WARNING: This article contains sensitive topics. Those in need of support can contact the Mental Health Crisis Line: 613-722-6914 (within Ottawa) and 1-866-996-0991 (outside Ottawa), the Ottawa Distress Centre Crisis Line: 613-238-3311, or the Youth Services Bureau 24/7 Crisis Line: 613-260-2360 or 1-877-377-7775 (toll)
Psychosis, self-harm, anxiety, sensory deprivation. These are all symptoms commonly identified in those enduring solitary confinement within Canada’s prison system, according to Jeffrey Bradley, a doctoral student in Carleton University’s legal studies program and a member of the Criminalization and Punishment Education Group (CPEP).
A coalition of non-profit community justice organizations across the country, including CPEP, penned an open letter on Feb. 12, calling for the federal government to take action against the existence of “solitary confinement by another name” within Canada’s correctional system.
Structured Intervention Units (SIUs) are a practice used in Canadian correctional institutions since the federal government introduced legislation abolishing solitary confinement in 2019. However, advocates in Ottawa believe SIUs are simply a disguised continuation of the practice.
“I call this legislation a pig with lipstick,” Bradley told the Charlatan.
The letter was inspired following a December 2024 report from the Public Safety Canada’s SIU Implementation Advisory Committee, which investigates issues within SIUs and reports back to the government with suggested changes to the system. The report concluded the “experience of solitary confinement” has not been eliminated within Canada’s federal prisons.
“They haven’t actually changed anything,” Bradley said. “They just changed the wording, but fundamentally, the structure doesn’t actually change.”
The open letter proposed the creation of a “People’s Commission,” which would pool findings from coroner’s inquests, government reports and research from community and academic sources. Its main goal would be to pressure the federal government into reforming the correctional system.
Bradley said the proposed commission would be “action-oriented.” Through the platform, he said community organizations could form a collective voice and show “we’re not going to wait for the government to do this.”
Rachel Fayter, a Carleton researcher and part-time faculty member of the University of Ottawa’s criminology department, said the prison facilities themselves haven’t changed, only the title.
Fayter, who was incarcerated in solitary confinement for more than a month eight years ago, described the practice of segregation as “dehumanizing and oppressive.”
One of the most difficult aspects of institutional isolation was the lack of social support from other incarcerated people, she said.
“After my solitary confinement, I had PTSD and social anxiety,” Fayter said. “It was difficult, even when I was released back into the general population to just socialize with my friends.”
To this day, she said being in any confined space is very stressful.
Even when she used the bathroom, Fayter said she had to be supervised by two guards. At the end of the isolation period, she said she was shackled by her feet and hands and led into a locked shower.
Fayter said the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), the government agency responsible for managing correctional institutions, needs to build new facilities to protect incarcerated individuals who voluntarily choose to isolate themselves from others for their protection or health, rather than periods of forced isolation. She said these units should include more space, more access to fresh air and opportunities to communicate with the outside world.
A key recommendation from the government report was for the federal government to consider SIUs in the context of larger issues within the correctional service system, and not as an isolated issue.
“You cannot fix one area of soreness that’s in one wound,” said Farhat Rehman, a founding member of support group Mothers Offering Mutual Support (MOMS). “The whole body is hurting, so it has to be addressed as a whole.”
The open letter shares this sentiment, calling on the CSC to focus on the “whole of its operations,” which it says is not compliant with the Canadians Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Rehman co-founded MOMS after her son was incarcerated 24 years ago. She said her son has been subjected to segregation for disciplinary reasons on several occasions.
The isolation has significantly impacted her son’s health, Rehman said.
“I know that his mental illness has been exacerbated and worsened every time he is isolated.”
Rehman said CSC officers are not equipped “medically or to counsel.”
“They do not have the insight into mental illness,” Rehman said. They will taunt, they will deprive, they will do all kinds of things to get back at somebody they don’t like,” she said.
Bradley said the corrections system focuses too much on blaming individuals, without considering the legacies of colonialism as well as the impacts of intergenerational trauma and addictions within the prison system.
“[Corrections services will] put you in the dungeon and lock the door,” Bradley said. “A lot of these people could be safely brought back to the community and given the supports instead of putting them into segregation.”
Rehman emphasized that she believes Canada’s correctional system should place an increased focus on rehabilitation, rather than punishment through isolation.
“It’s our children, our sons and daughters, who are being impacted,” Rehman said. “And we don’t want them to become sicker when they are in prison — we want them to heal. So we will continue.”
Featured graphic by Alisha Velji/the Charlatan.
