Lack of tracking in Nova Scotia jail complaints raises oversight concerns

Nova Scotia’s jails are routinely failing to follow their own policies for handling inmate complaints, say prison justice advocates, leaving prisoners with limited ability to report mistreatment and unsafe conditions. 

Nova Scotia Correctional Services’ internal complaint system is meant to be an avenue for inmates to allege wrongdoing or resolve concerns they face while incarcerated.

But East Coast Prison Justice Society, a civil oversight group that works with prisoners in Nova Scotia to report on jail conditions, says many inmates find the complaint system ineffective and futile.

“There’s many concerns about prisoners not even being given the internal complaint form, which is not okay. It’s totally against their policy,” says Sonya Klein of the East Coast Prison Justice Society.

“We’ve also had cases of captains and superintendents wanting to review internal complaints and complaints going out to the ombuds (ombudsmen) or the Human Rights Commission before they are submitted, which is just absolutely a violation of people’s confidentiality and their right to access those services.”

Klein co-ordinates East Coast Prison Justice Society’s visiting committee, which works with inmates to monitor conditions in correctional facilities and create an annual report with observations and recommendations. 

Fear of “retaliation and reprisal” from guards or other prisoners also stops inmates from filing complaints, says Klein. Many inmates have concerns that prisoners who bring up complaints and are “loud about it” will be punished or involuntarily transferred to other institutions. 

According to Nova Scotia Correctional Services’ Policy and Procedures, inmates must be provided with complaint forms if they wish to make a formal complaint. After the complaint is filed, a senior manager must respond within 10 days. Complaints must be “documented and tracked” by Correctional Services.

But in attempting to obtain complaint records through a Freedom of Information request, The Signal was told that complaints are filed in an individual’s file, not compiled, and that the number of complaints and trends in complaint topics are not tracked. Any search regarding complaints would involve searching an estimated 10,000 files, incurring significant fees.

Kirk Shephard, the province’s director of correctional services, confirmed that this is how the complaint system is organized.

“It’s personal information that belongs to that person in custody, so it’s individualized,” Shephard said.

“I think if there was an overall issue or complaint, that would come to light pretty quickly, and really, we have a variety of them. There’s nothing that stands out.” 

But Klein says not having a centralized system “demonstrates a lack of willingness” to respond to prisoners’ complaints: being unable to track overall trends in prisoners’ concerns leads to a lack of transparency, accountability and action, she says. 

“We take every complaint seriously,” Shephard says. “Our managers at the facility levels are actively involved to rectify each complaint to the best of their abilities. At the end of the day, if someone’s not happy with the response, they do have the ability to speak to a senior manager about it, to escalate that to head office.”

But this policy does not always translate into practice, says Klein.

“There’s what’s said in policy and what actually unfolds in the jail, which is often that complaints are lost or never responded to or their response isn’t satisfactory,” says Klein. “And people may be advocating to speak to management, like a captain or the superintendent, and just aren’t able to.”

To close these gaps between policy and practice and create a fair, effective and trustworthy complaint system, Klein emphasized the need for external oversight.

“The role of the ombudsman is to be that external oversight mechanism with the power to investigate and hold Corrections accountable,” says Klein, “so they absolutely need to be rising to that role.”

The provincial Office of the Ombudsman serves to address complaints raised by individuals who believe they have been treated unfairly by government services. The ombudsman also has authority to initiate investigations and issue recommendations. 

In an email statement to The Signal, deputy ombudsman John House said that “ensuring robust internal and external complaint resolution processes has long been a key objective” of the Office of the Ombudsman.

House said that the Office of the Ombudsman has initiated investigations involving the internal complaint process, which “resulted in recommendations to the Department of Justice, Correctional Services, to ensure the promotion, effectiveness, and consistency in the application of the complaint resolution process.”

House says these recommendations have been accepted and implemented.

But Klein and other advocates at East Coast Prison Justice Society are still receiving reports that the complaint system is ineffective and futile. 

“We cannot trust Corrections to hold themselves accountable. We’ve never been able to do that,” says Klein.

“If they are expecting prisoners to buy into the system, to be rehabilitated and follow the law, then the prisons also have a duty to uphold their part in following their own policy and responding to people’s concerns.”