Canada

Renovations at Burnside jail (Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility) in Canada have sparked wide- spread anger among inmates.

Inmates were promised programs and new amenities—promises that they said were unfulfilled. In- stead, they spent most of their day in lockdown with poor living conditions, including toilets that didn’t flush, according to the Halifax Examiner.

Part of the renovation was the installation of body scanners, which prison officials hope will reduce contraband by 90 percent. The body scanners provide X-ray images, which not all correctional officers know how to interpret, according to the article.

“You have X-ray technicians and doctors that are going through this stuff in hospitals. Not just anybody can read an X-ray,” said Jason MacLean, correctional officer and president of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union. “Not everybody knows the body’s anatomy, and not everybody knows something that is contraband.”

Prisoners do have the right to refuse the scanners, but those who exercise that right are subjected to segregation and humiliation, according to the article.

Inmates who refused were put in a dry cell, which contained no water and no toilet, inmates told the Halifax Examiner. They were then strip searched, and correctional officers watched as they defecated two or three times. A camera stays trained on the room at all times.

Even after ensuring that inmates had no contraband, they were still not allowed to immediately return to the range but placed in segregation for six days. They were told they would be returned to the range once they agreed to take the body scan. The inmates were concerned about the safety of the scans, and the correctional officers—who are not required to use the scanners—failed to provide more information about potential risks, ac- cording to the article.

“Putting inmates in segregation for refusing body scans runs contrary to the law in my opinion,” said Asaf Rashid, a Canadian lawyer who specializes in prison law. “We need to keep in mind how extremely depriving and dehumanizing the practice of administrative segregation is.”

Meanwhile, inmates are subjected to lockdown-type conditions due to alleged staff shortages, according to the article.

When inmates were moved to this facility, their clothes were taken and not returned. Some inmates had to wear the same clothes for days. They weren’t allowed to shower, and most cells didn’t have running water.

Inmates are also angry about visitation policies, which differ from all other Canadian correctional facility policies. Inmates are only allowed immediate family members and two friends on their visiting list.

The prisoners at Burnside told reporters they worry that if these conditions continue, it will lead to more serious problems.

“We have 40 guys living together in the same room, without any physical equipment, no physical outlets. It’s very hard, and it’s gonna lead to violence,” one inmate explained.

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Canada’s prison inspector has sharply criticized its correctional facilities, especially the practice of housing women in a men’s institution due to mental health issues, The Globe and Mail reported.

“It’s just unacceptable,” said Ivan Zinger, correctional investigator. “You do not put a woman in an all-male institution, completely isolated in segregation-like conditions.”

Zinger criticized the Canadian federal system for not having a stand-alone separate facility for women diagnosed with mental illness.

He said his investigation found that female prisoners with serious mental health issues are more likely to be placed in maximum security units—an environment he recognized as “far from therapeutic.” He also noted that almost half of Canada’s maximum security female population consists of indigenous women.

“I cannot help but think that the over-incarceration of First Nations, Metis and Inuit people in corrections is among the most pressing social justice and human rights issues in Canada today,” Zinger stated in his report.

Indigenous people comprise 26.4 percent of Canada’s federal prisoners, while making up less than 5 percent of the nation’s population, he reported. For female inmates, 37.6 percent are Indigenous.

Zinger’s report focused on the conditions of confinement—ranging from poor food quality and unsatisfactory work opportunities, to unsafe transport vehicles—which “serve no underlying correctional or rehabilitative purpose.”

“Some 70 million Americans have a criminal record – a number equal to Americans with a college degree,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice. NYT July 27, 2018 “Zero Tolerance for Zero Tolerance”

Zinger requested in his report that terminally ill prisoners be permitted to seek medical assistance in dying, and that federal prisoners be offered a safe tattooing program, according to The Globe and Mail.

The treatment of Canada’s female inmates was Zinger’s primary concern, particularly those classified as maximum-security inmates. He cited specific cases of severely ill women who were transferred to a men’s psychiatric facility, where they were kept in separate isolation.

It is a situation that goes completely against international human rights standards, Zinger said.

Zinger petitioned the state to place inmates with extreme and complex mental health diagnoses at external psychiatric hospitals that can provide a higher level of care.

Correctional Service of Canada issued a statement saying it “fully supports the recommendation to provide hospital-level care for mentally ill women at local external community psychiatric hospitals.”

According to The Globe and Mail, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale issued a statement promising that the federal government will budget funds to improve its prisons’ mental health care and address the overrepresentation problem of the indigenous community within the criminal justice system,

“I am committed to ensuring that Canada’s correctional system is fair, humane, and effective,” Goodale said.

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