The Docket

The Last Word on SNC and Inhumane Jails

01.23.2020 - By Michael Spratt, Emilie TamanPlay

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So, episode 101 - a new record.  But you know that right? Because you subscribe to the show on iTunes and have already rated and reviewed the podcast - right? You should.

This is the last time we will ever talk about SNC - we promise. But we had to say a final few words after our confidential source sent us the SNC decision. And boy, were we disappointed. No victim impact statements, no victim fine surcharge, and well… it was a bit of a mess. But don’t worry we are here to break it all down.

And then we talk about Ontario’s jails.

Our prisons are Dickensian hellholes - and it seems that the Toronto South Detention Centre is the worst.

Last month, in a damning decision, the Ontario Superior Court ruled that conditions at the Toronto South Detention Centre (TSDC) were “inhumane and fail to comport with basic standards of human decency.”  But this should be no surprise. Courts have described the Toronto jail as: unacceptable, shocking, deplorable, harsh, oppressive, degrading, disheartening, appalling, Dickensian, regressive and inexcusable.

But this time the court went one step further and found that the conditions at the TSDC were a “deliberate policy choice to treat offenders in an inhumane fashion” and that “the Ministry has clearly chosen to save money rather than heed judicial concerns about the lack of humane treatment of inmates.”

And with Bell’s ingenious #BellLetsTalk corporate marketing plan making its yearly appearance next week we take another look at how Bell profits of prisoners who suffer from mental illness.

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