Pubdate: Fri, 08 Jun 2007
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2007 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Philip Authier

CROWDED PRISONS TOP CRITIC'S HARSH LIST

Liberal Government Blasted On Services

Quebec's prisons are so overcrowded, inmates are bunking on 
mattresses in gyms and classrooms.

Too many seniors in long-term care centres are being kept in adult 
diapers, given one bath a week and fed cold meals because of staff shortages.

The province's automobile-insurance agency is still dragging its feet 
on settling cases.

And that's not all.

In a scathing 300-page report tabled in the National Assembly, 
provincial ombudsman Raymonde Saint-Germain blasts the Liberal 
government and many of its agencies for their lousy performance last 
year, honing in above all on the chronic overcrowding of Quebec's 18 prisons.

In surprise spot inspections of six detention centres, 
Saint-Germain's team found the overcrowding situation has moved 
beyond just two prisoners to a cell - which has become the norm - to 
detainees sleeping on thin mattresses on the floor, often in 
classrooms and gymnasiums or in temporary holding pens not equipped 
with sanitary facilities.

"The operating capacity of these establishments was attained long 
ago," Saint-Germain said. "The overpopulation problem persists. 
Socio-sanitary conditions in detention centres continue to erode."

As an example, the prison in Amos has a capacity of 86; it currently 
holds 102 prisoners. The prison in Saint-Jerome is running at 
120-per-cent overcapacity. On any given day, 4,000 people are behind 
bars in Quebec while the official capacity of the prison system is 3,767.

Overcrowding and mass transfers of inmates are believed to be at the 
root of at least two small prison disturbances in Quebec in the last few weeks.

Saint-Germain said the typical prison management staff's day is spent 
shuffling prisoners from one part of the prison to another, not only 
to feed them but also to keep them from attacking each other.

Resources are almost all going toward security, the report said. Gone 
by the wayside are drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs because 
of a lack of space to hold them. That is a recipe for disaster 
because 39 per cent of prisoners have drug and alcohol abuse 
problems, Saint-Germain noted. The same applies to programs to curb 
conjugal violence before prisoners hit the streets again.

Even when prisoners 89 per cent are men and the average age is 35 - 
start a help program, they often get transferred to another prison 
because of space reasons and do not get to complete it, the report 
said. Prisoners are increasingly filing complaints about their living 
conditions, the report added.

Referring to government plans to reform the correctional system, 
Saint-Germain said: "It is both paradoxical and worrisome that, in 
parallel with the reform's entry into force, access to programs and 
activities inside facilities is increasingly restricted. There is a 
discrepancy between the principles of the reform and the reality."

It didn't take long for the blame game to start, with Parti Quebecois 
public security critic Jacques Cote blasting the government for its 
negligence. He called for immediate action.

"Since the Liberal government took power, it has known about the 
problems and done nothing concrete to correct it," Cote said. "Prison 
overcrowding is real and getting worse."

But Philippe Archambault, a spokesperson for Public Security Minister 
Jacques Dupuis, steered the blame back on the PQ. It closed five 
prisons during the 1990s as a cost-cutting measure, he said, and now 
the Liberals are trying to catch up, with plans to spend $55 million 
this year renovating prisons in the Montreal area.

By 2011, the government also will open five prisons, creating an 
additional 751 spaces, Archambault said.

He argued there is another reason for overcrowding: The government 
has been tougher on gang and biker crime, which means there are more 
people in jail and less access to early parole.

But Saint-Germain had other bad news for the government in the health 
and social services area. There, again, she found a shortage of 
resources in centres for long-term senior care.

Saint-Germain said her inspectors turned up many cases of elderly 
patients getting only one bath a week and being fed cold meals on a 
regular basis because of a lack of organization.

Workers are so harried, she said, they are forced to put heavy-care 
patients into adult diapers, even though, with a little help, they 
could make it to the bathroom on their own.

Urgent action is required, she said, because no human should be 
treated in this way.

"Adult diapers have not become the norm, but we are seeing way too 
many," Saint-Germain said at a news conference after releasing her 
report. "It is related directly to a lack of resources."

"The personnel is as unhappy about this as anyone," added deputy 
ombudsman Pierre-Paul Veilleux in a telephone interview later.

"They say they don't have the time. It is a situation I deplore 
because they are getting these when they, in fact, just want to go to 
the bathroom."

Saint-Germain said in many of the health-care complaints, a simple 
reorganization would suffice to correct things.

Complaints about the health and social services system represented 
the largest single chunk of the 20,600 complaints handled last year 
by the ombudsman - a discreet, but independent agency accountable 
exclusively to the National Assembly.

The other government agency that takes it in the teeth is the Societe 
de l'assurance automobile du Quebec, or SAAQ, whose performance was 
again judged unsatisfactory by the ombudsman despite a pledge to 
clean up its act two years ago.

Of the 361 complaints about the agency received by the ombudsman last 
year, 45 per cent - almost one in two - proved to be founded.

Accident victims, for example, are still waiting on average more than 
three months for the SAAQ to issue medical opinions, which represents 
a long time to live without an income Saint-Germain said.

She has not observed "any major improvement" in wait times in two 
years and things seem to be getting worse, Saint-Germain said. The 
financially strapped agency also plans to reduce its personnel by 10 
per cent to balance its books.

"Victims not only suffer the trauma of the accident, but also severe 
strain to their financial and family lives," the report said. "Who 
can financially support such a waiting time? And why should anyone be 
expected to?"

The SAAQ is also slow to acknowledge its mistakes, she said. In cases 
where the accident took place while the motorist was working, the 
agency tries to "pass the buck" to the worker's compensation board, she said.

- - - -

Saint-Germain Discovers More Oversights

Other blunders uncovered by provincial ombudsman Raymonde Saint-Germain's team:

- - Patients in psychiatric care hospitals have suffered under the 
province's smoking ban.

Because they are not allowed to leave the building, nicotine patches 
have been the only alternative. Saint-Germain said many patients were 
forced onto the patch without their consent and without a check of 
their medical history.

- - Hospitals need to better respect the rights of people with mental 
health problems. Patients are held against their will in solitary 
confinement too often.

- - Complaints reveal a continuing major shortfall between demand for 
home-care services and the ability of local health and social 
services establishments to provide them.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman