MOSCOW, December 10 (Sputnik) – The Canadian government has not yet announced concrete initiatives designed to improve treatment of mentally ill detainees in response to numerous appeals from prison ombudsmen and correctional investigators, according to the Globe and Mail.
The issue has become a matter of great concern, after the death of Ashley Smith, a 19-year-old Canadian teenager, who strangled herself while in detention. Smith managed to commit suicide despite guards watching her on video monitors. Another Canadian prisoner, 24-year-old Edward Snowshoe, killed himself after spending 162 days in solitary confinement. The necessity of his segregation has not been confirmed, and proper investigation into his mental condition had not been conducted, according to the Star.
Leaders of the Conservative ruling party promised to respond to the respective calls in December, but are still keeping silent and refusing to give any comments on the issue.
“How many more incidents like this do we have to have before the Conservatives finally listen to the correctional investigator and put an end to this practice?” Randall Garrison, a member of the New Democratic Party, said in a statement cited by the newspaper.
The Smith and Snowshoe cases prompted a high-profile inquiry into the issue, which recommended the abolition of solitary confinement for mentally ill prisoners and an improvement of the mental health care system in prisons. It also suggested that medical workers should be given more power and that the length of solitary confinement should be limited to 15 days in a row or 60 days a year, the Globe and Mail reported.
However, Canadian Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney announced that mentally ill criminals should be held in psychiatric hospitals, not in prisons. Blaney also stated that he was currently working on that issue, according to the newspaper.
