by J Metcalfe | Dec 1, 2021 | News Releases
November 30, 2021 – Burnaby, BC – On the two-year anniversary of the implementation of Structured Intervention Units (SIU), Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) has secured the right to be represented by legal counsel for people held in SIU.
Despite legislation protecting the right to counsel when someone is placed in this most restrictive environment permitted by law, Kent Institution in BC was refusing to share essential documents with lawyers representing clients in SIU. Kent staff even refused to tell lawyers the date and time of review hearings for their clients in SIU, making it impossible for PLS to administer legal aid to those held under this restrictive regime.
The Correctional Service Canada (CSC) took the position that it was the person held in SIU’s responsibility to share that information with their counsel. However, many of PLS’ clients were unable to share their documents or the time and date of hearings in time to receive representation.
People in prison have limited access to the telephone and they do not have access to email. They may not know which documents are relevant to a particular review, and may not be able to fill out all of the forms Kent Institution required to have their documents sent to counsel in time to receive representation. People are only notified of the time of some reviews the day before the hearing, and it may take 24 hours for a request to telephone counsel to be facilitated. This made it impossible for PLS to appoint a lawyer to represent the person at their hearing in most cases.
After PLS filed an application in Federal Court on February 24, 2020 challenging CSC’s failure to abide by the right to counsel in SIU reviews, CSC has agreed to share documents and the time and date of hearings directly with counsel. See Kent’s letter outlining its obligations here.
“It is imperative that people held in SIU are able to exercise their right to counsel, because of the increased deprivation of liberty they are facing in that setting. The right to counsel is fundamental to a fair process. Legal counsel’s access to documents relied upon by CSC in making their decisions is crucial to ensuring effective legal assistance to prisoners,” said Talia Magder, counsel for PLS.
“The SIU regime allows CSC to hold people in solitary confinement, which the United Nations considers torture or cruel treatment after 15 days. CSC must not be permitted to treat people in its custody with cruelty behind closed doors, and without a fair and transparent review,” said Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director of PLS.
“Many of the people who end up in SIU are suffering the effects of long-term isolation. Many have experienced violence and trauma in prison, including at the hands of correctional officers. They are among the most vulnerable, and their right to legal assistance must be protected to ensure their human rights, dignity, and right to liberty are not violated,” said Metcalfe.
Media contact:
Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director
Prisoners’ Legal Services
604-636-0470
by Web Master | Sep 29, 2021 | News, News Releases, Uncategorized
BURNABY, BC – September 29, 2021
Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services released a paper documenting government reports that confirm Canada’s treatment of Indigenous people held in its prisons constitutes a continuation of genocide and crimes against humanity.
Indigenous people in prison are more likely to be held in maximum security and solitary confinement. They are more likely to have violence used against them by correctional officers. Indigenous people in prison have high rates of death by homicide, suicide attempts and self-harm.
The Canadian government spends more than half-a-billion dollars each year imprisoning Indigenous people, while it denies funding to Indigenous communities to provide healing services and significantly under-funds Indigenous-run healing lodges.
On the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Prisoners’ Legal Services calls on Canada to end the genocidal practice of incarcerating Indigenous people in prisons, and calls on Canada to ensure Indigenous communities have the resources to provide healing alternatives to imprisonment.
Leading up to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Prisoners’ Legal Services has received reports from Indigenous people that correctional officers have been making racist remarks, including that the reports of unmarked graves identified at the sites of former residential schools are “fake news” and “propaganda” and that Indigenous people should “let it go”.
These remarks were made to people who are experiencing the very real pain and intergenerational trauma of genocide, in an environment where every aspect of their lives is controlled by the state.
“There is hypocrisy in creating a national holiday in the spirit of truth and reconciliation with Indigenous people while Canada actively engages in the mass-incarceration of Indigenous people. We can’t have truth until Canada acknowledges these ongoing atrocities, and we can’t have reconciliation until we stop denying Indigenous nations and communities the ability to heal,” said Jennifer Metcalfe, executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services.
Media contact:
Jennifer Metcalfe
604-636-0470
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca
by J Metcalfe | Aug 19, 2021 | News, News Releases, Uncategorized
BURNABY, BC – August 19, 2021 – Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services (“PLS”) filed a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission on behalf of Nick Dinardo, a 29-year-old Two-Spirit and transfeminine member of the Piapot First Nation, against Correctional Service Canada (“CSC”).
Since coming out to CSC last year, Nick has been repeatedly transferred between institutions designated for men, where they have experienced violence and harassment from both officers and other prisoners and have frequently been isolated in Structured Intervention Units (which replaced administrative segregation).
Nick has been repeatedly subject to physical force by correctional officers, and in May 2021 officers broke Nick’s arm. Officers have discussed Nick’s gender identity openly, putting Nick’s safety at risk. Both prisoners and staff have called them transphobic slurs.
Nick has often declined opportunities to come out of their cell because they fear officers will use violence against them again. Nick has not showered in approximately two months as a result. Nick has also been subject to indignities including having male officers watch them use the toilet and repeated searches by male officers, in violation of CSC policy.
