service Canada,
340 Laurier Avenue West,
Ottawa, ON K1A 0P9

Re: Liberals to curtail solitary confinement
Globe and Mail, Saturday, November 18, 2015

Commissioner Head:

You testified at a Senate Committee hearing last March into the death of federal inmate Edward Snowshoe.

“The term ‘solitary confinement’, which has been used in the medial quite a bit, actually refers to something different than what we do in Canada,” you were quoted by the Globe as saying at this hearing.

Mr. Head, you are full of bovine excrement!

Very truly,

Charles H. Klassen

cc turnoverarocktoday.com

Toronto’s Star and Globe both ran front pages on August 20 covering Ontario’s Advocate for Children and Youth’s 78 page review of practices in the province’s juvenile prisons, focusing in particular on the use of solitary confinement. While this research paper is likely the first of its kind in the country, the recommendations are far from new and the government bodies involved have been presented with similar and like material in the past.

As the advocate noted, if parents treated their children in the same way the juvenile penal system often does, the province would be apprehending those kids. “On what planet who would think that that kind of treatment of anyone, let alone a young person, would help?” is how chief advocate Irwin Elman characterized the use of solitary confinement in some cases. Other issues also surfaced, none a surprise to a seasoned observer.

We’ve argued that our politicians and their principal civil service staffers can’t know what goes on in the trenches, and apparently don’t want to know. Deniability ensures tenure. Just as strongly we’ve made the point that, up and down the line, our penal systems’ primary programming appears to stress job guarantees.

August 21, 2015

The Honourable Tracy MacCharles,
Ministry of Children & Youth Services,
14th Floor,
56 Wellesley Street West,
Toronto, ON M5S 2S3

Re: Advocate of Children &Youth report

Dear Minister MacCharles:

“Go clean your room!”
How many times would you expect to say that to a child before the work actually gets done?
The children/youth advocate’s new report on the use of solitary confinement in youth detention centres makes a number of recommendations. This is far from the first time your ministry has seen the same or like proposals, and while incremental improvements are in place, there’s still a long way to go. Your response calls for a yet another “thorough review”.
My suggestion? “Go clean your room.”
You’re aware too you have some civil servants in our detention centres, living off the public purse, who are contravening ministry policy, and even violating the law. Yet, they’re still on the payroll.
Again, “Go clean your room.”

Yours truly,

Charles H. Klassen
cc Kathleen Wynne

A few years ago, a federal prison inmate in British Columbia asked for permission to buy a $20 thesaurus. He was taking an educational program where this would help, and although the prison library had a thesaurus, this inmate wanted to have a copy handy for work in the off hours. The institution denied him.

He spoke with a fellow inmate, a certified paralegal, they took Correctional Service of Canada to court and in August of 2010, a judge in a federal court in B.C. found in favour of the inmate. The legal costs for this inmate and his paralegal representative were less than $100. The cost to you for government lawyers to defend CSC was $9028.45.

This is one of scores of similar cases where you are spending your tax dollars to protect a system in need of a ground-up overhaul. Almost all never get media attention.

The Globe and Mail’s July 18, 2015 edition published Sean Fine’s “Thousands of inmates could join lawsuit.” Mr. Fine is one of the papers justice writers, and his story is focused on a 34 year-old federal prisoner with emotional and mental health concerns who is at the centre of a $600-million class-action lawsuit claiming “Canada’s use of solitary confinement and lack of timely access to prescription drugs violate the rights of the mentally ill.” The inmate is in Edmonton Institution but the action was filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Friday, July 18. It could take several months for the court to decide to certify the lawsuit, authorizing it to go forward.

This article goes on to lay out the details for the basis of the claim, citing negligence and breach of the government’s duties toward mentally ill prisoners. It’s not a pretty picture. James Sayce, a Toronto lawyer connected to the action, points out that, “The extreme injuries that these individuals have suffered should be compensated. The fact that they’ve made mistakes in their lives, committed crimes, doesn’t give the government carte blanche to treat them as it sees fit.”

Don’t lose sight of the bigger picture. Just as you spent $9,000 to prevent an inmate from bettering himself, and will spend a great deal more to face the challenge outlined in this potential class action, these are but two of many, many legal entanglements Correctional Service of Canada is juggling. Even turnoverarocktoday is supporting a claim……see Justice for Brennan Guigue.

Just how much do you want to spend on lawyers before we insist CSC turn a corner toward a more enlightened approach to rebuilding lives?

Contrasting perspectives:

“Ottawa tightens prison visit rules in drug crackdown”, appeared on the Toronto Star’s Sunday July 5 front page. The federal prison system’s new rules for preventing contraband from getting into institutions loosened the justifications that permit guards to conduct searches of anyone coming into a prison.

Taken at face value, the revised policy seems a reasonable response to relieve a perceived problem, although the degree of subjectivity presents opportunities for legal challenges. What is implied though is the enhanced procedures introduced in stages over the last many years have not had the impact Correctional Service of Canada and the government intended. In other words, tighter and tighter enforcement has failed.

