Canada’s use of prolonged solitary confinement in federal prisons is the equivalent of torture, doesn’t work and has been struck down as unconstitutional by the B.C. Supreme Court.
In a landmark decision Wednesday, Justice Peter Leask said the legislation allowing such confinement fails to provide an independent review of segregation placements and deprives inmates of the right to counsel at segregation review hearings.
He concluded the regime violated prisoners’ Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ Section 7 right to life because it placed them at increased risk of self-harm and suicide.
It also breached their right to security of the person, Leask found.
“I find as a fact that administrative segregation as enacted by s. 31 of the CCRA is a form of solitary confinement that places all Canadian federal inmates subject to it at significant risk of serious psychological harm, including mental pain and suffering, and increased incidence of self-harm and suicide,” Leask wrote in his 54,000-word judgment.
[…]
Read more on Vancouver Sun