News Release: Human rights complaint calls for end to solitary for prisoners with mental disabilities and independent health care in federal prisons

by J Metcalfe | Jun 20, 2018 | News Releases

BURNABY, BC, June 20, 2018

Today, the West Coast Prison Justice Society (WCPJS) filed a human rights complaint against the Correctional Service of Canada on behalf of prisoners with mental disabilities.

“CSC is still using solitary confinement against prisoners engaged in life-threatening self-harm, despite the overwhelming evidence that solitary confinement increases the risk of suicide” said Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director of Prisoners’ Legal Services (a project of WCPJS).

The human rights complaint identifies the use of observation cells as another way that CSC keeps vulnerable prisoners isolated in conditions worse than segregation. Prisoners under high observation watch, often because they are suicidal or at risk of self-harm, are denied everything but a suicide smock, mattress and blanket. They have nothing to occupy their time and are often provided as little as 10 minutes of meaningful human contact each day.

“While Canada is appealing the BC Supreme Court decision that found segregation is discriminatory against prisoners with mental disabilities and Indigenous prisoners, people continue to suffer what the UN says is torture or cruel treatment. Our clients are at risk of dying from living under these conditions. They cannot wait while the government fights to continue to use these practices through the appeal courts. It’s shameful,” said Ms. Metcalfe.

The complaint also identifies a lack of therapeutic treatment for the high percentage of prisoners who suffer from past trauma and addictions, and a lack of services for maximum-security prisoners who are often in the greatest need of help and are disproportionately Indigenous, as discriminatory under human rights law.

The complaint seeks health services, including trauma and addictions counselling, to be provided independently through agreements with the provincial ministries of health, so that prisoners can develop a trusting relationship with their caregivers.

Prisoners’ Legal Services is representing Indigenous prisoner Joey Toutsaint in a related human rights complaint against CSC for its use of solitary confinement, including observation cells and segregation, and for failing to provide therapeutic services to assist him with his trauma and self-harm.

“That’s not a suicide cell, that’s a torture chamber,” Mr. Toutsaint said in reference to being placed in an observation cell. “If I talk about my self-harm, they told me they aren’t going to negotiate – they’re going to gas me and throw me in an obs cell. I’m asking for help and no one wants to help me. Every day I have an anxiety attack. I can’t sleep at night. I can’t hold it in much longer. I don’t want to die”, he said.

Click here to see a copy of the representative complaint and here to see a copy of Mr. Toutsaint’s complaint.

Media contact:

Jennifer Metcalfe
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca
604-636-0470

Prisoners’ Legal Services
310-625 Agnes Street
New Westminster, BC, V3M 5Y4

Tel: 604-636-0470
Fax: 604-636-0480

Email: info@pls-bc.ca

We are grateful for the
funding provided by

How to Show Your Support

Help us to continue to fight for the human rights of prisoners in BC! PLS is currently litigating the important systemic issues of the segregation of prisoners with mental disabilities, access to health care, transgender prisoner rights, and access to religion and Indigenous spirituality. We need help to continue to do this important work. Donations to West Coast Prison Justice Society are non-charitable and are not tax deductible.

Donations can be made to
West Coast Prison Justice Society

Or by PayPal:

Please call us at 604-636-0470 or email us at info@pls-bc.ca if you would like to discuss your donation.

Thanks for your support!

News Release: Human Rights of Federal Prisoners with Opioid Use Disorder Being Violated, Says Prison Justice Group

by J Metcalfe | Jun 4, 2018 | Addiction, News, News Releases

June 4, 2018 – Burnaby BC

Today, the West Coast Prison Justice Society (WCPJS) filed a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission against Correctional Service Canada on behalf of all federal prisoners who have been denied life-saving treatment for opioid use disorder.

Prisoners’ Legal Services (a project of WCPJS) spoke with approximately 75 Canadian prisoners suffering from opioid use disorder, many of whom reported waitlists for opioid substitution therapy of many months to over one year. WCPJS is concerned that prisoners are at great risk of fatal overdose, and HIV and hepatitis C infection because of barriers to treatment with Suboxone or methadone, as well as a lack of adequate harm reduction initiatives and psychosocial therapy.

Other prisoners reported having been cut off Suboxone or methadone, some cold-turkey, and suffering painful and dangerous withdrawal symptoms, on the basis of unproven speculation that they were trying to share medication with other prisoners. Some reported being cut off medication without an opportunity to speak with their doctors first.

The complaint asserts that these practices discriminate against prisoners who suffer from addiction, which is considered a disability under human rights law, as well as against Indigenous and Black prisoners who are disproportionately affected.

The complaint cites research that shows psychosocial therapy adds to the effectiveness of medication, and that many prisoners have histories of trauma.

