Six years have passed “without any progress” for the conditions of women in prison in Quebec, despite repeated reports denouncing their fate within these walls, deplores the Québec Ombudsman in the annual report he has just made public.
The Leclerc building, where hundreds of women have been locked up since 2016, is “dilapidated and unsuitable”, insists the report again this year.
In his first report since his appointment in March, Marc-André Dowd recommends that the Minister of Public Security and the Government of Quebec “announce, by December 31, 2022, a firm decision on the construction of a new establishment to welcome women”.
That the situation is still under review, years after many issues were raised, is considered unacceptable by Mr. Dowd.
For the record, remember that the Treasury Board of Quebec had counted on saving $7.6 million by transferring the women from the Tanguay prison to the former federal institution Leclerc. The project to transfer the prisoners of the Tanguay prison between the walls of the former federal penitentiary Leclerc was however envisaged as a temporary modality. The women incarcerated there are sentenced for minor crimes.
The Québec Ombudsman noted that, as early as October 2016, the year in which these women were transferred to Leclerc, the authorities of the Minister of Public Security declared “that the women could not be kept there long term, because the building does not offer them adequate detention conditions and does not meet the specific needs of female clients”.
Unacceptable situation
Although he says he is aware of the efforts that have been made by the State since that time — “notably the regular visits of exterminators, the installation of mosquito nets and the soundproofing of common living areas” —, the Protector of the citizen notes that the situation remains unacceptable for women. As he indicates in the report he has just made public, “the premises remain however inappropriate”.
Their conditions of detention have also been denounced repeatedly, for six years, by several groups committed to the respect of human rights. As an introduction to a book titled Deliver us from the Leclerc prison!the ex-prisoner Louise Henry recalled several of the reproaches made by several different witnesses to the conditions of the women in these places: insects, rodents, cold, absence of air conditioning, problems with drinking water, strip searches, lack of care psychological, over-representation of natives, etc.
The general detention conditions for women remain unacceptable in Quebec, observes the Québec Ombudsman in his annual report published on 1er december.
After recalling the trauma of strip searches for women of ill-treatment, the professor of legal sciences Lucie Lemonde, who has since died, indicated for her part that the solution was first and foremost in different approaches towards women. You have to see, she said, “prison for what it is, that is to say anything but a solution. »
No toilet paper
Even if the crimes for which they are accused are minor, the COVID-19 crisis has led to even more deplorable living conditions among detainees, notes the Québec Ombudsman.
Men and women were put in total isolation, in these small spaces that are the cells, for periods of 24 hours a day, “for more than 72 consecutive hours”. They had access neither to the shower, nor to the exit of the outer courtyard, nor to the slightest possibility of communication with the outside. The Québec Ombudsman also noted ventilation problems in the cells, as well as difficulties for the detainees in obtaining “basic hygiene material”, such as toilet paper.
Unconscious in his cell
The Québec Ombudsman’s report notes that on several occasions, the rights of inmates “to leave their cell” are not respected. A man, whose father had just died and who requested the possibility of attending his funeral for humanitarian reasons, received no response to his requests. The Québec Ombudsman notes that there was no one to accompany the inmate during this exceptional event.
In an interview with 98.5 FM, Marc-André Dowd told the bizarre story of an inmate who required an expensive escort when the system was at the end of its resources simply because he was initially refused a ticket. bus worth $3.50.
In operations where detainees are sprayed with cayenne pepper or other inflammatory agents, the Québec Ombudsman finds that the places affected are not decontaminated. In at least one case, observes Marc-André Dowd, this led a detainee to have to be urgently transferred to the hospital by ambulance since he found himself lying, apparently unconscious, at the bottom of his cell.