Use of pepper spray on jailed youths sparks alarm

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This article was published 30/11/2016 (3208 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s children’s advocate says she’s received complaints incarcerated youth have been pepper-sprayed simply to control their behaviour.

In her annual report released Wednesday, Darlene MacDonald said she’s also heard accounts of jailed teens with mental health issues being restrained or placed in isolation because a lack of mental health services or inadequate co-ordination between service providers.

MacDonald told of one teen girl — whom she referred to as Amber — who experienced hallucinations and other mental-health problems during a lengthy jail stay in Winnipeg.

“In response to her behaviours, correction staff placed her in isolation in a stark room with cinder-block walls,” she said.

Amber called the advocate’s office to say the child welfare agency responsible for her care was not visiting her for planning meetings while she was in custody.

“Amber also told us that due to the lack of contact with her agency, her repeated requests for family visits had yet to be authorized. Our office became involved to advocate for more specialized care for her needs and to help reconnect her with family supports.”

Manitoba has the highest rate of youth incarceration in the country. On top of that, youth held in pre-trial detention, or remand, have outnumbered youth serving jail sentences for the past decade, Statistics Canada says.

The children’s advocate said her office has seen a “significant number of youth in care” held in remand not because of violent crimes but because a foster placement is not immediately available to them because of their complex needs.

“We’ve also seen situations where young people are released from custody without the right services in place to support them,” she said.

“Young people have turned 18 while in custody and upon release find they have been discharged from care and have absolutely no supports in place.”

In detailing complaints about the questionable use of pepper spray in controlling jailed youths, MacDonald noted the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides children have “the right not to be subjected to any cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.”

“Accounts (from teens) indicate that the noxious substance may be being used not as a last resort due to imminent danger or injury or harm, but rather as a method of controlling behaviour,” MacDonald said.

The annual report she released Wednesday will be MacDonald’s last. She will step down at the end of March after completing her second three-year term. An all-party committee of MLAs will choose her replacement.

In her report, MacDonald also urged the province to amend legislation to make it possible for more child welfare information to be shared with the public, particularly in “exceptional circumstances where the public interest, and the interests of children and youth, may outweigh the privacy restrictions currently in place.”

She said sharing more information would help bolster public confidence in the child welfare system.

“In an age of information sharing, more can be done to assure the public of the good work being done on behalf of families, and more accurate information could be provided in some cases to increase accountability of systems providing services to vulnerable populations,” she said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca