Ombudsperson’s report says BC prisons fail to meet inspection standards

None of the 10 correctional facilities run by Corrections BC is fully compliant with Corrections Act or international standards outlined in the Nelson Mandela Rules (NMRs), according to the BC Ombudsperson’s 2024 Under Inspection Update report.

The 10 adult correctional centres in B.C. house an average of 1,800 individuals at secure, medium and open security levels. On that list is the 100-year-old Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre (VICC) located in the District of Saanich.

The Nelson Mandela Rules (NMRs), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 establish minimum standards of best practices for correctional facilities. Rules 83-85 refer specifically to protecting the health and wellbeing of prisoners and the implementation of regular prison inspections.

Rule 84, for example, calls for inspectors to have full access to information about the number and location, health, and treatment of prisoners. It also stipulates that inspectors should have the freedom to make unannounced visits and be able to conduct private and fully confidential interviews with prisoners and prison staff.

In its 2016 Under Inspection report, the Ombudsperson’s Office found that the responsible provincial government ministries had not conducted regular periodic inspections of BC’s correctional centres between 2001 and 2012 and that inspectors were not being provided adequate guidance and training in carrying out inspections.

According to that 2016 report, the inspection program was to be brought into full compliance by 2018 with new international minimum standards for the treatment of inmates. Six years later, some of those standards still have not been met.

“I appreciate the correctional inspections are complex,” said Ombudsperson Jay Chalke at a virtual presser on Monday. “I acknowledge the dedicated work of public servants in BC corrections and in ISO. However, I'm deeply disappointed that after eight years, this work is still not done.”

Mike Farnworth, minister for public safety and the solicitor general said in a statement that the Ombudsperson’s report “highlights the complexities” of the Investigative Standards Office’s (ISO) work to create an independent inspection process.

“As this important work proceeds, BC Corrections will continue to support partners and welcomes regular visits from the Ombudsperson and ongoing inspections from WorkSafeBC and other regulatory agencies to support transparency and accountability,” said Farnworth.

The 2024 update report identifies a systemic lack of specially trained and professional external inspectors. According to the NMRs, external inspections should be conducted by a body independent of a prison’s administration, which may include relevant regional or even international bodies.

While the Ombudsperson’s Office acknowledges that the Corrections Branch has implemented a number of its recommendations, such as developing guiding principles for conducting inspections of correctional centres and a checklist and inspector training materials to ensure compliance, these are not being carried out in practice, according to the standards of the Corrections Act of the NMRs.

“ISO has not included external members on its inspection teams, people such as those from human rights, Indigenous, and humanitarian organizations,” said Chalke. The investigative standards office investigates complaints made by people in custody and provides oversight to BC Corrections.

“Second,” he said “the ISO has not included health-care professionals on its inspection teams, as required by the Mandela rules.” The John Howard Society of Canada has advocated for equal access to healthcare in prisons, citing higher rates, among inmates, of addiction, mental illness, HPV and chronic diseases as well as illness related to aging.

“I'm concerned that the inspection process, as it stands now, does not include assessing the provision of healthcare in correctional centres, which is delivered by the provincial health services authority,” said Chalke. “I'm calling on the government to address this gap.”

The 2024 Ombudsperson’s report also says that ISO has yet to establish a policy or process for reporting publicly on its inspections—another requirement of the Mandela rules. It is Chalke’s expectation that this policy—when established—“will respect the independent nature of these inspections, allowing for publication without political interference, even where the report includes critiques of BC corrections or the provincial health services authority.”

In his statement, Farnworth touted the work that has been done by Corrections BC.

“Since the Ombudsperson’s initial follow-up in 2018, which confirmed that BC Corrections had fully implemented six of the seven recommendations from their 2016 report, 64 inspections have been completed,” he said. “These are robust inspections that thoroughly examine policy and procedure to support continual advancement in correctional practice from administrative processes to supervision and care.”

The Attorney General’s Office will release its report on inspection outcomes but it’s not expected to be out until next year. When Chalke was asked about the delayed reporting, he encouraged the public to take the question up with the government through the Ministry of the Attorney General, “because that's the timeline that has been set out by the ISO, which is a branch of the ministry with the Attorney General, he said.

“Certainly, in my view, it should have happened long before now, now being eight years since the government committed to implement these rules.”