“Providing treatment for opioid use disorder helps prisoners to heal, rehabilitate and become productive, law abiding members of the community,” said Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director of Prisoners’ Legal Services.

“Correctional Service of Canada has an opportunity to provide essential health services to some of the most vulnerable people in society when they come into prison. It is disheartening that CSC is failing to do so at a time when an estimated 4,000 people died of fentanyl overdose in Canada last year”, she said.

Media contact:

Nicole Kief
Legal Advocate
604-636-0470
nkief@pls-bc.ca

Prisoners’ Legal Services
310-625 Agnes Street
New Westminster, BC, V3M 5Y4

Tel: 604-636-0470
Fax: 604-636-0480

Email: info@pls-bc.ca

We are grateful for the
funding provided by

How to Show Your Support

Help us to continue to fight for the human rights of prisoners in BC! PLS is currently litigating the important systemic issues of the segregation of prisoners with mental disabilities, access to health care, transgender prisoner rights, and access to religion and Indigenous spirituality. We need help to continue to do this important work. Donations to West Coast Prison Justice Society are non-charitable and are not tax deductible.

Donations can be made to
West Coast Prison Justice Society

Or by PayPal:

Please call us at 604-636-0470 or email us at info@pls-bc.ca if you would like to discuss your donation.

Thanks for your support!

Joint News Release: Changes to the way transgender offenders are accommodated in Canada’s federal prison system

by J Metcalfe | Jan 31, 2018 | News, News Releases, Transgender

January 31, 2018 – Ottawa, Ontario – The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), and Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS)

An important collaboration spanning several years between the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), and Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) has resulted in changes to the way transgender offenders are accommodated in Canada’s federal prison system.

These changes come in the wake of Parliament’s recent change to the Canadian Human Rights Act, which added “gender identity or expression” to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination.

In the context of its daily operations, CSC will continue to provide education and awareness to staff and offenders and work to ensure that the health, safety and dignity of everyone is respected at all times. New operational practices for CSC include:

Placing an offender in a men’s or women’s institution according to their gender identity, if it is their preference, regardless of their anatomy or gender on their identification documents, unless there are overriding health or safety concerns which cannot be resolved.
Using an offender’s preferred name and pronoun in all oral interaction and written documentation.
Allowing offenders to purchase authorized items from CSC catalogues for either men or women if there are no safety, health or security concerns according to the security level of their institution.
Taking steps to maximize the privacy and confidentiality of information related to an offender’s gender identity. Information about an offender’s gender identity will only be shared with those directly involved with the offender’s care, and only when relevant.
Offering individualized protocols for offenders who seek to be accommodated on the basis of gender identity or expression to ensure, among other things:
- the safety, privacy and dignity of an offender when they access shower and/or toilet facilities; and
- the choice of male or female staff to conduct frisk and strip searches, urinalysis testing, and camera surveillance.

All three organizations look forward to further collaboration and successful implementation of these changes. As CSC updates its individual policies, it will continue to count on the valuable contribution of correctional experts and stakeholders, such as the CHRC and PLS, labour partners, academia and experts in gender and identity issues.

For more information, please read CSC’s Interim Policy Bulletin on Gender Identity or Expression.

Quotes

“We are overjoyed that CSC is making so many positive changes that recognize the human rights of trans people in the correctional system. These changes will improve the safety and dignity of transgender federal offenders in Canada, affecting every aspect of their daily lives.”
-Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director, Prisoners’ Legal Services

“We have heard the concerns raised by trans individuals and advocates, and we are pleased to see these significant improvements become a reality, for the rights of transgender offenders, and their families. This is about respect and human dignity—something that every person, including those in our prison system, is entitled to.”
—Marie-Claude Landry, Ad. E., Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission

“These changes ensure that offenders who identify as transgender are afforded the same protections, dignity and treatment as others. CSC is committed to building a safe, inclusive and respectful environment for everyone, including transgender staff, offenders, volunteers and visitors.”
—Don Head, Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada

Associated Links

CSC Interim Policy Bulletin on Gender Identity or Expression

CHRC Website – Prisoner Rights

Prisoner’s Legal Services

Stay Connected

Follow us on Twitter @CdnHumanRights and Facebook.

Watch us on YouTube

Follow CSC on Facebook and Twitter @CSC_SCC_en

Media Contacts

Prisoners’ Legal Services Media Relations
Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director:
604-636-0470
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca

Canadian Human Rights Commission Media Relations
613-943-9118
communications@chrc-ccdp.gc.ca

Correctional Service Canada Media Relations
613-992-7711
media@csc-scc.gc.ca

Prisoners’ Legal Services
310-625 Agnes Street
New Westminster, BC, V3M 5Y4

Tel: 604-636-0470
Fax: 604-636-0480

Email: info@pls-bc.ca

We are grateful for the
funding provided by

How to Show Your Support

Help us to continue to fight for the human rights of prisoners in BC! PLS is currently litigating the important systemic issues of the segregation of prisoners with mental disabilities, access to health care, transgender prisoner rights, and access to religion and Indigenous spirituality. We need help to continue to do this important work. Donations to West Coast Prison Justice Society are non-charitable and are not tax deductible.

