The CBA’s Criminal Justice Section -- and its Imprisonment and Release Committee -- strongly supports Bill S-205, An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and offers additional amendments to the Act that further protect the basic human rights and dignity of people who are incarcerated and further Canada’s commitments to Truth and Reconciliation to support Indigenous self-determination in alternatives to prison.
Key amendments
Definition of Structured Intervention Unit: The bill amends the definition of “structured intervention unit” (SIU) to include “any area of the penitentiary where a person is separated from the mainstream population and is required to spend less time outside their cell or engaging in activities than is a person in the mainstream population.” This prevents Correctional Service Canada's (CSC) practice of implementing unregulated isolation units, such as observation cells or voluntary limited association ranges.
Transfer to hospital: The bill proposes requiring people with disabling mental health issues to be transferred to a community-based hospital or any mental health facility. It would prevent them being subjected to the most abusive harms of imprisonment, including uses of force and solitary confinement based on symptoms of mental health disabilities, and would ultimately be more cost-efficient than keeping them in a SIU or maximum security.
Judicial review of SIU placements: The bill would restrict the use of a SIU to 48 hours, unless authorized by a superior court. Reports reveal that the independent external decision-makers review system has failed to prevent the continued use of prolonged solitary confinement.
Expanding sections 81 and 84 to include marginalized populations: To respect the right to self-determination, the CBA proposes that section 81 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act be administered by an Indigenous-led body established through the Ministry of Public Safety, so that Indigenous communities can operate section 81 facilities according to Indigenous law, rather than mirror the colonial structures of prisons with grossly inadequate budgets. Section 84 should include a funding provision administered through this proposed Indigenous-led body established directly through the Ministry of Public Safety.
Court application for sentence reduction: Section 11 of the bill proposes amendments that allow incarcerated people to “apply to the court that imposed the sentence for an order reducing that period as the court considers appropriate and just in the circumstances if, in the court’s opinion, a decision, recommendation, act or omission” of CSC was contrary to law or policy, unreasonable, unjust, oppressive, improperly discriminatory, or on other grounds. Legal aid for people in prison in Canada is extremely limited, and opportunities to challenge mistreatment in Canadian penitentiaries are limited. Judicial oversight of sentence administration ensures that Canada’s prisons are administered with transparency and accountability.
Why this matters
Bill S-205 aims to end practices of isolation in federal prisons and requires a person with disabling mental health issues to be transferred to a hospital in the provincial health system.
Two sections of the CBA team up with the Canadian Council for Refugees to propose a unique, cost-effective solution for the federal government to address the prolonged separation of refugee families
The CBA's Competition Law and Foreign Investment Review Section offers recommendations to the consultation on the future of competition policy in Canada.
