Volume 88 | Issue 10 | obiter-dicta.ca
The Definitive Source for Osgoode News since 1928
Monday, February 2, 2014
cruel, unusual,
and ineffective
ê While solitary confinement is on the rise in Canadian prisons, the question becomes whether it violates prisoners’ Charter rights. Photo credit: Huffingtonpost.ca
esther mendelsohn › staff writer
Y
ou k now you might be in trouble as a
correctional system when one of the most
notorious prisons in the US has begun to
implement more progressive policies than
yours. Rikers Island, the massive corrections complex that reeks of urine and desperation (known to
any Law and Order aficionado), has been mandated
by the New York corrections board to abolish segregation (otherwise referred to as solitary confinement) for inmates under twenty-one years of age.
Meanwhile in Canada, we are ramping up our use
of the controversial correctional tool as crime rates
drop.
To be sure, some inmates need to be in solitary
confinement for their own safety and that of others.
Correctional officer and inmate safety is, and should
be, a top priority. When crime rates seem to be on
the decline and the over-incarceration of racialized
and Aboriginal people has reached pandemic proportions, however (move to beginning of sentence
for clarity?), we must re-evaluate our use of inmate
segregation.
Segregation has a particularly deleterious effect
on vulnerable inmates such as those living with
mental illness. In a recently published article in the
Globe and Mail, one inmate described how she suppresses her emotions so that the corrections officers
are deprived of “taking satisfaction in her struggles.” When she has reached out for help out of desperation, she says she was not believed because the
guards are not accustomed to seeing her as a human
being with emotions and needs.
Ashley Smith committed suicide in her cell after
» see solitary confinement, page 10
In this Issue ...
editorial
Great Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
news
Solitary Confinement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cover
Notice-and-Notice Abuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
arts & culture
Winterlicious . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Jurisfoodence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
sports
Toronto Blue Jays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9