The British Columbia Ombudsperson, Jay Chalke, has harshly criticized the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) for its lack of action in addressing the isolation of youth in custody. In a report released Tuesday, Chalke said the ministry had failed to take action on recommendations made in a 2021 report by his office, which called for the limitation and abolition of solitary confinement for young people.
“To date, there’s been a serious lack of progress by the ministry on these recommendations,” Chalke said, adding that he was “deeply concerned.” He noted that the number of youth in custody has dropped since the release of the 2021 report, entitled “Alone: The Prolonged and Repeated Isolation of Youth in Custody,” and that should have made its recommendations easier to implement.
But the update said the ministry had made no progress on 15 of the 2021 recommendations, despite a “commitment to implement every recommendation” when the report was released.
“To say I am disappointed is an understatement,” Chalke said in a news release. “I am calling on the ministry to account for and address its delay in meaningfully implementing the recommendations, in order to ensure more humane treatment of youth remanded while awaiting trial or serving a custodial sentence.”
The 2021 report found that youth at risk of suicide and self-harm were most commonly subjected to solitary confinement, and “prolonged isolation periods were experienced almost exclusively by Indigenous and racialized girls.” It also found that youth in solitary confinement had limited and inconsistent educational, mental health, and cultural supports, and in several cases, were subjected to repeated use of force and forcible removal of clothing.
Chalke said that in 2021, the ministry had committed to a longer implementation period for the recommendations than the report suggested. However, he said in the release that the ministry “has so neglected this issue, they’ve been unable to meet even their slower pace of implementation. This should be cause for embarrassment.”
A response letter from deputy minister David Galbraith, dated April 3, is appended to Chalke’s update of the report. It says the MCFD was provided a draft of the update in February. Galbraith’s letter to Chalke says the “ministry appreciates the opportunity to review your assessment of the progress made toward implementing” the 2021 recommendations.
Chalke had sought a progress report from the ministry by the end of March, but Galbraith’s letter said “in consideration of pending legal action related to the topic of the Alone report, the ministry is currently unable to provide a further update on the progress of the implementation of the recommendations.”
In October 2023, B.C. law firm Hammerco Lawyers announced a class action against the ministry for alleged Charter violations related to youth solitary confinement in B.C. dating back to 1984.
