The Office of the Ombudsperson said it is disappointed that the provincial government has still not fully implemented a process for external inspections of BC's network of 10 jails.
The second update to 2016’s Under Inspection: The Hiatus in BC Correctional Centre Inspections, tabled Wednesday, Feb. 19 in the Legislative Assembly, said the first external report is on its way.
“The Investigation and Standards Office (ISO) told us that it is committed to reporting publicly on its inspection outcomes,” Ombudsperson Jay Chalke wrote in his July 2024 report. “It intends to publish its first report at the end of the first cycle of inspections, in June 2025. In the meantime it intends to develop policy to guide the reporting process.”
Whether and how the reports would be redacted and summarized for publication is to be determined, but Chalke said that publishing inspection reports would help ISO demonstrate independence and accountability.
The lack of regular, periodic jail inspections between 2001 and 2012 sparked the original investigation of BC correctional centres, including the Prince George Regional Correctional Centre, and their compliance with the Correction Act and United Nations minimums for the treatment of prisoners, known as the Mandela Rules after former South African president Nelson Mandela.
“We found that there was insufficient training and guidance for inspectors, that the inspection checklists did not adequately prioritize the health, safety and human rights of people in correctional centres,” the report said. “We also found that the inspection teams were insufficiently independent from the correctional centres they were inspecting.”
By the 2018 update, six of the seven recommendations were met. However, the province had not met the Mandela Rules about administrative and independent inspections of the jails and access for the inspectors to interview inmates.
Since then, the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General and the Ministry of Attorney General “have made significant progress” to partially implement internal and external inspections. But “there is still work to be done.”
“In particular, the ISO needs to be adequately resourced to carry out meaningful external inspections, and it needs to address key questions in relation to its process,” said the Ombudsperson’s report.
A regular inspection program is not just a legal requirement, but a tool for oversight of the correctional system and to ensure public confidence in operations.
BC Corrections operates the 10 centres which house an average 1,800 people at secure, medium and open security levels, according to the government. Inmates may be waiting for trial or serving a jail sentence of less than two years.
