It sounds like something that occurs under barbaric, totalitarian regimes.
Prisoners are held in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day. They have no recourse to an independent body to oversee their incarceration, nor do they know when it will end. They have no access to outside stimulation or human interaction. Often they are mentally ill.
But it happens in Canada. In our prison systems.
At any time in Canada, up to 1,800 prisoners are being held in solitary confinement and one out of every four inmates has spent some time there.
Moreover the Correctional Service of Canada shows no signs of putting restrictions on the practice despite indefinite solitary confinement being regarded internationally as a form of torture by organizations such as the United Nations, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the European Commission for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
That’s why a lawsuit challenging the use of solitary confinement in Canadian prisons as unconstitutional is so welcome.
[For more of this story go to http://www.thestar.com/opinion...ement-editorial.html]
Comments (0)