D. Role of the Regional Psychiatric Centre ("RPC") in Saskatoon

The Regional Psychiatric Centre operates as both a penitentiary under the CCRA and a psychiatric hospital under the Saskatchewan Mental Health Act. There are inconsistencies in the two legislative regimes, which operate to the detriment of inmates.69 For example, on one hand, prisoner/patients may be denied procedural protections under the CCRA on the basis that they are being treated for their illness, while on the other hand, they may be subjected to security decisions that compromise their medical treatment.

CAEF’s overall paper provides a comprehensive discussion of the various problems that occur when a prisoner is assigned the duel status of "prisoner/patient" at the Regional Psychiatric Centre. For ease of reference, the portions of that paper, which are relevant to this discussion, are reproduced below.

1. The “Level System”

The CCRA provides that all prisoners are entitled to be in the general population of the prison in which they are incarcerated (s. 73). This means that they are entitled to the same degree of liberty within the prison as other prisoners within that prison. The degree of liberty of the general population of a prison varies, depending on the security level of the prison. The exception to this is administrative or punitive segregation. Punitive segregation may be imposed only after a conviction in institutional court for a disciplinary infraction, and a sentence to serve time in segregation may not exceed 30 days (s. 44, CCRA). The use of segregation as a disciplinary tool indicates that it is an especially severe form of imprisonment. The purpose of administrative segregation is to keep prisoners from associating with the general prison population (s. 31, CCRA). Administrative segregation may only be imposed on specific statutory criteria set out in s. 31 of the CCRA, and in accordance with the procedural requirements in s. 19 - 23 of the Regulations. There is nothing in the legislation that permits a prisoner to be given less freedom within the institution than the rest of the general population except in accordance with the strict requirements of the legislation.

At the RPC, the “level system,” which operates in psychiatric hospitals, is used to control the degree of liberty permitted to women prisoners in the unit. For example, on Level 1, a woman will be placed in one of three cells in the isolation unit, where she may be deprived of her personal possessions and restricted to the cell except for showers or exercise in the prison yard for an hour a day. She may be handcuffed whenever she is out of her cell. Levels 2 to 4 are progressively less restrictive and provide more “privileges”, that is access to legal entitlements of a prisoner in general population.

The decision to assign a level is made by the treatment team, which includes correctional officers, who are not mental health professionals. The authorization for the imposition of the level system is the Saskatchewan Mental Health Act, which implies that decision- making should be based on therapeutic considerations and rest with qualified mental health professionals.⁷⁰