N.L. inmates, official want oversight of 'kangaroo court' disciplinary hearings

Newfoundland and Labrador's justice minister says the province will soon join the handful of Canadian jurisdictions that provide independent oversight of a disciplinary process for provincial inmates that has been criticized as a "kangaroo court."

The provincial government has been sitting on legislation for over a decade that would rein in disciplinary hearings for inmates.

Without the legislation in force, senior prison staff are determining inmates' guilt and handing out sentences that can involve solitary confinement or time docked from early release. 

But after recent questioning from The Canadian Press, Liberal Justice Minister John Hogan said his office will bring the new rules into force this year.

"The fact that this has been around for 11 years is something that now has certainly been brought to my attention, and my department's working on getting this done as soon as possible," Hogan said.

Nova Scotia, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories require such hearings to be judged by an independent or outside observer who doesn't work alongside the officers who laid the charges, according to government spokespeople. Alberta and British Columbia introduced similar systems following court challenges.

Using access-to-information legislation, The Canadian Press requested records given to Newfoundland and Labrador inmates accused of breaking jail rules for the month of February 2020, before the pandemic changed prisoner counts and internal dynamics.

The documents show that under the internal system, which is separate from the criminal courts, captains and lieutenants in the corrections service run the hearings and hand out sentences ranging from confinement to cell to a maximum of 10 days in solitary confinement. Loss of privileges, such as outdoor recreation, is a common punishment.

Inmates can also be docked up to 60 days from their earned remission, which is time off their sentences earned for good behaviour.

In some cases, the documents show the same lieutenant chairing a hearing for one inmate and providing witness testimony against an inmate at another.

Violence and drug-related offences get the harshest sentences, normally up to 10 days in segregation and 20 days of lost privileges. At least twice, it was also recommended that inmates lose seven days of earned remission, but in the end the recommendation was not part of their sentences.

Inmates can shorten a 10-day stay in segregation by up to three days with good behaviour. 

In one case, a man at Her Majesty's Penitentiary in St. John's was sentenced to 20 days of lost privileges and 10 days in segregation for having a pill in his cell.

The man "blames being cut off" cold turkey and staff not calling the nurse to order him medication as the reason for him hoarding meds," the jail documents say.