These experiences are extremely traumatic for Nick, who has a history of trauma and abuse and whose family survived residential schools.
“CSC has written that it is seeking specialists in gender identity disorder for me, but my gender and culture are not a mental disorder”, Nick says. Nick’s complaint argues that not being able to live freely and safely as a Two Spirit person is a consequence of colonization and genocide against Indigenous peoples.
Nick’s requests to transfer to an institution designated for women, where they would be safer and more able to express their gender, have been denied. In making its decisions, CSC has not considered the risks to Nick’s safety and wellbeing nor their experiences of victimization in institutions designated for men.
“Nick should not have to live with a constant threat of violence hanging over their head from the people charged with their care and custody, and in conditions that regularly undermine their dignity,” said Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director of Prisoners’ Legal Services.
In July 2020, Nick filed a human rights complaint against CSC for failing to address their mental health needs and for responding to their emotional distress, including acts of self-harm, with violence and isolation, including officers in riot gear, pepper spray, restraints and bare isolation cells, which serve only to exacerbate their suffering. This complaint is ongoing.
Media contacts:
Jennifer Metcalfe
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca
604-636-0470
Nicole Kief
nkief@pls-bc.ca
604-636-0470
by J Metcalfe | Mar 12, 2021 | News, News Releases
BURNABY, BC – Nick Dinardo, a Two Spirit prisoner diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, reports being met with violence by correctional officers while in a CSC “treatment centre.”
Nick is a member of the Piapot First Nation, and their family are residential school survivors. Nick has a history of trauma both in and out of custody and has attempted suicide many times. Despite their vulnerability, Correctional Service Canada (CSC) holds Nick in maximum security prisons and Structured Intervention Units (SIU), where the toxic environment makes their mental health worse and results in serious acts of self-harm.
On March 1, 2021, after multiple incidents of self-harming in the SIU at Atlantic Institution, Nick was transferred to the Shepody Healing Centre, a CSC-run treatment centre in Dorchester, New Brunswick.
While at Shepody, Nick reports they were in emotional distress after receiving some upsetting news. Nick pressed the panic button and officers responded in anger. Nick threw the button (away from officers into the corner of the room) and the officers responded by pepper spraying Nick in the face and open cuts, jumping on top of them, twisting them up and smashing their head. Officers yelled things like, “you f*cking goof, you never shut your mouth you piece of sh*t”.
“It is appalling that someone in emotional distress would be subjected to violence and abuse by officers in a treatment centre” said Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director of Prisoners’ Legal Services. “Why didn’t health care staff attempt to de-escalate the situation and avoid the use of violence against someone who is already deeply traumatized? The amount of force Nick describes appears unnecessary and excessive, and a violation of law and policy,” she said.
Officers did not remove Nick’s handcuffs or allow them to take off their clothes for a decontamination shower, which is contrary to policy. Nick reports officers kept turning the water to scalding hot, intensifying the effect of the pepper spray and causing Nick intense pain.
Prisoners’ Legal Services has requested that this use of force be reviewed by CSC at the highest level.
After this incident, Nick cut themself and wrote “help” on their cell wall in blood.
In response, Nick was restrained on a Pinel board without having their wounds sutured, despite some of them being so deep that Nick could see their veins. Officers made antagonistic comments to them while they were strapped down. Nick reports that after they were released from the Pinel board they fell asleep and woke up soaked in blood. Nick lost consciousness from blood loss, and was placed back in the Pinel restraints, still without having their wounds mended. Nick had also swallowed razor blades, and reports that while they were on the Pinel board, they began coughing up large amounts of blood. They continued to vomit up blood in the days that followed.
Nick was taken to outside hospital on approximately March 3, 2021 and was returned to maximum-security Atlantic Institution on approximately March 5, 2021, where they will likely be returned to isolation in the Structured Intervention Unit.
CSC has acknowledged that uses of force, isolation and restraint have been traumatic for Nick and contribute to his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms.
Nick has requested placement at an institution that would better reflect their gender identity as Two Spirit, and where they could receive trauma treatment in a less hostile environment.
“I just want my basic rights and to be treated like a human being. That’s all I ask for,” said Nick.
Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) has recommended in its report Damage/Control: Use of force and the cycle of violence and trauma in BC’s federal and provincial prisons, that psychiatric nurses play a more central role in responding to prisoners in emotional distress, and that responses be supportive and trauma-informed. PLS has further recommended that correctional officers receive more training in de-escalation skills and non-violent crisis intervention, especially for those working with people with mental health disabilities and in treatment centres.
Nick filed a complaint on July 27, 2020 with the Canadian Human Rights Commission alleging ongoing discrimination by CSC.
Prisoners’ Legal Services has also filed a systemic representative human rights complaint that addresses many of these issues.
Media contact:
Jennifer Metcalfe
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca
604-636-0470
by J Metcalfe | Nov 16, 2020 | News, News Releases, Uncategorized
Burnaby BC
Today, the West Coast Prison Justice Society and Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) released Solitary by Another Name: The ongoing use of isolation in Canada’s federal prisons.
