PRIORITY ISSUES AND LAW REFORM
This year CAEFS faced issues that challenged the very nature and mandate
of our association. We have emerged with much positive learning as a result,
as well as some clear notions of the directions in which we need to proceed
to fulfil our mandate. The specifics of these are outlined in each of the
following activity and issue summaries.
Supporting Federally Sentenced Women
a) Prison for Women (P4W)
Although the deteriorating conditions and heightened tension at the Prison
for Women have been a focal point of CAEFS' discussions with the Correctional
Service of Canada for some time, our concerns in this regard took on crisis
proportions at the beginning of this fiscal year. Regrettably, our concerns,
as well as those of others, were not heeded, resulting in a series of events
at P4W, one of which was eventually highlighted by the CBC's Fifth Estate
story entitled "The Ultimate Response".
Other key components of this series of events that have not been much publicized
however include: the court ordered return to P4W by the Correctional Service
of Canada of the women who were involuntarily transferred May 6, 1994 to
the Kingston Penitentiary for men; as well as the sensory deprivation and
isolation experienced by the six women who were involved in the April 22,
1994 incident; they were confined in segregation, on 23-hour lock-up, two
women for eight months, the other four for nine months following the April
22, 1994 incidents.
Throughout this period, the entire prison, particularly the living unit,
B-Range, remained very secure and segregated. In addition, tension has continued
to mount in P4W, resulting in increased unrest, limited movement, women
seeking transfers, as well as increased tension between prisoners and staff.
CAEFS averages between 5 and 10 telephone calls per week from federally
sentenced women, this rate increases to 15-20 calls per week, with peaks
as high as 10-12 calls per day, during periods of heightened tension.
The CSC's Investigative Report into what have come to be known as "the
April 1994 incidents", was not released until nearly nine months following
the incidents. Similarly, CAEFS was denied access to the video taped intervention
of the Kingston Penitentiary's Emergency Response Team on April 26, 1994,
as they stripped and shackled eight women, two of whom were not involved
in the April 22, 1994 "incident"; as well as the involuntary transfer
of five of the women to Kingston Penitentiary on May 6, 1994. Two days after
the Fifth Estate piece aired and the Solicitor General announced that he
would be commissioning an independent inquiry into the matter, CAEFS was
advised that the videos were available for viewing at national headquarters.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International and Penal Reform
International are all concerned with this most recent example of Canada's
lack of adherence to and implementation of the United Nations Standard Minimum
Rules for the Treatment of Offenders. The matter will also be raised at
the United Nations 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing (China), September
4-15, 1995. Resolutions have also been proposed by national women's, justice,
labour and First Nations groups, and the issues will be on the agenda for
the "Violence Against Women" consultations with the Department
of Justice in June 1995.
CAEFS is seeking full standing and funding in relation to the Commission
of Inquiry into the matters surrounding the April 1994 incidents at P4W.
CAEFS wishes to ensure that both the layers of decision making and responsibility
for matters arising at P4W are elucidated, but also that CSC policies and
procedures and policies at P4W and for the new
prisons are analyzed and revised. We are particularly concerned that the
decision to allow the hiring of men as primary workers be reversed and that
search and segregation policies be changed.
Given the integral role played by both the Office of the Correctional Investigator
and the Citizens' Advisory Committees, we would like to see an enhancement
of the powers of intervention of external bodies. We would also like to
see compensation for the women involved, and CAEFS also supports the recommendations
outlined in the Special Report of the Correctional Investigator. Another
ongoing issue of concern to CAEFS this year surrounds CSC's inconsistent
adherence to its own inmate grievance policies and procedures. Most particularly,
we continue to have significant concerns about the ability amongst managerial
staff at P4W to adhere to the CSC's own inmate grievance process.
A new segregation unit will officially be opened on April 14, 1995, at P4W.
Solid doors, locked meal slots, glaring neon lights, questionable ventilation,
undiscernible programming and limited personal contact make it a most unpleasant
environment. Meanwhile, the old segregation unit is to be physically altered
by the removal of the tread plate [installed on the bars when the women
were transferred back to the Prison for Women from Kingston Penitentiary
in July of last year]. The prison plans to make it a "special needs"
type of unit to accommodate some of the women who have been identified as
having serious mental health concerns and are deemed incapable of integrating
into the general prison population. We are advised by CSC that there are
now ten women at P4W in this category.
