As the policy now stands, all prisoners convicted of first or second degree murder will be assessed in the provincial institutions and will therefore be penitentiary placed directly into the segregated . maximum security units in men's prisons. As such, in order to prevent such placements, we will need lawyers to assist in bringing habeas corpus applications in advance of the penitentiary placement process being completed. (ie. before the women are transferred to the segregated maximum security units in the men's prisons). For the past several cases The Executive Director have worked very closely with the Regional Advocates in order to determine who the best individuals may be to provide legal assistance to the women. CAEFS encourages the continuation of such collaboration. .

b) Dialectical Behaviour Therapy at Its Worst

As the members in the Atlantic Region are well aware, there has been significant time and energy devoted to intervening in a particularly odious situation involving the a federally sentenced woman who was segregated for most of her time within the segregated maximum security unit in the Springhill Institution, Extensive periods of time in segregation and the resulting isolation that she has endured over the past seven to eight years, combined with CSC's experimentation with Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) [please refer to the excellent critical analysis of DBT provided by Dr. Shoshana Pollack and Kathy Kendall] has taken their toll on this woman.

When the Executive Director visited with this woman on March 1 SI, 2001, her alarm was so great that the Executive Director was immediately in contact with several lawyers in the Atlantic Region. The result was that the woman .was removed from the segregated maximum security unit in Springhill Institution and placed at the Nova Scotia Hospital, a forensic/psychiatric unit, where she remains for an assessment. Despite her own repeated requests to see a psychiatrist, the resident psychologist had apparently not passed on her request. Indeed, his repeated responses to her were to advise her that she should 'eat, sleep and do her DBT [exercises]'. Several staff spoke with me anonymously and confirmed that the psychologist was blocking any attempts to intervene.

During one of a number of reported incidents of staff provoking this woman, she hit a male officer and was consequently charged with assaulting a guard. We saw this charge as an opportunity to get her out of the prison and into a psychiatric facility for a professional assessment. When the woman advised the psychologist that we had indicated that we would seek a court order to have her removed from Springhill for an assessment, he told the woman that nobody but he could authorize her being sent out of the prison for an assessment. Needless to say, he is now asserting that he felt she needed to be in a psychiatric setting.

The woman is currently being assessed as to her fitness to stand trial on the assault charge. Throughout the period she has been in the psychiatric hospital, she has been in daily contact with us. Indeed, we speak to her anywhere from 5 to 10 times daily. She has also been in regular contact with her psychiatrist and her lawyer. In addition, the staff at the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia in Halifax, have provided personal on-site support for this woman. It has been a very good example of a well coordinated strategy to remove her from a very desperate and deleterious situation.