'Positive reception' from Ontario on call to end indefinite segregation: ombudsman

Ontario's ombudsman says he has received "positive reception" from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services after calling on the province to abolish the practice of putting inmates in indefinite segregation.

• Ontario ombudsman calls for end indefinite jail segregation
• Prison watchdog want end to solitary for mentally ill inmates

Paul Dubé said his office has received 557 complaints about segregation in Ontario correctional facilities in the past three years — including one inmate who was segregated for three years.

"Those were the people who could reach us," Dubé said Wednesday on Ottawa Morning.

That isolation can be so hard on human psyche.- Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé

"They're supposed to have the same conditions in segregation as the other inmates but we find they don't so sometimes they can't get to a phone, they can't access the outside world. And quite often the only way we hear about these stories are though the media."

​A man spent 18 months in segregation at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre only to be found unfit to be tried, he said. Another man took his own life in segregation at the Ottawa jail in April after waiting two years to be tried on six counts of sexual assault.

"We're aware of at least four suicides in segregation cells across Ontario over recent years, so I think it's time to act," he said. "One inmate said he thought he had bugs in his brain and another said he was just tired of life, like there was just no point going on. That isolation can be so hard on human psyche."

'There isn't enough protection'

Dubé has called for an independent segregation review panel to "eliminate these horror stories" that come out of long-term isolation.

​There are supposed to be regular reviews and documentation of those in segregation, and those inmates are supposed to have the same conditions and access to programs as those in the general population but "that's not always the case" due to a lack of oversight, Dubé said.

"There isn't enough protection," he said. "Policies and regulations are one thing but there's no legislation to protect these inmates."

He said indefinite segregation — what he defines as more than 15 days — is "quite often" used as a "management tool" for the most vulnerable inmates.

"It's not supposed to be used for inmates with mental issues or disabilities or developmental challenges and so what we found is quite a gap between the policy and the regulations, and reality," Dubé said.

He is hopeful that the province will move forward with his recommendations.

"As an ombudsman, there's three things I look for when I issue a report: one is an acknowledgement of the problem, and secondly, a willingness to address that problem, and third, movement toward positive change," he said. "We've seen the first two with the ministry."