By Anna Mehler Paperny – Reuters
Like a growing number of formerly incarcerated Indigenous people, Marvin Starblanket’s life is still governed by Correctional Service Canada rules.
prison
Canada prisons fail to follow solitary confinement rules, report finds
Rights groups fight Canada government’s defense of solitary confinement
June 21, 2018 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Reuters
Canadian law allows for prolonged, indefinite solitary confinement that hurts vulnerable people most and that is why it must be struck down, lawyers for civil liberties groups argued this week, as they accused the government of backing away from its avowed goal of pursuing prison reform.
Canada’s jailhouse secret: Legally innocent prisoners are dying
August 3, 2017 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Reuters
Nearly 270 people have died in Canadian provincial jails over the past five years. Two-thirds of them were legally innocent.
Ontario won’t commit to ending use of mental illness as a reason for solitary confinement
May 5, 2016 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Corrections Minister Yasir Naqvi is “concerned” that Ontario inmates are being put in solitary confinement because of their mental illnesses — but he won’t commit to ending the practice entirely.
Inmates with mental illness subject to ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’ suit alleges
July 17, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
A Toronto law firm has launched a class action suit against the federal government over the treatment of prison inmates with mental illness.
Rough justice: Lockdowns skyrocket at short-staffed Ontario jails
July 8, 2015 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Staffing-related lockdowns in crowded jails across Ontario have more than tripled since 2009, numbers obtained by Global News show.
Magnotta trial: Not criminally responsible myths, debunked
September 30, 2014 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Luka Magnotta has said he killed and dismembered Chinese student Jun Lin, but is seeking a designation of NCR – not criminally responsible.
If Magnotta is found not criminally responsible it would mean a mental disorder was behind his actions. Instead of going to prison, he would go to a forensic hospital where he’s kept and treated for however long it takes until the illness is abated and he’s no longer a danger to the public (or himself).
Canada’s failing to prevent inmate suicides, watchdog finds
September 10, 2014 – Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Canada’s federal prisons are continuing practices known to make inmates more likely to kill themselves – and then failing to properly measure or report these suicides, a watchdog report finds.
Years after Ashley Smith death, little action on women inmates
May 1, 2014 – Global News
What if there were a way to prevent more mentally ill women inmates from dying, and no one grabbed it?
Senator Bob Runciman has spent years pushing the federal government to adopt the strategy he pioneered as Ontario’s Public Safety Minister a decade ago – “with modest success, to say the least,” he smiles.
a business of misfits 