Violence spikes in cramped women’s prisons

Women’s prisons in Canada are so cramped for space that inmates — some mentally ill or suicidal — have been sleeping in interview rooms without toilets or running water, the Calgary Herald has learned.

The space crunch comes as violence among female prisoners, including self-inflicted injuries, has jumped to disturbing levels.

To counter a growing prison population, authorities have been forced to place inmates in a converted gymnasium and visitor trailers.

“I will acknowledge that these measures are not preferable,” Correctional Service of Canada commissioner Don Head, head of the federal prison system, wrote in a June 29 letter to the prisoners’ ombudsman and obtained through Access to Information laws.

“There are limited alternatives available within our current infrastructure.”

In an interview, Head said the female offender population — which ballooned by 40 per cent during the past decade — has grown much faster than anticipated. He said many judges are now sentencing women to two years plus a day to send them to the federal system instead of provincial jails, which offer fewer programs and services.

However, this trend is unfolding as the women’s prison system faces a sharp increase in violence behind prison walls, a decade after the infamous Kingston Prison For Women was closed and the system revamped.

The number of inmate fights, disciplinary problems, assaults on guards and other “incidents” shot up by more than 50 per cent in a one-year period ending April 2010, according to separate prison data obtained through an Access to Information request.

A majority of the incidents, such as the Ashley Smith strangulation death, were self-inflicted injuries, which have more than tripled to 260 from 73 during the past two years.

But the violence was also directed outward. Assaults on staff more than doubled to 34 from 16. Inmate fights climbed to 45 from 37 while assaults on inmates surged 59 from 48.

Experts say the data paints a disturbing picture.

“The more crowded correctional centres become, the more opportunities there are for violence,” said correctional investigator Howard Sapers, who serves as the country’s prison ombudsman.

Former inmate Carol Ann Borrens agrees. During a six-month stint at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont., Borrens says she saw inmates assaulting other inmates in the community-style cottages with no guards present.

“These are people that are in jail culture. They’ve been in and out all their lives. They’re friends, and everybody knows everybody. They run the jails and they are very violent,” said Borrens, 62, who was serving time for drug possession.

“It’s not a community. It’s a violent prison like anywhere else. They’re trying to make it seem like everything is hunky dory because you have nice bedrooms.”

Head blamed most problems on a handful of inmates who continuously hurt themselves or others.

“Even though the number of women that are involved in those incidents is relatively small, we still have an obligation to try to find some answers to help them out, because there’s no question they have significant issues, they have significant problems,” he said.

A year-long Herald investigation found other troubling problems in Canada’s prison system for women:

n Women are becoming more violent. For example, the number of females incarcerated for violent crimes such as manslaughter, attempted murder and aggravated assault soared by 38 per cent during the past decade.

n Aboriginal women now represent almost a third of all inmates in Canada, but only three per cent of the overall population. They are the fastest-growing prison population in the country.

n Female inmates are causing more problems inside prisons. The number of serious institutional convictions against women already serving time in prison — a serious breach of security, violent behaviour, or harming staff and inmates — rose by 60 per cent over the past decade.

n A small number of violent, high-risk inmates — such as the country’s only female dangerous offender, Renee Acoby — are wreaking havoc on prison life for other women, guards say.

n Gang problems are beginning to infiltrate women’s institutions, mirroring the trend that swept through men’s penitentiaries in the 1990s. Experts and guards say if the issue isn’t addressed quickly, street gangs could “infect” prisons.

All this comes as prison officials are preparing for a jump in female inmates streaming into the system.

Laws such as the elimination of 2-for-1 credit for time served awaiting trial and mandatory minimum sentences for violent crimes, as well as eliminating accelerated parole review, are boosting the number of women behind bars.

An omnibus crime bill by the Harper government supporting mandatory sentences for some drug and sexual crimes is also expected to pass this session in Parliament.

“The Correctional Service of Canada has its back right up against the wall when it comes to accommodations,” Sapers said in an interview.

Access to Information documents show female inmates in the secure unit for maximum security offenders are being double-bunked to deal with the crowding.

The ombudsman wants the prison service to stop placing inmates from segregation and secure units in cells together.

“Double bunking is not a safe correctional practice, but it is especially problematic in very restrictive correctional environments,” Sapers, a former Alberta MLA, wrote in a letter to Head on June 6.

In the Edmonton prison earlier this year, four women were housed in a visiting room during the month of March, according to correspondence between the commissioner and the prison ombudsman.

“The room has no running water, no toilet facilities and no built-in cell call alarm system, nor does it offer the amount of living space, privacy and dignity that is available in a purpose-built cell,” wrote Sapers in a letter dated April 20.

“The use of interview rooms and other non purpose-built space to accommodate women offenders (some of whom are mentally ill and/or suicidal) is unacceptable.”

And at Grand Valley last spring, prison authorities converted a private family visit unit to a four-bedroom dorm, and retrofitted the gymnasium with up to 40 cubicles.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said in an interview that double-bunking should be used for lower security inmates, and will likely be in place in proposed additional units.

“I’m not adverse to double occupancy cells if the accommodations are appropriate for that,” he said.

The prison service plans on adding 144 beds to five women’s prisons across the country as part of a $30-million expansion plan.

The expansion focuses primarily on Edmonton Institution for Women and Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont., which are both getting 44 beds each. The service is also considering other options for housing women, ranging from sending them to a new provincial jail in Manitoba to transfers into mental health facilities.

The service is contemplating transferring women from crowded prisons in Ontario and Alberta to other women’s institutions across the country, from B.C. to Nova Scotia.

“In years gone by, when there was only one facility, which was not ideal at all — the Prison for Women — we were able to plan around that, knowing that everybody would come there,” said Head.

“Now we have to look at the regional growth and changes in a more consistent way and look at whether there are other options for us, for example for women that may be transferred to one of the other regional facilities.”

The regional prisons were built during the late 1990s before the country’s only Prison for Women in Kingston, Ont., was closed for good following a violent riot in 1994 and a subsequent scathing report from former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour.

Part of the reasoning behind building the regional facilities was to keep women close to their families.

But with the overcrowding and violence expected to worsen, fears are growing the women’s prison system is erasing the progress of the last decade and is reaching a crisis point once again.

“I just find it barbaric,” says Coralee Smith, mother of Ashley Smith, who choked herself to death in Kitchener’s Grand Valley Institution in 2007 and is the subject of a long-delayed Ontario coroner’s inquest.

“I think it’s just a pox on Canada, honest to God. I’m so embarrassed about our whole system.

“I’m not just broken-hearted about losing Ashley. I’m just embarrassed to death for this whole country.”