by British Columbia Civil Liberties Association
Today the media reports that
the Correctional Service of Canada has publicly stated that it is
“moving away” from a controversial solitary confinement program called
the Management Protocol.
The statement comes in the wake of a lawsuit
the BC Civil Liberties Association launched last week that seeks to
abolish the Management Protocol and long term solitary confinement in
Canadian prisons. Under the Management Protocol, women can be held in
solitary confinement for months and years at a time.
Carmen Cheung, Counsel at the BCCLA: “We welcome the
news that the correctional service might abandon the Management
Protocol, but unfortunately, this is not the first time that they have
stated that they are ‘moving away’ from the Protocol.
In 2009, they said
the same thing, yet the Management Protocol still exists and women
continue to suffer under it. It’s time for the correctional service to
pull the plug on the Protocol once and for all.”
In his 2008-2009 report, the Correctional
Investigator, the independent ombudsperson for federal offenders,
recommended that the Management Protocol be abolished. In response, the
correctional service stated in 2009 that it was “currently reviewing its
strategy for managing higher risk women with a view to moving away from
the Management Protocol and developing an alternative comprehensive
approach.” The correctional service made similar promises in May 2010.
In a report on the Management Protocol, the correctional service stated
that its goal was to “move away” from the Management Protocol, but that
it would nonetheless continue to operate the program. The report also
expressed skepticism about the harmful effects of solitary confinement.
Lengthy solitary confinement has been condemned the world over as a
human rights violation.
Grace Pastine, BCCLA Litigation Director: “Talk is
cheap. The women who are passing months and years in solitary
confinement in cells the size of a bathroom need more than empty words
-- they need the promise that their suffering will come to an end and
that the Management Protocol will be abandoned once and for all. No one
deserves to be forced to endure the barbaric conditions of years in
solitary confinement.”
The BCCLA lawsuit seeks declarations that the Management Protocol and the sections of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act providing
for prolonged, indefinite solitary confinement are unconstitutional.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 24-year old prisoner BobbyLee Worm.
Since the start of her incarceration in 2006, Ms. Worm has spent over
three and half years in solitary confinement.
Read the Notice of Claim here >>
