The women who were incarcerated at the Leclerc prison in Laval will therefore be able to sue the Quebec government because of the conditions of detention in this former men’s penitentiary, closed in 2013 by the federal government, then converted into a women’s prison by the Quebec government, despite its known state of disrepair.
In February 2023, a class action application against the Ministère de la Sécurité publique (MSP) was filed in the Superior Court of Quebec, alleging that women incarcerated at Leclerc prison are subjected to conditions of detention and correctional practices that violate their fundamental rights. In particular, systematic and abusive strip searches and poor access to health care and feminine hygiene products are identified. The application also maintains that the state of the premises is so deplorable that it constitutes cruel and unusual treatment.
In 2022, Louise Henry, who is acting as the plaintiff in the class action, published a book in which she recounts her experience at Leclerc. In it, she highlights the considerable negative impact of detention conditions on the mental health and rehabilitation of incarcerated women. Suicide attempts, self-mutilation, depression, constant humiliation — women experience a veritable descent into hell within the walls of this prison.
The situation at Leclerc has been known and criticized for several years — since the first day of the transfer of women previously incarcerated at Maison Tanguay to Leclerc, in 2016. Since then, it has often been discussed in these pages, notably through the attentive coverage of colleague Jean-François Nadeau. Many observers from civil society have denounced this shameful situation over time. The Québec Ombudsman has twice criticized the government for its inaction on the matter. In 2018, the Union of Peace Officers in Correctional Services described Leclerc’s infrastructure as “seriously inadequate” in a report.
Basically, everyone agrees that the situation at Leclerc makes no sense. However, the government’s attitude in this matter betrays remarkable bad faith. Before the Superior Court, the Attorney General of Quebec, speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Public Security, defended himself by shifting the blame to others. The state of the facilities? That is the sole responsibility of the Société québécoise des infrastructures, which, under the lease signed with the federal government, must carry out all repairs. As for health care, that is the task of the CISSS de Laval, not the ministry.
We understand the legal reasoning, but in real life, these entities are part of a single government, which is supposed to provide services to the population — including incarcerated people. If there had been a minimum of political will in this matter, all the actors concerned would have been brought into line and things would have moved. How is it that no one, within the successive governments, has acted?
It is not very difficult to answer this question. The rights of criminalized and incarcerated people, the improvement of conditions in prisons, these do not gain many points in the polls. However, the way in which the State treats the rights and dignity of the voiceless, the way in which it acts out of the public eye, speaks volumes about its propensity to respect the rights of the greatest number, to treat all citizens with respect.
The entire history of women’s incarceration in Quebec has been marked by neglect and the use of correctional practices designed for men, ignoring the specific needs of women. Women are doubly punished by their marginalization within the prison population. To this day, in Quebec and Canada, women still make up only a fraction of the prison population and they are most often incarcerated for survival-related offences.
According to MSP data, in 2018-2019, 71% of women who were incarcerated in a provincial prison in Quebec served a sentence of less than 30 days. The most common offences were failure to comply with a probation order or undertaking, or offences related to the possession and sale of drugs.
These women represent a low risk to public safety; their criminalization most often results from a life course marked by violence and poverty. However, incarceration, even for a short period, has considerable material and psychological consequences in their lives, locking them into the cycle of poverty instead of promoting their social reintegration. For these women, prison is not the solution.
Today, the construction of the “new Leclerc” is continuing. A project that has been dragging on for years and whose bill will amount to several hundred million dollars. Wouldn’t this money be better invested in programs for access to housing, access to employment, in adequate physical and mental health care – in short, in a real plan to fight poverty – than in barbed wire, iron and concrete?
Yes, the Leclerc prison urgently needs to be closed. But let us dare to add this: the best “new Leclerc” would probably be the one that is never built.