 | Photo by Phill Snel/Maclean's |
INDEPTH: HARSH SENTENCE
Kingston Penitentiary
CBC News Online | November 15, 2004
A few guards who work in the segregation unit at Canada's oldest prison are under investigation for prisoner abuse. Federal corrections officials are investigating several allegations made by prisoners housed in the Kingston Penitentiary's segregation unit. The prison is home to some of the country's worst criminals. Some are mentally ill, brain-damaged and have serious behaviour problems. Most are illiterate. They pose a major challenge for the prison system.
| Graham Stewart, head of the John Howard Society of Canada | | "One's tolerance for degrading behaviour increases as staff after a while and you begin not to see after a while and feel the implications of what you are doing." | Inmates who have spent time in Kingston Penitentiary's disassociation cells (also called "diss" cells or "the hole") claim that the new prison unit is too harsh a punishment.
Prisoners are sent to the segregation unit for breaking internal prison rules and often have to spend 23 hours a day in the concrete cells.
The unit is meant to be used for temporary quarters but many prisoners have spent months split from the rest of the prisoners.
Complaints from prisoners range from the amount of time they are held in the unit, to being denied basic phone calls and fresh linen, all the way to being woken up by guards on purpose at all hours of the night.
Robert Labbe is serving two years at the Kingston Pen for assault. He is seeking redress for alleged abuses through the courts. In court documents, he claims prison staff breached their duty to respect inmates' constitutional rights, and subjected them to conditions that amount to torture. He describes guards taunting him over his intercom: "Laaaabeeee, Laaaabeeee, hang yourself, kill yourself…"
Bobby Simpson | Bobby Simpson is an inmate at Kingston who spent four months in the disassociation cells earlier this year. He says he was threatened when he attempted to call the John Howard Society to report on the abuses within the unit.
"Immediately, immediately I was threatened by the guards: 'If ever you make a phone call to an outside agency about what's going on in here Simpson, we'll make your life a f***ing hell,'" he recalls.
Graham Stewart, head of the John Howard Society of Canada |
Graham Stewart, head of the John Howard Society of Canada, says there have always been problems in segregation units. The same complaints come up again and again across the country.
"One's tolerance for degrading behaviour increases as staff after a while, and you begin not to see after a while and feel the implications of what you are doing."
Staff at the John Howard society say they were initially denied access to the segregation unit when they sought to investigate the prisoners' allegations. The warden acknowledged there were problems, but assured them that they were being addressed.
Donna Marrin is the warden of Kingston Penitentiary. She admits to problems in the new unit, like the heat being turned on and off, and issues with clean linen and laundry.
However, she points to the fact that this is a new unit and is therefore bound to have glitches. She has ordered investigations into some of the allegations made by the inmates and found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the staff.
"What I have seen is that we have a couple of officers who follow the rules a little more closely and maybe don't have as much flexibility, but I never see that they are inappropriate."
Howard Sapers is the correctional investigator, the ombudsman for Canada's prisons. He has launched his own investigation into the allegations of excessive use of force and degrading treatment.
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| QUICK FACTS: |
Date opened: 1835
Security level: Maximum
Rated capacity: 431*
Number of inmates: 372*
Number of inmates that are double bunked: 0*
*As of March 31, 1999 |
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| CBC MEDIA: |
 World Report's Maureen Brosnahan on the Kingston story. (Nov. 15, 2004 Runs 1:50)
On The Current, CBC Radio's Maureen Brosnahan reports. (Nov. 15, 2004 Runs 24:37)
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