N.L. jails in sorry shape, scathing report finds

Newfoundland and Labrador's jails are plagued by poor leadership, rotting facilities, weak security and rock-bottom morale, according to an independent review released in St. John's on Monday.

Justice Minister Tom Marshall, a lawyer, told a news conference that government will accept in principle all 77 recommendations in the often-critical report titled Decades of Darkness: Moving Towards the Light.

The report was given to government on Oct. 1, which led to the dismissal of two top officials in the corrections system, as well as a number of operational changes.

The report helps explain why government took such action so quickly.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government posted the report on its website after Marshall made it public. However, the redacted sections of that report can be easily read by users with basic computer programs.

The provincial government pulled down the online version of the report on Monday afternoon, although CBC News has posted a copy as a link to this news story.

The redacted sections contain some of the strongest criticism in the report, including revelations that security at some centres is so weak that some cells at a Stephenville centre do not even have locks. 

"Throughout the interviews with staff the panel have repeatedly heard that staff are given inconsistent direction from the managerial level," said a portion of the report that had been blacked out.

"Staff have described a dictatorship style of management in which they have little or no input into decision-making."

Even parts of the report that had not been blacked out paint a dire picture of how the province's jails, particularly Her Majesty's Penitentiary in St. John's, have operated for years.

Change on the way

Marshall said change is coming to what he admits have been appalling conditions. He described the report as "a blueprint" of where the justice department is heading with reforms to the corrections system.

"The report illustrates to us that Corrections has had difficulties and may continue to face challenges but change is welcomed and attainable," Marshall said.

The report makes wide-ranging recommendations, from issuing protective vests and collapsible batons to correctional officers when they escort inmates, to offering training to officers to better understand mental health issues.

Better and more counselling will be offered to inmates, including for addictions. Advocates and judges have pointed out the provincial corrections system has serious weaknesses with such programming.

The province's jails together hold 281 inmates, who are supervised by 215 permanent employees and 54 temporary staff.

Although Newfoundland and Labrador lacks a federal prison, Her Majesty's Penitentiary often houses inmates who are serving federal time, or sentences of more than two years.

Marshall said budgets and union contracts may affect how some of the recommendations are implemented.

In October, the government sacked superintendent of prisons John Scoville on the same day the report was formally delivered. A week later, the government also replaced assistant superintendent Mary Aylward.

Former justice minister Jerome Kennedy, who has since been appointed finance minister, ordered the review in April, after finding what he described as "appalling" conditions on a tour of Her Majesty's Penitentiary in St. John's.

The oldest prison in the province, HMP includes sections that date back to Victorian times. Mental health advocates, lawyers and others have long criticized the physical condition of the facility, and criticized as weak or even non-existent the range of rehabilitative programs offered to inmates.

Kennedy called the review after a series of incidents in the province's jails, including a suicide at HMP and a case in which a mentally distraught woman in Happy Valley-Goose Bay was held naked for several days in a cell because there was no appropriate space available at the local hospital.

Community groups to help with training

The government commissioned two out-of-province experts to write the report. Simonne Poirier, a retired warden of Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick, and Gregory Brown, who has held senior corrections positions in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, visited the province this summer.

During their course of their investigation, they were joined by Terry Carlson, a former executive director of the John Howard Society in St. John's.

Carlson, meanwhile, has been tapped to oversee implementation of the recommendations, Marshall said.

As well, government is enlisting help from four outside organizations — including the Canadian Mental Health Association, Stella Burry Community Services, the John Howard Society and Turnings, a group that works with addicts and offenders — to help provide training and counselling to staff and to inmates.

The report, meanwhile, found that employees are often overtaxed, but remain dedicated to their work.

"Despite difficult working conditions, fractured communications and low morale at some work sites, there are many examples of perseverance, dedication, and passion by all levels of staff at all locations," the authors wrote.

"Many came forward not only to speak about working conditions, but also to express concerns about the needs of the inmate population."