N.L. is building a new jail. But without changes, advocates say, the same old problems will persist - Action News
Home WebMail Sunday, November 10, 2024, 08:45 PM | Calgary | 1.4°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
NL

N.L. is building a new jail. But without changes, advocates say, the same old problems will persist

When the replacement for Her Majesty's Penitentiary is complete, it won't make much difference unless the penal system as a whole gets a closer look, according to the John Howard Society.

'We're still taking all the problems and moving them,' says Cindy Murphy

Dirty plastic spoons and a styrofoam cup sit on a dirty window ledge. Bars are on the window.
Parts of Her Majesty's Penitentiary date back to the mid-1800s and are in desperate need of repair, but one group argues infrastructure isn't the only problem that needs fixing. (Ariana Kelland/CBC)

A prison rights advocacy group is calling for an overhaul to the penal system to go along with the new jail that will replaceHer Majesty's Penitentiary, arguing that the crumbling 150-year-old building isn't the only thing infringing on inmate rights.

CBC News reported Wednesday that the provincial Supreme Court slashed six months off one inmate's sentence last week due to "harsh conditions" experienced at the St. John's prison, calling the man's experience "intolerable and unacceptable."

The inmate said he'd been confined without access to therapy or programming and was bullied by other inmates and guards because of his incontinence.

His lawyer listed several other instances at HMP in which inmates suffered undue harm and were granted credit for time served, called a "Duncan credit."

Cindy Murphy, executive director of the John Howard Society, says those inmates who've gotten the credit aren't the only ones experiencing distress inside the pen's walls.

Most were confined to their units during COVID-19 lockdowns.

"All that extra isolation was particularly troubling for many who were incarcerated," Murphy said.

"The conditions of confinementin that old building are horrendous, from the lack of cleanliness to rodents. All those things are well-known problems, well documented."

HMP construction to start next spring

The Newfoundland and Labrador government promised in 2019 to construct a new prison, replacing the Victorian-era HMP.

But a new prison won't matter much, Murphy said, if the current culture at HMP is simply imported into the next building.

"If we just build a new prison and nothing changes, we only change geography," she said.

"We're still taking all the problems that currently exist in a facility and moving them to somewhere else. So we've got to get this right."

In a statement Thursday, the Department of Justice saidit expects to start building the new prison in spring of 2023, finishing it three years later, in 2026. In the meantime, the department saidit acknowledges infrastructure issues and grants inmates recreational time on a rotating basis.

A woman with short blonde hair.
Cindy Murphy is the executive director of the John Howard Society in St. John's. (Submitted by Cindy Murphy)

Murphy said the John Howard Society will meet with the department next week and urge them to make wide-ranging changes when the new building opens.

Lack of staff, she argues, has plagued the prison in recent years and that's not something a different building will fix.

"Those staffing shortages are causing all kinds of problems. We know inmates are not getting access to [the] outside for the lack of staff to supervise them. We know some programs are being curtailed because there's no correctional officer present to supervise," Murphy said.

"It's having a profound impact on the inmates' ability to move within the institution."

But before the province breaks ground on the prison, she said, she's heartened by the courts' recognition that conditions at HMP are infringing oninmates' rights.

"It's certainly signaling that it's not OK and it should never be OK," she said.

"Hopefully the message here is thatwe need to do better. We know better, so we should be doing better."

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador