Deaths in provincial prisons in Quebec have increased by 87% in 13 years. This is what we learn from a report published on Wednesday and produced by Catherine Chesnay, Mathilde Chabot-Martin and Guillaume Ouellet for the Profiling Observatory (ODP).
From 2009 to 2022, there were 256 deaths in provincial detention facilities, where people, remember, are serving sentences of less than two years or are awaiting trial. Striking observation: suicides constitute the leading cause of recorded deaths.
Although an upward trend in suicides is observed for the entire period considered, the data nevertheless reveals a marked increase in suicidal behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2019 and 2021, we observed a 140% jump in the number of suicides, as well as an increase in suicide attempts in detention. This suggests that the particularly restrictive conditions of detention during this period (suspension of visits and activities, use of prolonged isolation) had a severe impact on those incarcerated.
The general public did not pay much attention to it at the height of the health crisis, when emergencies were multiplying on all fronts, but the results of pandemic management in prison environments are bleak.
The Public Protector has documented the worrying deterioration of detention conditions during this period: poorly controlled transmission of COVID-19, insufficient access to health care, excessive use of isolation. This experience of imprisonment left deep marks on the people who suffered it, and revealed the little consideration given to the dignity of those incarcerated. Even the implementation of the ministerial decree of May 7, 2020 ordering the release of certain eligible people in order to limit transmission has not been applied to its full potential due to the “administrative rigidity” of prison establishments, wrote the Public Protector in December 2022.
Out of 3,603 people eligible for release, only 745 people were released, mentions the report published Wednesday.
The report also argues that the lack of transparency of prison establishments and the fragmented nature of the data compiled by the Ministry of Public Security raise questions. For example, it is reported that 28% of deaths in custody are categorized as being of “undetermined” cause — a vague category bringing together incidents about which the ministry does not seem to be able to provide much detail.
The vagueness, opacity and apparent lack of follow-up regarding the circumstances of deaths in custody suggest that there is little concern to understand what causes and promotes them. For the population to have the correct information about what is happening behind the walls of Quebec prisons, we must read between the lines, reconstruct the stories by consulting the coroner’s reports one by one or even work from sources indirect — if, by chance, the deaths were reported by the media.
Take the case of Robert Langevin, who died in spring 2020 after contracting COVID-19 in Bordeaux prison. The case was widely publicized, so it provides some insight into the dynamics behind the figures for deaths in custody. Mr. Langevin was 72 years old at the time of his death. Detained awaiting trial for drug trafficking offenses, he knew he was vulnerable to COVID-19. The duty had reported that, as early as March 2020, Mr. Langevin had sent a complaint to the Public Protector in which he mentioned the risks posed by the conditions of detention in Bordeaux. “I don’t want to die here. I have an urgent case. […] [Je] am vulnerable and my living situation does not allow me [de] die here. It’s not human,” he wrote.
His complaint went unheeded. The coroner’s report into the death of Robert Langevin concluded that even though the medical staff at the establishment knew of his condition, follow-up was not adequate, including after a positive COVID test. Testimonies collected inside the establishment, which also surfaced in the media, also indicate that Mr. Langevin would have called for help for three days, without being taken seriously, before being transferred from emergency to the hospital, where he died.
Dark irony: Robert Langevin was eligible for release under the ministerial order, but administrative delays delayed his release until it was too late.
The example may seem anecdotal – although each isolated case remains a tragedy – but it says a lot about what is hidden behind the figures on deaths in custody. And what political authorities fail to look at carefully. These stories, which are difficult to reconstruct, buried in reports or kept behind walls, nevertheless paint a crucial portrait of Quebec’s serious shortcomings in respecting the rights and dignity of the people it imprisons.
We can also argue that there are alternatives to incarceration. The conditions of detention in provincial prisons suggest that it is time to consider them more seriously.