Donations can be made to
West Coast Prison Justice Society

Or by PayPal:

Please call us at 604-636-0470 or email us at info@pls-bc.ca if you would like to discuss your donation.

Thanks for your support!

Post Title

Laying the groundwork to abolish segregation in Canada and BC

by J Metcalfe | Nov 28, 2016 | News, News Releases, Solitary Confinement

The current use of segregation and separate confinement in Canadian and BC prisons amounts to torture or cruel treatment. Today we released a new report which provides a comprehensive framework of why and how it should end.

Solitary: A Case for Abolition is a detailed prescription for the best practices in abolishing solitary confinement in Canada and BC. It canvasses work done in other jurisdictions, research papers, and interviews with stakeholders both inside and outside prison walls – all while prioritizing the safety of corrections staff, prisoners, and society as a whole.

“Prisoners’ Legal Services calls on the governments of Canada and British Columbia, and their correctional services, to do more than abolish solitary confinement,” the report states. “We call on them to establish adequate numbers of specialized mental health units to address the specific therapeutic needs of prisoners, and to widely implement a trauma-informed approach, dynamic security and de-escalation practices in all correctional settings in order to prevent the behaviours that have led prisoners to be placed in solitary confinement. External oversight of correctional population management practices and mental health supports are necessary to ensure that correctional practices do not slip back into old, abusive habits.”

Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director of Prisoners’ Legal Services, acknowledges that, on occasion, some prisoners may require temporary separation from the open prison population. However, it is unacceptable that Canadian prisons routinely violate the United Nations’ Mandela Rules, which prohibit solitary confinement for those with mental or physical disabilities and limit its use for other prisoners to 15 days maximum.

“There’s no need to keep them in isolation for days or months or years on end,” Ms. Metcalfe emphasizes.

“The evidence shows that using solitary confinement creates situations that are much more dangerous for staff,” she adds, referencing research in the report on how the animosity and psychological strain of solitary confinement often leads to uses of force against prisoners. “We encourage correctional organizations and unions to take an evidence-based approach to these issues.”

Canada has already felt the consequences of insufficient action to curb solitary confinement. On October 19, 2007, Ashley Smith died from self-strangulation after being segregated for 11 months despite her severe mental illness. Since then, prisoners like Edward Snowshoe, Christopher Roy and Terry Baker have all tragically ended their own lives after segregation and their resulting compromised mental health.

The report takes readers into the lived experiences of others who have experienced solitary confinement via their accounts of the horrifying conditions and psychological turmoil within. Prisoners recall cells with walls spackled with feces and blood, where they were locked up for 23 hours per day with little to no human interaction.

“I feel that the majority of staff saw me as scum and nothing more. I feel that I was treated like an animal… When they were cutting off my clothes, I felt like they were stripping my dignity away”, said one individual about his time in BC Corrections’ separate confinement.

“This report is intended to be a guide for CSC and BC Corrections on how to find alternatives to solitary confinement,” Ms. Metcalfe says. “I see the process taking a number of years.”

Ms. Metcalfe hopes that Solitary: A Case for Abolition will initiate the formation of working committees and meetings between stakeholders and correctional organizations to discuss the next steps toward ending solitary confinement.

Prisoners’ Legal Services
310-625 Agnes Street
New Westminster, BC, V3M 5Y4

Tel: 604-636-0470
Fax: 604-636-0480

Email: info@pls-bc.ca

We are grateful for the
funding provided by

How to Show Your Support

Help us to continue to fight for the human rights of prisoners in BC! PLS is currently litigating the important systemic issues of the segregation of prisoners with mental disabilities, access to health care, transgender prisoner rights, and access to religion and Indigenous spirituality. We need help to continue to do this important work. Donations to West Coast Prison Justice Society are non-charitable and are not tax deductible.

Donations can be made to
West Coast Prison Justice Society

Or by PayPal:

Please call us at 604-636-0470 or email us at info@pls-bc.ca if you would like to discuss your donation.

Thanks for your support!

Transgender Prisoners

by J Metcalfe | Apr 20, 2016 | News Releases, Transgender

TRANSGENDER PRISONERS

The Correctional Service of Canada acknowledges the collaborative role of Prisoners’ Legal Services and the Canadian Human Rights Commission in policy reform for transgender prisoners. See the press release here.

