Since 2016, the Ligue des droits et libertés and many organizations and individuals have continued to denounce the rights violations that take place at the Leclerc prison in Laval, where women detained by the provincial government for sentences of less than two years or in awaiting trial were transferred. The oppressive architectural configuration, the unsanitary and dilapidated state of the facilities, the abusive and humiliating strip searches, the lack of access to physical and psychological health care, as well as the use of isolation and confinement are all issues generating degrading and inhuman conditions of detention.
This regime of institutional contempt and violations of the rights of prisoners is well known to prison authorities and politicians. It is present in all detention facilities in Quebec, where the suicide rate is higher than in the population, leaving no doubt that prisons are fundamentally places where rights are violated.
After years of indifference and inaction, the new Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel, announced on December 19, 2022 the construction of a new prison for women with 237 places, at a cost of $400 million. According to the government, this new prison, which would open in 2030, is part of a larger project aimed at offering incarcerated women “better prospects for social reintegration through better access to the programs and services they need”. .
The League of Rights and Freedoms considers that a new prison for women is not a solution and it opposes it. Incarceration produces and reproduces violations of rights, violence, distress and sexist, racist, colonial, ableist and classist discrimination that “reforms” of the prison system cannot eradicate. In addition to undermining human rights, incarceration fails to fulfill the functions that are supposed to justify its existence, including social rehabilitation, deterrence and reduction of violence. In many cases, incarceration is a punitive and freedom-restricting response to social issues, the result of the state’s withdrawal from its obligations in terms of economic and social rights.
Remember that the women at the Leclerc prison are mostly poorly educated, come from underprivileged backgrounds and that they have, for the most part, committed offenses related to the administration of justice (failure to comply with an order probation or failure to comply with a recognizance) or subsistence offences, such as possession of drugs. Inuit women and members of the First Nations are overrepresented there: they represent nearly 10% of incarcerated women. Most women also deal with mental health issues, partly related to psychological, physical or sexual violence suffered during their childhood or adult life.
For a questioning of incarceration
Those incarcerated at the Leclerc prison — and in the Quebec prison system as a whole — are largely sentenced to short sentences of less than six months. However, these penalties have been shown to be ineffective. They have no impact on the recidivism rate and are detrimental to people’s social reintegration, causing in particular the loss of jobs, housing and social solidarity benefits, in addition to breaking social and family ties and damage mental and physical health. This type of prison sentence should be abolished, which would also considerably reduce the prison population.
The same is true for short intermittent “weekend” sentences. In a special investigation report published in 2018, the Québec Ombudsman’s office reported on the consequences of their increase (difficult detention conditions, increased risk of tension and violence, multiplication of strip searches), which is concomitant with amendments to the Criminal Code imposing minimum sentences for certain offences. The Protector recommended, among other things, favoring alternatives to detention. During the COVID-19 pandemic, intermittent sentences were suspended by government decree for two years, which clearly shows that it is possible to put an end to this type of sentence.
The late human rights activist and pioneer of prison law, Lucie Lemonde, wrote in a text published in the Revue Freedom And The duty in 2022: “ [I]It is time to see the prison for what it is, that is to say everything, except a solution”. This vision is at the heart of the work of the Ligue des droits et libertés, where Lucie has been actively involved for several decades. The same goes for the construction of a new women’s prison: it is anything but a solution.