In the technical briefing, we were told that the current cells that are used for solitary could be converted into SIUs. Senator Pate has said this is essentially solitary confinement under another name, and others have said similar things.
The John Howard Society said, “There's nothing in Bill C-83 that specifically limits the placement of people with mental health issues in these structured intervention units.”
Minister, the concern I have there, and I wonder if you could respond to this, is that in his report last week the corrections investigator talked about the staffing issues with psychiatric services in our corrections facilities. When you go back to the bill, the purpose of an SIU is defined in it as to:
provide an appropriate living environment for an inmate who cannot be maintained in the mainstream inmate population for security or other reasons;
What's to prevent “other reasons” from becoming an issue of appropriate staffing? It's great to have language in the bill that talks about mental health practitioners, but what's to prevent the person from being placed there because there just aren't the resources to handle someone? That's what we're seeing currently with solitary confinement.