Yukon should track, publish segregation records: professor

A professor at the University of Manitoba says it's in the community's interest to know what's happening at the Whitehorse jail.

CBC North tried to get statistics, through access to information legislation, about the use of segregation at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre.

The response from Yukon’s justice department was that the jail doesn't have the ability to readily prepare those statistical reports. The department said prisoners’ stays in segregation are recorded in logbooks. If the department were to strip the names from the logbooks, in order to protect privacy, "these records would become non-responsive," the department said.

Manitoba law professor Debra Parkes says even a short stay in segregation can have serious psychological effects on inmates.

"There's a particular psychosis people develop. There's a particular paranoia. There are all kinds of lasting and significant psychological impacts," she says. 

Parkes says that should concern people who will have to live with the prisoners when they're released. 

"It's actually in all of our interests to think and know about and be aware of what's going on behind the prison walls, even though we might want to forget about it," Parkes says. "We might want to think well, do the crime, do the time, and and we won't worry about what that means for the community safety later."

She says when prisoners are in institutions like the Whitehorse jail, only for short periods, it's possible some inmates are more volatile when they're released than when they entered.

Parkes says in some jails relatively few inmates are segregated for disciplinary reasons.

Many are put in segregation because of mental health problems or because there's no room in the regular cells.

She says all of those stays should all be tracked.

Human rights complaint changes draw criticism

Yukon’s justice department recently came under fire for a new policy that says prisoners wishing to file a complaint with the Yukon Human Rights Commission must first file the complaint within the Whitehorse Correctional Centre.

Advocacy groups say that’s an unnecessary barrier, particularly for inmates who may be suffering mental health issues.

Linda Bonnefoy, with the Civil Liberties Association, says the internal complaints system has not worked for Michael Nehass, an inmate who said he spent 28 months in segregation, "which is considered torture under international law by the United Nations when prisoners are held in cells for more than 35 days."

Michael Nehass still is in cells despite a human rights application being filed by his father back in July 2014.

Katherine Alexander is with the Elizabeth Fry Society, which advocates for female inmates.

"If there's a systemic issue around mental health treatment, around the use of self-confinement, around access to culturally appropriate activities, or religious ceremonies, then a body that has the ability to correct those systemic injustices has the right to be in there."

Minister of Justice, Mike Nixon, said the internal system works fine.

"I think the investigations and standards office, it's far removed. I have full confidence."