Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Administrative Segregation / Solitary Confinement Canada - Statistics

Question:
I have found quite a lot of information about the topic* but not statistics, yet.  A student is wanting to know how many people (and other related details) are put in administrative segregation in Canadian jails.  Apparently, solitary confinement isn't the correct word to use in Canada.

The flip side of the coin is that she wants to study psychological effects caused by this.

*Administrative Segregation / Solitary Confinement Canada

Answer:
I noticed this new Corrections Service Canada directive to track details, http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/politiques-et-lois/709-cd-eng.shtml#s12 , so better statistics could be coming?

The statistics must exist since there are summary statistics like “We have … decreased the segregation population by a third.” (page 1) http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/005/007/092/005007-4500-2015-2016-eng.pdf .  I asked the Canadian Police College Library about whom to contact for help with existing statistics and they suggested the general number of  Corrections Service Canada for official (but not perhaps not publicly reported) statistics.  In the meantime, these might be some shortcuts (these being some very quick Canadian public policy collections search results_:

Profile of offenders in administrative segregation: a review of the literature By Bottos, Shauna ; Correctional Service Canada. Research Branch, 2015.

Administrative segregation in federal corrections : 10 year trends Canada. Office of the Correctional Investigator Ottawa, Ontario,  2016

A profile of women in segregation - Thompson, Jennie Mae ; Rubenfeld, Sara ; Correctional Service Canada. Research Branch Ottawa, Ontario : 2016

And

  • It's a matter of time : systemic review of secure isolation in Ontario youth justice facilities. Ontario. Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth ©2015
  • other topics relating to impact like aboriginal identity, mental health, and
  • a very old book from the US:  An inquiry into the alleged tendency of the separation of convicts,: one from the other, to produce disease and derangement Packard, Frederick A. Philadelphia, E.C. & J. Biddle, 1849