BenchPress.

• Author: Mitchell, Teresa

1. A series of cases decided in January 2019 highlight the ongoing problems with solitary confinement within Canada's corrections system.

   The British Columbia Court of Appeal ruled on a challenge filed by the John Howard Society and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association against the Attorney General of Canada on the issue of inmate segregation. The Court of Appeal gave the Attorney General more time to come up with new policies for holding prisoners in solitary confinement, but in the meantime set out new conditions to help protect inmates' constitutional rights. The Court of Appeal ordered:

   * Inmates must be given 2 1/2 hours a day outside of their cells, including an opportunity to be outdoors for at least 1 1/2 hours each day, including weekends and holidays;

   * Inmates should receive a daily visit from a health care professional;

   * Indigenous Elders must be allowed to visit segregation units and provide one-on-one counselling to Indigenous prisoners;

   * A senior official must give authorization before a prisoner can be kept in segregation for more than

   15 days, and that person cannot be the head of the institution where the prisoner is kept; and

   * Inmates must be allowed to have legal counsel at hearings to determine their placement in solitary confinement.

   British Columbia Civil Liberties Association and the John Howard Society of Canada v. Canada (Attorney General), 2018 BCSC 62 (CanLII) http://canlii.ca/t/hprxx

   In Edmonton, a Court of Queen's Bench Justice ruled that an inmate kept in solitary confinement for over a year suffered cruel and unusual punishment. He was moved out of segregation only after he brought a writ of habeas corpus to challenge his placement. Justice Pentelechuk gave inmate

   Ryan Prystay 3.75 days credit towards every one day he spent in segregation. The Justice wrote: "Arguably, it is the lack of meaningful human contact that is the most pernicious consequence of placement in segregation. Human beings are not meant to be isolated, particularly for extended periods."

   R. v. Prystay--2019 ABQB 8 (CanLII) http://canlii.ca/t/hwt62

   Finally, at the end of January, 2019 the Ontario Superior Court granted a stay of proceedings in the murder prosecution of Adam Capay, the young Aboriginal man who came to national attention after he was kept in solitary confinement for over four years, in a cell where the lights were kept on 24 hours a day. Usually, courts remedy unacceptable behaviour such as this by crediting time against the...