Quebec and Canadian inmates imprisoned in the United States wait more than two years, sometimes even nearly three years, before being repatriated to the country to serve their sentence here. However, transfers should be made more quickly, denounces a lawyer specializing in prison law.
“I do not know if one day, I will leave here”, launched Ronald Bannon to Press last October.
The 61-year-old man, living on the South Shore of Montreal, has been serving a 10-year prison sentence in the United States since February 2017 after being intercepted with 94 kilograms of cocaine in Arizona.
In the months following his sentencing in June 2018, he requested his transfer to Canada, which was authorized the following January by the American authorities.
But this fall, almost three years later, Ronald Bannon was still waiting.
Eight prisons in four years
Since 2017, the trade mechanic has served eight different prisons and has been tossed between the states of Arizona, Oklahoma, New York and Pennsylvania.
While he has mostly stayed in minimum level prisons, for the past few months he has been in a medium security penitentiary.
“It’s rough here. There is battle almost every day. We go out for an hour once every two days, but when there is a battle, they lock us in our cells. It can last two hours, two days, a week. You never know when you’re getting out of there, ”he says.
He has received a visit – that of his wife – only once since February 2017, almost five years.
“I have worked my whole life. But there, at my last job, I owed tax and a guy offered to transport me like this. I accepted to earn some money and pay my debts, ”explains Ronald Bannon, who is however very aware that readers will not have mercy on him.
But he adds that he has rights and that he should have been repatriated to Canada a long time ago. He believes that he would probably be in a halfway house if that were the case and that he could work and help his wife.
An unequal system
“The problem is that there are no standards and no directives to the office of the Canadian Minister of Public Safety on the processing of requests for international transfers in Canada”, deplores Mr.e Jacques Normandeau.
In recent years, faced with the slowness of the processing of their request for transfer to Canada, several Quebecers and Canadians detained in the United States have started calling this lawyer specializing in prison law.
So much so that Me Normandeau says he has identified at least a dozen cases from coast to coast, some of which have been awaiting repatriation for more than two years.
He adds that this long wait even got the better of the patience of four inmates, who gave up and decided to serve their entire sentence in the United States.
According to the lawyer, it takes about six months for US authorities to accept a detainee’s transfer request. Subsequently, the latter makes his request in Canada, where it is the International Transfers Unit of the Correctional Service of Canada which must prepare the case.
This should include US court documents, a sentence length calculation and parole eligibility period, a probation report, and a community inmate assessment.
Normally, all of these steps should take between nine and twelve months to complete, says Mr.e Normandeau.
He believes that the shoe pinch in terms of the calculation of sentence that Correctional Service Canada is slow to carry out, according to him, and at the level of the Minister of Public Safety of Canada, who must approve and sign all transfers, and who would leave the files get dusted on his desk before putting his stamp on them.
There are therefore two problems: the slowness in the preparation of the file and the minister who does not make a decision.
Me Jacques Normandeau, lawyer specializing in prison law
“There are no rules. We have indeed realized that there are people, we do not know why and how, whose transfer was signed quickly. If it’s arbitrary, we have a problem. Canadian law applies to everyone. The Charter of Rights is the same for everyone, ”says Me Normandeau, who intends to present petitions to the courts for transfers to be made within a reasonable period of time and for Canada to be a model for international agreements of which he himself was the instigator.
Currently, 152 applications from Quebecers and Canadians detained in the United States are awaiting transfer, including 30 awaiting the Minister’s signature.
Bannon will be repatriated
“Correctional Service Canada (CSC) strives to process each request as quickly as possible, following the date of receipt of supporting documents from the sentencing country. In each case, the CSC Transfers Unit must carry out several checks and must follow several steps when processing the request, ”replied a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety Canada to questions posed by Press at the start of last week.
In the case of Ronald Bannon, his file would have ended up in the spring of 2020 on the desk of the former Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair for the final signature.
The Ministry of Public Security and the office of the new minister, Marco EL Mendicino, did not want to comment directly on his case, due to the Privacy Act.
But last Friday, the detainee learned that Minister Mendicino signed his transfer and that he will be repatriated next March.
“I’m like ‘one day I’m going to have some good news,’” Ronald Bannon told us without really believing it in October.
“Let’s say I tasted it quite a bit,” he added.
What if, one day, you were offered another “trip”? asked him Press.
“Ahhhh, I’m going to stay with my wife,” the 60-year-old concluded.
To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, extension 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of Press.
Number of transfers from the United States to Canada
2016-2017: 61
2017-2018: 19
2018-2019: 7
2019-2020: 12
2020-2021: 12
Total: 111
Source: Department of Public Safety Canada