The West Coast Prison Justice Society has worked for over 10 years assisting transgender prisoners with human rights complaints concerning access to gender confirming surgery, placement by gender identity and rights to privacy in relation to cell sharing, strip searches, urinalysis testing and washroom facilities.

In 2015, the West Coast Prison Justice Society filed a human rights complaint against the Correctional Service of Canada seeking systemic remedies for all transgender prisoners in Canada to ensure that their human rights, safety and dignity are protected.

On January 2, 2018, the Correctional Service of Canada promulgated Interim Policy Bulletin 584 on gender identity and expression. The West Coast Prison Justice Society is very pleased with this interim policy which ensures that transgender prisoners:

are placed in a men’s or women’s institution according to gender identity (unless there are overriding safety or security issues that cannot be resolved);
are able to receive clothing and personal items in accordance with their gender identity or expression;
are given the choice of the gender of officers who search them or conduct urinalysis testing of them;
are addressed by their preferred names and pronouns (unless the legal name is required);
are not required to share a cell with another prisoner if their gender identity would make them vulnerable to violence; and
are provided private and safe shower and washroom facilities whenever possible.

The interim policy will be in place until the relevant Commissioner’s Directives can be amended to reflect these changes.

Also since the West Coast Prison Justice Society filed its representative human rights complaint, CSC policy now requires health services to be provided in accordance with the current World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s (WPATH) Standards of Care. These standards allow people to meet the “real life test” of living in their gender for one year in prison, rather than requiring the test to be met in the community.

Before these policy changes, transgender prisoners were placed in men’s or women’s prisons according to their genitals rather than by gender identity. Vulnerable transgender women were forced to live in men’s prisons where they were at constant risk of sexual assault. CSC policy also put transgender prisoners at risk of suffering other dehumanizing forms of harassment and discrimination, including being strip searched by officers of the opposite gender, or being referred to by the wrong name and inappropriate gender pronouns. Prisoners who required gender affirming surgery who had not lived in the community for a continuous year, despite living in their gender for their entire adult lives, were denied medically necessary surgery. Click here to see our earlier policy reform recommendations.

Prisoners’ Legal Services
310-625 Agnes Street
New Westminster, BC, V3M 5Y4

Tel: 604-636-0470
Fax: 604-636-0480

Email: info@pls-bc.ca

We are grateful for the
funding provided by

How to Show Your Support

Help us to continue to fight for the human rights of prisoners in BC! PLS is currently litigating the important systemic issues of the segregation of prisoners with mental disabilities, access to health care, transgender prisoner rights, and access to religion and Indigenous spirituality. We need help to continue to do this important work. Donations to West Coast Prison Justice Society are non-charitable and are not tax deductible.

Donations can be made to
West Coast Prison Justice Society

Or by PayPal:

Please call us at 604-636-0470 or email us at info@pls-bc.ca if you would like to discuss your donation.

Thanks for your support!

Prisoners reach settlement on access to drug treatment in provincial jails

by J Metcalfe | Apr 15, 2016 | News, News Releases

A group of prisoners who filed a Charter challenge last month in BC Supreme Court reached an agreement with BC Corrections today that will save them the effort and the enormous expense of having their case go to court.

Their challenge was against a provincial prison policy that restricted their access to methadone and Suboxone medication for opiate addiction treatment. The five prisoners sought an injunction order suspending the policy; and compelling BC Corrections to bring them before a doctor authorized by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC to prescribe methadone and suboxone.

The challenge was funded by the West Coast Prison Justice Society.

“At this time, all of our clients have been treated with the medication they were asking for, and BC Corrections has implemented a new policy,” said Adrienne Smith, a Vancouver lawyer acting for the four men in provincial custody who brought the case. “The decision is timely, given the Provincial Health Officer’s declaration of a public health emergency yesterday” Said Smith. “We know the fentanyl epidemic does not stop at the prison gate. We congratulate BC Corrections for making changes to its policies to address this issue before anyone else in prison in BC dies a preventable death”.

In the news:

Prisoners’ Legal Services
310-625 Agnes Street
New Westminster, BC, V3M 5Y4

Tel: 604-636-0470
Fax: 604-636-0480

Email: info@pls-bc.ca

We are grateful for the
funding provided by

How to Show Your Support

Help us to continue to fight for the human rights of prisoners in BC! PLS is currently litigating the important systemic issues of the segregation of prisoners with mental disabilities, access to health care, transgender prisoner rights, and access to religion and Indigenous spirituality. We need help to continue to do this important work. Donations to West Coast Prison Justice Society are non-charitable and are not tax deductible.

Donations can be made to
West Coast Prison Justice Society

Or by PayPal:

Please call us at 604-636-0470 or email us at info@pls-bc.ca if you would like to discuss your donation.

Thanks for your support!