Task Force Report on Administrative Segregation

K. Women Offenders

The mandate of the Task Force is rooted in the findings of Madame Justice Arbour regarding the incidents at the Prison For Women. Although issues at penitentiaries for men have occupied the majority of the Task Force’s discussions, the needs of women offenders remained a constant concern.

A number of Task Force observations flow directly from discussions held on the conditions under which some women offenders are being incarcerated.

It was at the Prison For Women that the Task Force first observed the effective use of a special needs unit designed specifically to meet the unique requirements of a small group of women offenders. The unit was intended to maximize the liberties of women offenders while still providing them with the required level of safety and supervision. All subsequent discussions on the role of such units for male offenders flowed from this experience.

The situation of women offenders with a maximum security classification incarcerated in co-located units (in men’s institutions) gave rise to discussions on the nature of segregation and separation. These women offenders represent a group that is subject to complete separation from both the male inmate population in the institution where they are incarcerated and the general, women offender population housed in regional facilities. The extent of the segregation to which these women offenders are being subjected underscored the need for a broader range of "due process" considerations for all offenders.

The creative use of peer support for women offenders in crisis, the approach to "circle discussions" at the Healing Lodge, and the extraordinary lengths that the staff at the Healing Lodge go to avoiding the use of segregation, all serve as important models of intervention that institutions for men and other institutions for women could adopt.

The recognition of these special populations and approaches has served as a catalyst for the proposal of alternatives (sub-populations) to traditional administrative segregation and as a constant reminder that rights, privileges, and conditions of confinement must be managed in full compliance with the law.

There are a number of issues that demand more careful examination in the context of a women’s-centered approach to defining alternatives to segregation and/or long-term separation from the general inmate population:

• administrative segregation may have more severe debilitating effects on women offenders; women offenders find it difficult to cope with separation from the general inmate population;
• there is evidence that women offenders who are housed in higher levels of security are more likely to be Aboriginal women;
• the use of flexible space (enhanced units) in institutions for women offenders, although responding to a number of institutional requirements to temporarily separate offenders (reception and assessment, special needs, short-term segregation, privacy, quiet-time, etc.), has an impact on the rights and freedoms of women offenders housed there and therefore raises questions about the compatibility among the various purposes for which it is being used; and
• the use of effective transition strategies to offset situations where segregation might otherwise be used.

The Task Force recognizes that the small numbers of women offenders create specific population management challenges and opportunities. Any efforts to respond to specific risk/need attributes of women offenders through separation from the general inmate population impact them significantly. The Task Force recommends that the Deputy Commissioner for Women develop, in conjunction with the proposed formal review of all population management practices, procedures to ensure that appropriate legal and policy safeguards are in place in all women sub-populations, irrespective of their expressed official purpose. This gives rise to the need to:

1. dentify and describe sub-populations in terms of the characteristics that the Task Force has presented;
2. evaluate the continuing validity of each unit, and where a unit is considered valid, implement necessary improvements to safeguarding the rights, privileges and conditions of confinement; and
3. apply appropriate segregation review procedures to women offenders housed in each unit.

The Task Force recommends that the Deputy Commissioner for Women consider this review in close consultation with external stakeholders.

The Task Force suggests that the proposed Segregation Advisory Committee consult regularly with the Deputy Commissioner for Women. This will ensure that all segregation issues which demand an approach that is responsive to the needs of women offenders are dealt with accordingly.