It remains a concern of CAEFS that, seemingly as result of the lack of acknowledgement
by the Correctional Service of Canada of its responsibility in the April
1994 and subsequent events at the Prison for Women, far too much energy
is being devoted to reinforcing a notion of imprisoned women as difficult
to manage prisoners and security risks. CAEFS would rather see them developing
clear plans to meet the needs of women currently imprisoned at the Prison
for Women, as well as of those who will be moved to the new prisons and
the Healing Lodge. Much more emphasis is needed on transitional process
and the development of community supports for women prisoners.
b) CSC Contracts
Hamilton EFS has written to the Solicitor General requesting the initiation
of negotiations regarding the halfway house contract for women in their
area. Following the tendering process for the beds, the contract was awarded
to the Salvation Army in Hamilton. That contract was subsequently placed
on hold, with no clear date for its commencement. Meanwhile women wait in
prison.
c) Transitional Planning/Task Force Implementation
CAEFS continues to focus on issues related to the implementation of the
recommendations of the Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women. Our aim
is to assist and support women during the transition between the closure
of the Prison for Women (P4W) in Kingston and the opening of the new prisons
and the National Healing Lodge. To this end, CAEFS continues to make a minimum
of one visit to the prison per month. CAEFS was also able to visit women
imprisoned in the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women, which is designated
as the prison for federally sentenced women in the Pacific region. Via these
visits, as well as telephone calls and correspondence, we keep in regular
contact with federally sentenced women across the country.
Federally sentenced women from the Prairies have been retained or repatriated
in the region and are currently imprisoned in the Regional Psychiatric Centre
(RPC) in Saskatoon. Conditions at the RPC are reported as being quite abysmal
by the women. Most of the federally sentenced women from the Quebec region
remain imprisoned in the provincially run Maison Tanguay. The women are
in the provincial prison by virtue of an Exchange of Services agreement
between the province and the federal government. The agreement will endure
until the new prison for women in Joliette opens.
Status updates on each of the new prisons are also regularly shared amongst
CAEFS members. Despite the objections and interventions of CAEFS and other
national women's groups, the Correctional Services of Canada has now adopted
a new security classification scheme for women. In addition, in reaction
to the April "incidents", at which time the high risk mythologizing
of federally sentenced women took on outrageous proportions, far too many
women are being classified as high security risks.
Additional concerns exist regarding the need for placement integration of
women into the new minimum security prisons for women which will open over
the next year or so.
For example, following the April 1994 incidents at the Prison for Women,
the capacity of the enhanced security units was doubled, and the cells have
been built to accommodate double-bunking, thus the segregation or enhanced
security capacity has effectively been quadrupled. There is also talk of
developing additional segregation style "cell space" in the new
prisons. In addition, research on violent women has been commissioned in
preparation for policy development for the new prisons.
Indeed, one year after the incidents, a snapshot of the 134 women in P4W
revealed that 52 were classified as maximum security, 44 as medium security
and only 38 as minimum security, 12 of whom are actually resident at the
Minimum House across the street from P4W. CAEFS will continue to monitor
this process, as it is not only affecting current practices at P4W, but
creates additional concerns regarding the integration of women into the
new prisons for women in the regions.
CSC has yet to develop transitional planning committees comprised of FSW,
for each region. Representatives from each regional committee will, in turn,
form a national steering committee, the membership of which federally sentenced
women have requested include CAEFS. Once these committees are established,
it is anticipated that Elizabeth Fry societies in the regions will be linked
into the respective transitional group in order to facilitate planning for
community-based services for the women once they are in the regions.
Preliminary discussions have also commenced regarding the establishment
of Elizabeth Fry/Correctional Service protocols to facilitate the regionalization
of CAEFS' mandate to represent the interests of women in prison by working
with and on behalf of them to give voice to their needs and concerns. In
addition, CSC has agreed to facilitate the provision of national, regional
and institutional policies and procedures to the CAEFS' representatives
who will be coordinating regional educational and advocacy efforts.
CAEFS also continues to work to ensure the involvement of federally sentenced
women themselves in transitional planning, enhanced communication strategies
and protocols between regions, in preparation for the closure of Prison
for Women and the consequent movement of federally sentenced women to the
new prisons.
Back to Report Index
Home