N.S. woman who spent 16 days in ‘dry cell’ confinement settles civil lawsuit
Global News
A woman who says she endured cruel and unusual punishment in a Nova Scotia prison has settled a civil lawsuit she filed against the federal attorney general almost five years ago.
A woman who says she endured cruel and unusual punishment in a Nova Scotia prison has settled a civil lawsuit she filed against the federal attorney general almost five years ago.
Lisa Adams filed the lawsuit after she was placed in solitary confinement in what is commonly referred to as a dry cell for 16 days.
Dry cells have no toilet or running water. They are used to monitor inmates to determine if they have ingested contraband or hidden it inside a body cavity.
Adams’ lawyer issued a brief statement confirming the settlement, but Mike Dull said he could not disclose terms of the settlement or details about financial compensation.
“(Adams’) advocacy around the use of dry cells in Canadian correctional facilities — an invasive, degrading and ultimately unlawful practice — has resulted in a national shift,” Dull said Monday in a statement. “Thanks to her bravery, this harmful practice has now been banned across Canada.”
In a statement of claim filed in November 2020 with Nova Scotia Supreme Court, Adams says she was locked in a dry cell after correctional officers at the Nova Institution for Women in Truro, N.S., wrongly accused her of hiding drugs in “balloon-like packages” in her vagina.
The statement says conditions in the cell were “harsh, humiliating and harmful.”
In a separate court case, a Nova Scotia Supreme Court justice ruled in November 2021 that Adams’ constitutional rights had been violated, and he ordered Ottawa to reform provisions of corrections law that discriminate against women.
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