#administrative segregation

[louis-sj]

AdSeg

Available light photography

It was DARK. No lights/electricity in the abandoned building.

[trueyxantana]

𝘍𝘈𝘚𝘛𝘔𝘖𝘕𝘌𝘠

[louis-sj]

Solitary Confinement Door

AdSeg door: https://www.tumblr.com/louis-sj/745589264003350528/adseg?source=share

Same cell. Note the frame mounted lock.

[trueyxantana]

𝘍𝘈𝘚𝘛𝘔𝘖𝘕𝘌𝘠

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“One adjustment centre in which disruptive inmates were segregated ended up by spawning its own segregation unit to deal with those beyond its reach. The 'complicated Chinese box effect' which results 'with inmates in the innermost box ideally required to traverse each enclosing one on the way to relative freedom' is very much the way most prison systems are developing. As Messinger notes, the 'logic' of the segregation strategy is simple enough: 'identify potential troublemakers as early as possible, try to bring them to heel, if you fail, segregate them.' Whether this works or not in minimising disruption, what is clear is that 'the strategy of segregation leads to more segregation'. Given the organizational imperative of control, officials point out quite plausibly that other strategies are ineffective: force can only sometimes be used (in riots or disturbances) and anyway cannot make inmates want to do things: motivation through punishments and rewards are limited and one cannot freely select into or reject from the institution. With restrictions on the legitimate use of force, the control issue - which dominates the daily routine of prison officials at all levels - resolves itself into motivating prisoners to do things the management wants or else neutralizing the recalcitrants. ... Out of a combination of internal system demands and external pressures, then, the Chinese box effect will slowly develop. The prisoner in the innermost box- the segregation wing, the isolation block - can look forward not to release, but, if he satisfies the staff that he is "prepared to co-operate", transfer to the next box.” - Stanley Cohen, “Prisons and the future of control systems: from concentration to dispersal,” in Fitzgerald, M. et aL (eds), Prisoners in Revolt. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977. p. 222.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“A Canadian senator who has spent four decades advocating for the rights of vulnerable people in Canadian prisons says a new bill that purports to end solitary confinement should be scrapped.

Sen. Kim Pate says the Trudeau government’s Bill C-83 only offers a cosmetic rebranding of the practice of separating inmates from others in isolated cells for administrative or disciplinary reasons.

Pate was the executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, which work with women in the criminal-justice system, before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named her to the Senate as an independent in 2016.

Currently, inmates in segregation are restricted to two hours a day outside their cells and do not have access to meaningful interactions with others, nor do they benefit from programming or mental-health supports. According to recent numbers released to the parliamentary budget office, the number of inmates in segregation at any given time has varied from 360 to 434. Nearly all are men.

I have heard indescribable sounds of torment and despair that reverberate and haunt me

“Over four decades, I have spent countless hours kneeling on cement floors outside segregation cells, pleading through meal slots in solid metal doors as someone’s loved one — someone’s child, sibling, parent or partner — smashed their heads against cement walls or floors, slashed their bodies, tied ligatures or put nooses around their necks, tried to gouge out their own eyes, mutilated themselves in sometimes unimaginable ways, or smeared blood and feces on their bodies, windows and walls,” Pate said in a speech in the Senate on Thursday. “I have heard indescribable sounds of torment and despair that reverberate and haunt me.”

Last October, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale announced Bill C-83 would end the practice of isolating prisoners who pose risks to security or themselves — changes aimed at addressing recommendations from the coroner’s inquest into the 2007 death of Ashley Smith.

Smith, who was 19, strangled herself in a segregation cell at Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, Ont., as prison guards looked on. She had spent more than 1,000 days in segregation before her death.

An Ontario coroner’s inquest in 2013 ruled her death a homicide and made 104 recommendations, including the banning of indefinite solitary confinement.

Under Bill C-83, prisoners transferred to structured intervention units will be permitted to spend four hours a day outside their cells, during which time they would be guaranteed a minimum of two hours to interact with others. Inmates in these units are also supposed to be visited daily by health professionals and see patient advocates.

The bill was adopted by the House of Commons and is now before the Senate.

Pate says the fine print of the legislation does not deliver on Goodale’s promises. Provisions and procedural safeguards in the current law are being “watered down,” she says.

Under Bill C-83, segregation cells are just renamed as “structured intervention units,” Pate says. With no hard time limits on isolation or separation of inmates, which the current law has, the new legislation makes it easier to put someone in segregation, she argues.” - Teresa Wright, “Senator says solitary-confinement bill ‘needs some very significant amendment,’” The National Post. May 5, 2019.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Ashley Smith's mother and sister say they are furious with the Trudeau government for invoking her name in the rollout of a bill that purports to end solitary confinement in Canada's prisons -- a bill they say is highly flawed.

Coralee Smith and Dawna Ward were in Ottawa Thursday and visited the Senate, where amendments to Bill C-83 are being considered.

"We absolutely do not endorse it and especially did not endorse invoking Ashley's name to put forward this new bill. Absolutely not," Ward said.

