The East Coast Prison Justice Society’s Visiting Committee launched its third annual report on Tuesday revealing that between September 1, 2022, and August 31, 2023, over 70 per cent of incarcerated people within the Canadian province of Nova Scotia’s jails had been being held in pre-trial custody, marking a rise from roughly 66 per cent within the earlier yr.
The report‘s findings additionally point out that almost all of individuals incarcerated in Nova Scotia’s jails haven’t been convicted of against the law and are nonetheless presumed harmless underneath the legislation, a state of affairs which places appreciable pressure on the provincial correctional system and should have far-reaching penalties for these detained. Moreover, the report additionally outlined a number of different issues associated to the situations in Nova Scotia’s jails together with problem in getting healthcare entry grants permitted, the usage of lockdowns to cope with employees shortages, unhygienic situations in jails in addition to poor entry to cultural and non secular applications.
Nova Scotia Justice Minister Barbara Adams acknowledged the staffing challenges within the correctional system in response to the report, and claimed that situations are enhancing, highlighting the numerous adjustments made within the hiring course of.
The excessive fee of pre-trial detention highlighted within the report raises vital authorized issues with respect to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 11(e) of which gives the assure of the best to not be denied bail with out simply trigger.
Moreover, within the circumstances of R v. Antic [2017] and R v. Myers [2019] the Supreme Court of Canada had emphasised that pre-trial launch must be the norm, and that detention must be the exception. The courtroom additionally concluded that detention can solely be ordered when justified underneath section 515(10) of the Criminal Code. Furthermore, section 525 of the Legal Code requires a judicial review of an accused’s detention if the trial has not begun inside 90 days.
This comes within the wake of the ruling final yr by a Nova Scotia Supreme Courtroom decide who discovered it unlawful to lockdown inmates in provincial jails due to employees shortages. Moreover, a downtown Toronto courtroom decide head as a part of an agreed assertion of information final month {that a} teen woman was strip searched six occasions in custody. This additionally comes within the wake of the British Columbia Rights Commissioner’s report final month highlighting systemic inequalities within the province.
Source / Picture: jurist.org
