Liberals set to amend
solitary confinement rules in wake of dual court calls for action
Amanda Connolly ~~ National Online Journalist / Global
News ~~ October 15, 2018
 |
|
Canada’s
Minister of Public Safety and
Emergency
Preparedness, Ralph Goodale,
is
the MP for the Regina- Wascana riding
|
The federal Liberals are set to introduce a new
bill tackling the issue of administrative segregation, more commonly known as
solitary confinement. A bill was put on
the notice paper on Oct. 11, which is how the government gives notice that it
intends to table legislation in the House of Commons…
… it is not clear at this time what new limits or bans the new bill
could put in place on the use of solitary confinement.
The federal government introduced a bill in June 2017
… however, that bill never made it past first reading and has wallowed in
legislative purgatory ever since… a series of legal challenges that came after
it have resulted in court rulings that strict limits are needed and that using
solitary confinement long-term is unconstitutional.
A government official … acknowledged there have been concerns raised
repeatedly by justice advocates over the last year and a half that the language
in the existing bill does not fully address the concerns raised in two
significant court rulings that have come since.
… an Ontario Superior Court judge also deemed the
long-term use of solitary confinement in federal prisons unconstitutional.
He called for much stricter limits of no more than
five days in order to prevent psychological harm to the offender.
To read full story CLICK HERE:
I don’t suppose the jurors have ever considered
that they are not legislators, or that prisoners are not the most reliable
judges of what constitutes psychological abuse.
Some prisoners are isolated due to their crimes;
for example, child molesters are unlikely to survive in general population and
will be most likely be killed. Others are in debt from gambling, or from
illicit drug use, and will meet an untimely death if not protected.
Then there are the psychopaths who gain separation
by attacking and harming other inmates. We also have dangerous criminals who
will not hesitate to murder again. Once they are sentences to life without
parole for 25 years, they have little to lose, and are thus more dangerous than
most.
There is considerable difference between provincial
jails, where convicted persons serve sentences less than two years, and federal
prisons where convicted persons serve sentences of two years or more. That is
where the sentencing term “two years less a day” comes from – the judge is
deciding to send a convicted person to a provincial jail rather than a federal
prison.
The proposed legislation has numerous unintended
consequences, and if passed will see some lives lost when prison officials are
required to release an inmate from solitary confinement. The idea that solitary
confinement is always a form of punishment is simply not true.
There are instances where tempers flare, a fight
breaks out and combatants are temporarily confined to allow tempers to cool,
and second thoughts to rule. Those confined are likely to consider the
confinement to be punishment, but without intervention and serious harm taking
place, one of the combatants would face assault charges and most likely an
extension of his sentence.
Others, as cited above, will kill or be killed with
whatever devices are available. It will not be humane or pretty. Of course,
judges never have to deal with a prisoner stabbed multiple times with home-made
knives, or strangled with an appliance cord, or gang raped, or simply beaten to
death.
This is a case where ideology and reality clash and
pushing ideology will have dire consequences.
John Feldsted
Political Consultant
& Strategist
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Comments
Post a Comment