JAILS NEARING CRISIS: REPORT

After a year-long study of Quebec prisons, ombudsman Daniel Jacoby
finds dangerous overcrowding, rampant drug use and a tension-ridden
system that must be fixed immediately.

Quebec prisons are in a terrible mess and on the brink of crisis, says
a wide-ranging 80-page report released yesterday by the provincial
ombudsman.

After a year-long study of the system, Daniel Jacoby's findings paint
a dismal picture of dilapidated jails, rampant drug use, dangerous
overcrowding and a tension-ridden corrections system.

"It's a mess," said Jacoby, a former Quebec deputy minister of justice
and lawyer. "I don't know if I would yet call it dramatic, but there
is a situation of crisis."

The report, compiled after visits to the province's 17 correctional
institutions, features 53 recommendations.

Among the key findings, Jacoby calls for the immediate suspension of
proposed budget cuts in the penal system, an examination of the prison
drug policy and the closing of at least one institution.

"The budget cuts have seriously compromised the system's ability to
provide for the safety of inmates and guards," Jacoby said.

"We have noticed an alarming increase in the number of substantiated
inmate complaints.

''We find that many disciplinary methods are abusive and the level of
training and counseling for inmates is unacceptable," he said.

Jacoby saved his most critical comments for the zero-tolerance drug
policy, saying it was "a fiasco that hasn't achieved its goals."

And he even went as far as to characterize the explosion of drug use
in prisons as an unintended effect of the province's crackdown on
outlaw bikers and warring criminal gangs.

"The government has spent millions arresting and prosecuting outlaw
bikers, and this is good E but they haven't spent a dime on prisons.
This should have been planned," Jacoby said.

The Hell's Angels bikers and their rivals, the Rock Machine criminal
gang, have for years waged a bloody turf war over the province's
illegal-drug trade.

In his report, Jacoby estimated that between $40 million and $60
million in drugs flow through the prisons annually.

"There is a commercial enterprise of drug dealing in the prisons,'' he
said.

Another startling conclusion: the inmate population in Quebec has the
highest suicide rate of any prison system in the country - a rate that
is seven times that of the provincial average.

And Jacoby found the overcrowding problem is worst in Montreal's
Bordeaux jail and Quebec's Orsainville prison.

Provincial figures show there are 3,700 prison inmates in Quebec at
any given time. Most are incarcerated for very short periods of time,
in fact, the law mandates that only inmates serving sentences shorter
than two years be housed in provincial prisons. About 35 per cent of
inmates currently housed in provincial jails are awaiting trial.

Reacting to the report, Public Security Minister Serge Menard told a
press conference yesterday that the main problems with prisons is
overcrowding.

"We're in the strange situation where criminal activity is going down,
but the number of prisoners is going up," he said.

But Menard said he was skeptical that Quebec would find more money in
its next budget for spending on prisons.

"I can make a request - like the other ministers," he said. "But I'm
realistic. We will continue to cut (the budget) for at least one year."

Menard pointed out that, for example, jailing those who cannot afford
to pay fines for traffic violations adds to the overcrowding problem.

He added that such prisoners are also taking up much needed space in
rehabilitation programs.

He said the recent increase in convictions of organized criminals has
also contributed to the troubled prison environment. Menard explained
that his government's policy of zero tolerance for organized
criminals, like bikers, has meant many of them are being put in prison
for minor infractions. They go to provincial jails rather than federal
penitentiaries, he said.

Menard agreed that drug use and drug sales run rampant in jails. His
department, he said, will work harder to tackle this problem.

When asked if he thought Quebec needs more prisons, Menard said the
province needs to consider alternatives to putting people behind bars.

"I can't say we jail people too much, but I can say one thing, we jail
people more than other (Western) countries, except for the United States."

He said he has already promised the ombudsman the co-operation of all
his department's staff to attack the most serious problems.

Jacoby, whose candour has long provided a source of irritation for
Parti Quebecois premiers Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard, said
many of his report's recommendations are administrative and
attitudinal. He estimated the total cost of his reforms would be about
$4 million.

The ombudsman's report held few surprises for both the union
representing the province's prison guards and a Quebec inmate-rights
group.

"The thing that I find striking about this report is the similarities
it bears toward a 1985 ombudsman's report by Yves Labonte," said
Jean-Claude Bernheim, of the Prisoners Rights Office of Quebec. "We've
been saying for years that there's a crisis. There's nothing new to
these concerns."

Bernheim cited the report's conclusions that prisoners' rights are
systematically violated as the most damning.

"We've always found these difficulties with guards abusing the rights
of the inmates, most of whom, we have to remember, are there for an
average of three months," Bernheim said.

Bernheim said his office's research shows that nearly 40 per cent of
inmates sent to jail each year are locked up for failing to pay fines.

Gilles Bergeron, head of the Syndicats des Agents de la Paix en
Services Correctionels du Quebec, which represents about 1,900 guards,
presents a different interpretation.

"For years, we've been putting a Band-aid on the wound hoping it will
go away.

"Our biggest problem are the budget cuts. We just don't have the
resources to separate inmates. At mealtime, there are 180 inmates,
with sometimes only four guards watching them," Bergeron said.

He said that deteriorating conditions are the result of increased drug
and gang activity, particularly on the part of the legions of warring
gangs housed in the institutions.

He admitted that sometimes the prison situation escalates to the point
where guards act inappropriately and circumvent the prisoners' rights.

"There comes a time where the violence is so great that officers
aren't reacting the same way anymore. Nobody thinks that's good, but
it's how it is," Bergeron said.

Despite their differing views on the report, the guards and the
inmate-rights group were united in their appeal for action from Menard.

"We would hope that the minister will take this seriously, and move
ahead and act on them," Bergeron said.

His sentiments were echoed by Bernheim, who said the government will
either "take the ombudsman seriously, or show they don't care what he
says, like other governments have done."

The Liberals' corrections critic also said it's incumbent on the
government to act.

"It's completely inconceivable that inside these detention centres
it's no longer possible to ensure total and adequate protection for
inmates," said MNA Jacques Dupuis, a former crown prosecutor who
worked closely with the province's biker task force.

Jacoby recommended that the province abolish 23-hour confinement,
renovate a handful of institutions where conditions are a threat to

the inmates' health and not house more than two inmates per cell.

The province cut $5.2 million from its prison budget last year and 600
jobs have been lost in the prison system.