The report identifies ways that the Correctional Service Canada (CSC) continues to routinely keep prisoners in solitary confinement, or solitary-like conditions of isolation, sometimes for months on end, despite Canada’s claims to have eliminated the use of segregation.
The report focusses on prisoners’ experiences at Kent Institution, where prisoners are subjected to extensive isolation. Kent Institution frequently uses “lockdowns,” where prisoners on certain units or in the entire prison are confined to their cells all day, often only getting out for a 15-minute shower and phone call, sometimes for weeks at a time. The reasons for lockdowns are often for administrative reasons, rather than for true emergencies.
Kent Institution has also implemented a restrictive movement routine, which kept prisoners who had not secured institutional jobs or spots in programs or school, locked in their cells for all but three hours per weekday. During the pandemic, the routine has been modified to allow prisoners out for an additional hour on weekdays, which is not a significant improvement especially when other services are restricted.
One anonymous Kent prisoner describes this isolation: “I feel completely messed up spiritually and mentally. I spend my time just thinking about what I will do when I get out of my cell. And then I get so agitated that by the time I leave my cell, I get extremely irritated when people talk to me. When we get out of our cells, everybody is on edge, like me, and I feel like I have to watch my back.”
The report also describes prisoners’ experiences at Mission Medium Institution, which was locked down for more than two continuous months when prisoners tested positive for COVID-19. All Mission prisoners were held in total isolation for the first eight days, and were held in extremely restrictive conditions of solitary confinement for the rest of the lockdown, including for weeks after there were no active cases of COVID-19.
November 30, 2020 marks the one-year anniversary of the implementation of Structured Intervention Units (SIUs), which were introduced to replace CSC’s unconstitutional segregation regime. Solitary by Another Name describes many prisoners’ experiences in the SIU at Kent Institution over the past year as involving the same isolation and lack of meaningful human contact that they experienced in segregation. The report details obstructionism by Kent which denies prisoners the right to counsel in SIU reviews.
Often people with untreated mental health needs that are exacerbated in the prison environment end up in maximum-security and SIUs. Indigenous people, who may have been impacted by multi-generational trauma and are often further traumatized by the colonial prison system, are also overrepresented in maximum security and SIUs.
Solitary by Another Name recommends legislative limits on the use of isolation, with more investment in independent healing professionals. It recommends prisoners with serious mental illnesses be transferred to community-based hospitals where they can receive mental health care in a therapeutic environment. The report further calls on Canada to significantly increase funding for Indigenous-run healing lodges.
“With no significant investment in alternatives to SIU, such as Indigenous-run healing lodges or units that would actually provide a therapeutic environment for people with mental health disabilities, CSC will continue to keep vulnerable prisoners in conditions of isolation.” – Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director, Prisoners’ Legal Services
Prisoner accounts in the report make it clear that CSC will not be able to reduce its reliance on isolation unless its toxic staff culture changes. PLS calls for an external review of staff culture at all levels within CSC to develop a plan to change the culture of corrections that would respect the dignity and human rights of prisoners.
“It is well acknowledged that isolation causes serious harm to mental health, yet CSC continues to subject prisoners to this draconian practice.” – Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director, Prisoners’ Legal Services
The full report is available here.
Media contact:
Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director, Prisoners’ Legal Services
604-636-0470
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca
by J Metcalfe | Aug 17, 2020 | News, News Releases, Uncategorized
Burnaby, BC – Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services (“PLS”) called on Correctional Service Canada Commissioner Anne Kelly to convene a formal investigation into the abuse of a federal prisoner being held in solitary confinement.
Thirty-one year old Shane Yukich has been diagnosed with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. He is described as having delusions, paranoia and auditory hallucinations. He is certified under the BC Mental Health Act but, instead of being held at a treatment facility, he is on “extended leave” at Kent Institution, a maximum security prison, where he has been held for the last approximately eight weeks in the Structured Intervention Unit, which replaced administrative segregation in November 2019. He describes spending most of the day alone, pacing back and forth in his cell.
Recently, another prisoner reported to PLS that officers take advantage of Mr. Yukich’s mental health disabilities to harass and abuse him, speaking to him in a language they know he does not understand, leaving him in feces-covered cells, and denying him access to legal counsel.
A copy of the letter can be found here.
The following can be attributed to Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director of Prisoners’ Legal Services:
“The leave provisions of the Mental Health Act are meant to allow psychiatric hospital patients to reside in the community if their doctor feels it would be therapeutic and beneficial to them. Using it to send a patient to a maximum security prison where they are held in solitary confinement is unjustifiable.
“Mr. Yukich’s circumstances demonstrate that without adequate external oversight, abuse of vulnerable prisoners runs rampant. This situation occurs after many months of Kent Institution obstructing prisoners’ right to counsel generally, including by cancelling our segregation clinic – which was designed to identify and remedy situations just like Mr. Yukich’s.
“We call on Commissioner Kelly to immediately convene an investigation under section 20 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act into Mr. Yukich’s circumstances and the broader issues they raise around prisoner abuse and interference with the right to counsel at Kent Institution.”
Media contact:
Jennifer Metcalfe
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca
604-636-0470
