Prisoner rights advocates are praising the Nova Scotia government for its latest decision to ban the controversial practice of ‘dry celling’ in correctional facilities under its jurisdiction.
Justice Minister Mark Furey ordered a review of the policy last November, and confirmed on Thursday that with body scanners in place in all facilities where adults are housed, dry celling is no longer needed.
“These body scanners have been found to significantly reduce the incidents of contraband coming into the facility, that’s the intention,” he told Global News. “We believe within the environment of the facility, we can isolate those individuals without using the dry cell approach.”
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Inmates are placed in dry cells when they’re believed to be concealing contraband — like drugs — inside their bodies.
The suspects are confined alone, in rooms without running water or plumbing fixtures, indefinitely until they expel the substance through their waste, which is searched by officers. They are monitored around the clock until that happens, in rooms that are often lit up 24 hours a day.
“In our view the law on dry cells in Canada is such a shameful thing, it is such a dehumanizing law,” said Jessica Magonet, a lawyer for the BC Civil Liberties Association. “The fact that the Nova Scotia minister wants to take action on this issue is very exciting.”
Furey ordered the review last November, shortly after a New Brunswick woman challenged the practice in a Nova Scotia court.
Lisa Adams was kept in a dry cell for 16 days in May 2020 at the Nova Institution for Women in Truro, N.S., after being accused of smuggling methamphetamine in her vagina while she’d outside the institution on parole.
At the time, her lawyer from the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia compared the practice to legalized torture, arguing that it fails to provide adequate access to a lawyer, allows for indefinite confinement, and fails to offer protections — such as regular independent reviews — that are offered in other forms of solitary confinement.
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Furey did not indicate when the elimination of dry celling will come into effect in Nova Scotia, or whether he believes the practice violates basic human rights.
Nova Scotia’s review of the policy has not been made public, and Furey said he won’t publish it before having the appropriate conversations about doing so.
Dry celling remains legal in federal prisons and jails, permitted under Canada’s Corrections and Conditional Release Act.
With files from The Canadian Press