Read and Vote: Does solitary confinement have a place in our prisons?

[polly7]

The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Dec. 10 2014, 10:16 AM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 10 2014, 2:38 PM EST

The Globe's series on the prison death of Edward Snowshoe has sparked a national discussion. Two penal experts share their views on the effectiveness of solitary confinement

The Debate

The Globe and Mail’s investigation into the prison death of Edward Snowshoe has provoked a national conversation about the use of solitary confinement in prisons. Solitary (known in the prison system as segregation) is widely used in Canada, and prison officials and some penal-system scholars argue that it is an important tool in maintaining prison security. But the suicide deaths of Mr. Snowshoe in 2010 and of 19-year-old Ashley Smith in 2007, and the recent investigations and inquiries into the prison conditions that led to those deaths, have raised questions about the use and abuse of solitary confinement. Should the practice be abolished entirely, or regulated more strictly? We have brought together two experts to debate this question. Read their arguments, and use the box on the right to vote.

I agree with this argument:

Kim Pate:

The Canadian Medical Association has called solitary “cruel and usual punishment,” noting that social isolation and lack of stimulation too often result in feelings of anxiety, depression and anger, increasing the risk of self-injurious and suicidal responses in prisoners.

In 2011, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment called for an absolute ban on its imposition on youth and those with mental health issues. He declared solitary confinement contrary to the successful rehabilitation and reintegration needs of prisoners – something in which we all have an investment.

Recently, Canada’s own Correctional Investigator reported that 14 of 30 prisoner suicides in the past three years occurred in segregation, which elevates suicide risk. Most prisoners who died in segregation had a documented history of mental health issues, but counselling intervention is rarely offered to those who’ve been isolated.

Given this context, Canadians are questioning why the practice continues.

(72% of those who voted also agreed with her).

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/read-and-vote-does-solitary-confinement-have-a-place-in-our-prisons/article22020968/

[Spazito]

1. Thanks for posting this...

I voted for Kim Pate's perspective as well. SC is all too often used so the prisons don't have to deal with mental health issues in a humane way.

[polly7]

2. You're welcome and I agree, they don't want to expend the resources.

We don't treat our animals this way. in my mind, it's torture, plain and simple.

At 9:33, three paramedics arrive. The cell Mr. Snowshoe has endured for 162 days proves too cramped for the personnel necessary to save his life; they drag him into the hallway. The guards continue their furious pumping of his chest. For all the faults that preceded this desperate moment, there is no questioning the guards’ resolve to save the young inmate that night. But after nearly an hour of life-saving efforts, they must pronounce Edward Christopher Snowshoe dead. He is 24 years old.

His was a death foretold. Over three years in prison, Mr. Snowshoe had morphed from a shy but hale young man into a chronically suicidal inmate suffering from a dangerous brew of mental-health issues. He died – on Aug. 13, 2010 – while locked in a 2.5-by-3.6-metre cell where the Correctional Service of Canada had determined he posed the least amount of harm to himself or others.

But as libraries of stats and scholarly articles can attest, solitary confinement is a counterproductive kind of harm prevention. Humans are social animals. We subsist on stimulus and response. To restrain us alone is to deny stimuli; correspondingly, our response mechanisms break down. In solitary, this can lead to a litany of health problems – including, but not limited to, hallucinations, anxiety, loss of impulse control, severe depression, heart palpitations and reduced brain function. In many cases, the damage is irreversible. It’s no wonder the suicide rate in federal prisons is seven times that in the public at large, with nearly half taking place in segregation.

In Canada, though, the use of solitary continues unabated. Officials have tinkered with solitary policies in the wake of several high-profile suicides, but the number of federal inmates in segregation here creeps ever upward – by more than 6 per cent over the last five years alone. One year ago, a coroner’s inquest into the death of Ashley Smith, the New Brunswick teen who took her life while in Correctional Service custody in 2007, recommended strict limits on solitary confinement: a maximum consecutive stay of 15 days, and a cap of 60 days in solitary for every calendar year. The Correctional Service has yet to respond.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/confined-the-death-of-eddie-snowshoe/article21815548/

[Spazito]

3. The Ashley Smith travesty is what really focused my attention to the abuse of SC...

but I have long thought the lack of resources/deliberate cuts to mental health agencies has resulted in those with mental health issues being incarcerated and segregated within our prison system instead of addressing the needs in the greater community.

It is both infuriating and saddening, cost/benefit wins out and we end up with the screwed up system we have.