AMONG THE FINDINGS DERIVED FROM THEIR VISITS, THE SENATORS STATE:

Prisoners in SIUs did not have access to daily mental health check-ins.

Prisoners across the country reported having difficulty accessing a lawyer within the first few hours of being placed in an SIU, as is their right.

Many prisoners said that, while they were in the SIU, they were not able to access the programs and services available outside segregation.

No meaningful changes within federal prisons have been made after Bill C-83 was enacted. Conditions within prisons did not meet legislative requirements.

No prisoners at any institution had the ability to file requests or grievances without the possibility of reprisal from prison authorities.

Prison libraries were not accessible to prisoners.

While touring 11 federal penitentiaries, the Senators, who were members of the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights and the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, took photographs. These are included in their report. Those pictures have been used, with the permission of Senator Pate, to illustrate this issue of our magazine.

- DR. TABITHA ROBIN