In February 2016, when inmates were transferred from Tanguay Prison to Leclerc Detention Facility, the Quebec government hinted that this was an interim solution. Recall that the Leclerc prison was closed in 2012 by the federal government for obsolescence. Six years later, the provisional has become shamefully permanent.
The Leclerc prison is still in a dilapidated state: presence of asbestos, mould, vermin, water infiltration, defective heating, stale air, clogged toilets, dirty showers, brownish water, cold air entering through the gaps in the windows, absence of mosquito nets and presence of bed bugs. Added to these deplorable physical conditions are the inadmissible and disrespectful behavior of the surveillance staff: excessive and humiliating strip searches, multiple sexist remarks and behavior, contemptuous language, physical threats, medicines that are difficult to obtain, insufficient clothing and hygiene products, overreliance on confinement, laborious access to adequate medical care, denial of outings to the yard, visits and visiovisits repeatedly canceled, especially those scheduled for Christmas and Mother’s Day due to a lack of staff. In addition, women say they are afraid to file a complaint for fear of suffering reprisals, of being intimidated or of seeing this complaint thrown away.
How to understand the inaction of the government? When the Minister of Public Security, Geneviève Guilbault, is questioned on the subject, she vaguely replies that efforts are being made. When a deputy wants to visit the Leclerc prison, she says no. When the League of Rights and Freedoms proposes an independent observation mission, it says no. When prison conditions during a COVID-19 outbreak deprive people of all contact, creating, in the words of incarcerated people, “a prison within a prison”, correctional authorities deny the multiple problems revealed in the media by prisoners, their relatives and allies. How not to see in it indifference towards the women incarcerated in the Leclerc prison?
Lucie Lemonde, a long-time activist with the League of Rights and Freedoms who died on February 6, 2022, repeatedly denounced these inhuman prison conditions and the violations of the rights of prisoners. These problems are still not included in the list of priorities of the Government of Quebec, and we condemn this political inertia: the Leclerc saga has already lasted too long!
* On behalf of the Coalition for Action and Surveillance on the Incarceration of Women in Quebec (CASIFQ)