Solitary Confinement Challenge

The majority of individuals who commit suicide suffer from a mental illness at their time of death. In 2011 alone, there have been 3,728 suicides committed in Canada. The suicide rate in federal prisons alone is "7x the public...with nearly half taking place in solitary confinement. According to the Globe & Mail, 1 out of every 4 prisoners are put into solitary confinement in the federal prison system. Clearly the numbers show that suicide by inmates held in solitary confinement is an issue. Solitary confinement or segregation in a prison system is the practice of confining a prisoner in a cell while depriving him/her from meaningful human contact for 23 hours a day which could last from days to months to years. These statistics are not just numbers, but rather numbers representing people such as Ashley Smith and Edward Snowshoe.

Ashley Smith was a self-harming inmate. She was 19 when she chocked herself to death in 2007 while prison guards stood outside and watched as they were ordered not to enter her cell if she was still breathing. Within her 11 months of confinement, she was transferred 17x, and spent the majority of her time in segregation. The Coroner's Inquest has offered 104 recommendations regarding Ashley's death, but little has changed. Key recommendations include:

• Transferring inmates with serious mental health issues/self-injurious behaviour to federally run treatment facilities.
• Not requiring frontline staff to seek authorization if they determine immediate intervention is required to save life.
• Abolishing indefinite solitary confinement, prohibiting long-term segregation of more than 15 days and making conditions of segregation least restrictive as possible.

The recommendations were offered in 2013, 6 years after Ashley Smith's death. Within that time, Edward Snowshoe killed himself in 2010 after spending 162 days in segregation. Edward was not well when he went into prison and "as his condition deteriorated, the system responded with solitary confinement." BobbyLee Worm was also an individual placed in solitary confinement who is not part of the previously mentioned statistic.

BobbyLee Worm, a 26 year-old Aboriginal woman from Saskatchewan, was in solitary confinement for over 3.5 years.  She was 19 years-old and a first time offender when she entered prison, where her only human contact was usually through a food slot in the door of the cell. The program she was placed under was known as a "Management Protocol" but she was removed 2 days after a lawsuit was filed on her behalf by the British Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) for illegal and inhumane treatment. She was given access to programs to support her rehabilitation. The "Management Protocol"  program was for high-risk women prisoners that allowed prison officials to isolate women in solitary confinement. The majority of women placed in this program were Aboriginal.

The BCCLA and the John Howard Society of Canada launched a constitutional challenge in the use of solitary confinement in Canadian federal prisons. They state that indefinite solitary confinement is torture. It is causing individuals' mental health to become worse, as was the case with Edward Snowshoe. It violates constitutional rights as it is discriminatory in its use towards the mentally ill and Indigenous prisoners since they are placed in solitary confinement more frequently than other prisoners. Solitary confinement violates Section 7 (protection of life, liberty and security of a person), Section 9 and 10 (protections against arbitrary detention), Section 12 (prohibition against cruel and unusual treatment), and Section 15 (protection of equality) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The suicide rate in federal prisons are 7x that of the public, with nearly half taking place in segregation. How many more people will be added to that statistic before the Correctional Service of Canada does something about it? How many more people will suffer from mental illness due to being placed in isolation? How quickly will the government respond to this constitutional challenge before the numbers rise?

- Rachelle Tolentino