What this article further suggests is the Canadian government’s ongoing focus on punitive measures rather than restorative programming is expensive, ineffective, and counter-productive.

Then, a few pages into the front section of that same Star edition was another item, “Obama will free dozens of inmates.” The president’s clemency power primarily affects non-violent drug offenders. This action strikes a blow against mandatory minimum sentencing and the so-called tough-on-crime agenda prevalent in the States for so long. Obama will likely free more before his term of office finishes next year.

The President of the United States is not a renegade. The U.S. is moving in the opposite direction to the course this country set many years ago under the current federal government. He’s doing it with the support of many in his own party, as well as a solid Republican base, and most of the Western World is in sync. Why are we so out of step?

As the title asks, how many times can you be conned?

Toronto Star reporter Amy Dempsey published “Jails flouting new rules on solitary” in the paper’s June 22 edition.

Christina Jahn spent more than 200 days in solitary during 2011 and 2012 at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, without help for cancer or mental illness. In a 2013 financial settlement with Jahn, Ontario’s Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services also committed to updating its prisoner handbook to include the rights of inmates in solitary, and to proactively distribute the handbook to them. Jahn had refused a cash settlement alone, and insisted that remedies had to be part of any agreement because she hoped it would improve conditions for other inmates.

The terms of the remedies are mandatory. Nevertheless, when the Toronto Star reviewed the updated 30 page document it found a glaring omission: it contained no information about the rights of prisoners in solitary which was central to the required update. As a result, the ministry agreed to a separate handout for inmates sent to segregation, and was to begin distribution in March of 2015 while the handbook was in another revision.

Despite direct orders from the ministry, some Ontario jails are failing to follow instructions.

And so, for the second time the ministry has been accused of breaching the terms of its agreement with Jahn. Her lawyers are taking legal action against the province and asking the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario to declare that MCSCS has contravened the settlement by not taking the required actions, and is seeking $1,500 damages for each alleged violation.

In the meantime, Jahn’s cancer is now terminal, and she is not available for comment.
We’ve added an observation of our own:-

June 23, 2015

Steven Small, Assistant Deputy Minister,
Ministry of Community Safety & Correctional Services,
18th Floor,
George Drew Building, 25 Grosvenor Street,
Toronto, ON M7A 1Y6

Re: Jails flouting new rules on solitary, inmates say
Toronto Star, Amy Dempsey, June 22, 2015

Deputy Minister Small:

From your March 23 memo to Ontario jail superintendents, referring to the segregation handout:
“(It) is mandatory that all inmates being placed into segregation be provided with this handout effective immediately.”

Well, I can tell you that as of this week, inmates moved into segregation at the Toronto South Detention Centre are NOT getting this handout.

What’s more, inmates in provincial institutions are often angered by activists like me when speaking about policies that are not followed. What we don’t get, it’s been claimed, is that rules and regulations, policies and procedures….and even the law…..mean nothing to any number of MCSCS front-line staffers. They do as they please….with impunity.

They do as they please because management will not manage, and the Ministry’s priority is to keep the lid on whatever might disturb the peace.

Yours truly,

Charles Klassen

There were 2.2 million people incarcerated in the U.S. in 2013. There were 1.6 million people incarcerated in China in 2014.

Does the United States have the safest neighbourhoods on earth? What is your nightly news telling you?

Daniel Dale is the Washington Bureau Chief for the Toronto Star, and on May 23rd the paper published “U.S. criminal justice reform gains momentum” under his byline. It continues the saga of a years-long push by both Republicans and Democrats to dump the weathered, worn and discredited tough-on-crime agenda prevalent in American jurisprudence and public opinion since the 1990s for a ‘smart-on-crime’ and ‘right-on-crime’ alternative.

Some argue that for Republicans in particular, money is the motivation. It costs more for the State to kill a person than it does to keep them in prison for life. State spending on corrections in 1990 was 16.9 billions of dollars; by 2013 the figure was 51.9 billion. Regardless, change is coming, and while Washington may not lead the way in spite of the consensus among federal lawmakers, change is coming notably fast at the state level, especially in conservative-led states.

The movement is making for odd bedfellows. The conservative billionaire Koch brothers, liberal billionaire George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Rand Paul, Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton are all standing for justice and prison reforms. Even Ted Cruz believes mandatory minimums should be slashed and judges granted more flexibility. He wants government to stop creating new crimes, and it should make the plea bargain fairer by forcing prosecutors to disclose evidence helpful to the accused.

Is it any wonder countries like New Zealand, Australia, the U.S.A., and the United Kingdom have been looking askance at Canada over the last few years? When you point a gun at your foot and pull the trigger, you will shoot yourself in the foot. It seems a lot of Canadians don’t know that, and our current federal government sees ignorance as fertile ground for votes.

So, why is Canada in the Dark Ages? You’re not paying attention, that’s why.

If you open a window so that the people in a prison can breathe and see the sun, it is good….but it’s still a prison and still just a window.
Mahdi Abdul-Hadi