Canada's prisons not ready for inmate surge: Federal report

By Janice Tibbetts, Postmedia News

 

OTTAWA — Canadian penitentiaries are ill-equipped to deal with an anticipated surge in inmates, and existing problems of overcrowding and violence will only get worse under new sentencing laws, says the federal prison watchdog.

 

"We could see thousands of new admissions in federal penitentiaries over the next five years and I can tell you right now that the service does not have the capacity to deal with that. They do not have the space, they do not have the people, they do not have the programs," Howard Sapers warned Wednesday.

 

The correctional investigator noted that federal plans to double-bunk more prisoners could pose a particular danger for staff and inmates, judging from experiences in other countries that have shown that there is more violence when prisoners, many of whom are mentally ill, are forced to share cells.

 

Sapers also questioned whether Canadian taxpayers are getting value for their money with the additional billions of dollars the federal government is expected to spend to imprison more offenders and to keep them there longer.

 

Sapers made his comments at a news conference, where he released a report on deaths in federal custody. His report calls for round-the-clock health care for prisoners, an end to prolonged solitary confinement of mentally ill prisoners, and better and more frequent cell checks to ensure prisoners are alive.

 

He will detail the problems of double-bunking in his annual report, to be publicly released soon after Parliament resumes this month.

 

The Correctional Service of Canada anticipates an increase of 3,400 prisoners over the next three years as a result of one piece of legislation alone — the Truth in Sentencing Act.

 

The new law, which took effect in February, ends two-for-one sentencing credits for time already served in custody.

 

Spokeswoman Melissa Hart said the service will build about 2,700 new cells in the next three years and increase double-bunking as "an interim measure" to cope with additional prisoners.

 

"When single cell accommodation is not possible, an assessment is conducted to determine which inmates should share accommodation with whom and to ensure incompatible inmates are not placed in the same cell," she said in an email.

 

Canada's 57 federal penitentiaries house almost 14,000 offenders serving sentences of two years or more.

 

Corrections Canada has not revealed whether it intends to build new prisons, but commissioner Don Head said in June that the service is "working on a long-term plan that takes into account the need to replace some penitentiaries that have stood the test of time for many decades and no longer meet the requirements of a modern correctional system."

 

In his report Wednesday, Sapers concluded that the prison system still has the same policies and practices in place that contributed to the 2007 suicide death of mentally ill teenager Ashley Smith, who hanged herself in her cell at a Kitchener, Ont., prison after being placed in segregation for one year.

 

The report was the last of four on deaths in federal custody and Sapers found there have been another 130 deaths in prisons in the last three years.

 

He detailed nine cases, including a man who died of a brain aneurysm after staff had mistaken his medical emergency for mental health problems, and another who killed himself after repeated warning signs of suicidal behaviour while in custody.

 

"What they identify are several opportunities missed to act in a way that would have averted a tragedy at that point in time," said Sapers.

 

In all nine cases, the system fell short in staff response to medical emergencies, sharing of information with doctors and nurses, the quality and frequency of security patrols and head counts, overall handling of mentally ill offenders and internal investigations following custodial deaths, the report said.

 

Another major failing, Sapers said, is that prison cells are still not proofed against potential suicide dangers, such as suspension points for hanging.

 

"Some patrols were found to be conducted so rapidly that officers did not take the time to ensure the presence of a live and well person in each cell," Sapers said. He noted that in one case, a 41-year-old Inuit man killed himself as long as four hours before anyone noticed.