THUNDER BAY - Ontario's correction's minister says segregation should be a last resort, but a correctional officer and union head at the local district jail says the four-year segregation of a prisoner there has been the only viable option.
During question period Tuesday, MPP Jennifer French (NDP, Oshawa), asked Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, David Orazietti, how recent changes announced by the government to segregation in provincial prisons will benefit 23-year-old Adam Capay, who has been held in segregation for nearly four years.
That specific case at the Thunder Bay District Jail has caught the attention of MPPs at Queen’s Park, highlighting the deteriorating conditions at the 100-year-old facility.
“I’m sure that I saw Adam when I toured the Thunder Bay jail and the minister would have too,” French said. “How does this government’s changes to segregation help Adam Capay today?”
On Oct. 17, the provincial government announced sweeping changes to the use of segregation in prisons and jails, including reducing the maximum length of the practice from 30 consecutive days to 15, a weekly review of all inmates in segregation at each institution, and eliminating the loss of all privileges for inmates in segregation.
“We’ve introduced changes to our correctional facilities where segregation will be used only as a last resort when there is no other viable option,” Orazietti said.
According to correctional staff at the Thunder Bay District Jail, there has been no other viable option for an inmate like Capay, highlighting once again a lack of resources at the facility.
“I want to make it clear that management here at the Thunder Bay jail and staff have only done what we can do with the resources that we have here,” said Michael Lundy, a correctional officer at the Thunder Bay District Jail and president of OPSEU 737.
Capay was charged in connection with the murder of 35-year-old Sherman Quisses, during an altercation at the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre in June, 2012.
Lundy confirmed Capay has been held in segregation for nearly four years.
The segregation unit at the District Jail consist of regular jail cells with bars and Plexiglas on the front. The lights remain on 24-hours a day and there is no natural light.
Lundy clarified that the cells are not in the basement and that no inmates are housed below grade at the District Jail.
The decision by management to place Capay in segregation was, according to Lundy, for the safety of staff, other inmates, and Capay himself.
“I know that’s not what people are going to want to hear, but it’s the truth,” Lundy said. “We don’t have the resources that would be available to people in Southern Ontario.”
Lundy pointed to other correctional institutions in the province that have mental health wings and access to 24-hour psychiatric care.
“We have a physiatrist that comes once a week and we have 140 inmates,” Lundy said of the situation in Thunder Bay. “We don’t have a mental health wing and we’ve got a building [Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital] right over here with 1,500 beds that has been closed for 25 years.”
The case of Adam Capay is an extreme one, Lundy said, though he added that there can be instances where inmates are placed in segregation for extended periods of time.
“Sometimes because of the structure that we are working with, that’s all we can do,” he said.
Unable to get into any specifics regarding Capay’s case, Lundy did say that based on his own experiences, mentally ill inmates should not be housed in jails.
“We need to get help for them in the communities, outside of jails,” he said. “Jails are not the place to house these types of inmates.”
Lundy, who has been pushing the government for a new correctional facility in Northern Ontario, added the case of Adam Capay is just another example of deteriorating conditions at the Thunder Bay District Jail.
“We seem to be in the news a lot lately, so I’m hoping that there is going to be action,” he said. “I still maintain that until see as shovel go into the ground and the building start, it’s a show me thing.”