Ashley Smith died in 2007 by self-strangulation at Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, Ont. She was 19 and had spent more than 1,000 days in segregation, moved from institution to institution. Her death continues to spark anger and grief in the eyes and words of her mother and sister.

But their anger is no longer aimed only at the prison guards who videotaped Ashley's death and did not intervene.

The two women are now also upset with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale for pledging to implement recommendations from the inquest that followed Smith's death.

That inquest produced 104 recommendations, including a call to end "indefinite solitary confinement."

"We're absolutely furious that he invoked Ashley's name and tried to push forward this ridiculous agenda that has had no significant impact on segregation in Canada," Ward said Thursday, speaking of Goodale's announcement of Bill C-83 last year.

Last October, Goodale said Bill C-83 would end the practice of segregating prisoners who pose risks to security or themselves, changes he told reporters were a direct result of the recommendations from the coroner's inquest.

Under the proposed new law, inmates who do pose risks would be moved to new "structured intervention units," where they are supposed to get better access to programming and mental-health care than people in solitary do now.

But a number of human-rights organizations say Bill C-83 offers only a cosmetic rebranding of solitary confinement with no hard time limits on isolation or separation of inmates. The current law has such restrictions on the use of segregation when it's used a disciplinary measure.

Ashley's mother says re-naming segregation cells into structured intervention units does little to address concerns about the devastating mental-health impacts of confining prisoners in isolation. Mental illness is often behind the behaviour that makes a prisoner difficult in the first place.

"Segregation by any other name is segregation," Smith said. "Segregation is a hellhole. It is inhumane treatment and we really feel it has to have judicial oversight."

A committee of senators has approved several changes to the bill -- including a key amendment to require a judge's approval to keep an inmate in isolation for more than 48 hours.

Sen. Kim Pate, who says she'd prefer the bill be scrapped entirely, sponsored many of the amendments, including adding judicial oversight to decisions about isolation.” - Teresa Wright, The Canadian Press, “Ashley Smith's family furious with Trudeau over solitary-confinement bill.” CTV News, May 30, 2019.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“There was a time when an unconstitutional government policy was not something lamented then simply rebranded. Once a court found it unconstitutional, the practice just ... ended, especially when politicians had campaigned against it. Not so solitary confinement – an old practice that today’s Parliament loves to hate, hates to love, but just keeps on doing.

Reading the latest court decision on solitary confinement (R v. Prystay, from Alberta), one doesn’t know whether to sigh with relief that another court got it so right, or cry over what took place. How could it be that a person in our country was held for 400 days in the deplorable conditions and extreme isolation that make up solitary confinement?

Justice Dawn Pentelechuk held that placing an inmate in solitary confinement for 400 days – where he suffered physical and psychological harms – was cruel and unusual punishment in violation of Section 12 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She wrote:

"Societal views on what is acceptable treatment or punishment evolve over time. Forced sterilization, residential schools, lobotomies to treat mental disorders, corporal punishment in schools and the death penalty are all examples of treatment once considered acceptable. Segregation ravages the body and the mind. There is growing discomfort over its continued use as a quick solution to complex problems.”

And yet our federal government intends to maintain the practice of solitary confinement – now rebranded as “administrative segregation.” While the recently introduced Bill C-83 declares that it would “eliminate the use of administrative segregation,” the actual provisions of the bill would do no such thing. It is true that Bill C-83 would change the name of the “segregation unit” to the “structured intervention unit.” It would add a few daily hours out of cell for some inmates. And it would offer most inmates a shower and a few other minor improvements. However, Bill C-83 also would allow our penitentiaries to keep people in conditions of extreme isolation for at least 22 hours a day for undefined, perhaps indefinite periods.

But Bill C-83 has not yet been passed. The government can amend it, or better yet, introduce a new bill that truly eliminates solitary confinement. In doing so, the government could still seek to include any exceptions it thought necessary. If the government had evidence to support specific, rare, and very brief situations of isolation, this is something reasonable people could discuss.

Instead, unfathomably, Parliament is doubling down on Bill C-83 and fussing over what kind of independent review process is needed to keep someone in the newly named structured intervention units. To be sure, the concern about independent review is important, and is no doubt the government’s response to court decisions that struck down the administrative segregation regime in two recent constitutional challenges by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, respectively. The courts in Ontario and B.C. took issue with the lack of an independent review process when determining if someone should stay in solitary. However, this was not the only constitutional issue before the courts. CCLA and BCCLA also challenged the long, indefinite durations, segregation of people with mental illness, youth and those who simply asked to be safe, and the discriminatory use of segregation against Indigenous people. Many of these issues were accepted by the B.C. court. Most are back before the courts on appeal.

In striking down the administrative segregation regimes, the Ontario and B.C. rulings spend pages detailing the many harms, sometimes irreversible and permanent. These include hallucinations, depression, anxiety, loss of control, paranoia, self-mutilation and suicidal thoughts. These harms were researched and established by doctors and psychologists over many years.” -  Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, “Rebranding solitary confinement doesn’t change what it is.” The Globe and Mail. January 21, 2019.