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