MARTHA PAYNTER: Humiliating 'dry cell' practice re-traumatizes incarcerated women
“Today, the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia argues in Truro’s Supreme Court that the “dry cells” provision in the federal Corrections and Conditional Release Act violates Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the right to life, liberty and security of the person.
Dry cells are the practice of placing an incarcerated person in a room without plumbing, until, presumably, they defecate or vomit contraband they are suspected of hiding. They are observed 24-7, and their waste is subject to inspection. It is worse than solitary confinement.
As a nurse and researcher working in reproductive health and criminalization, I believe health-care providers have a responsibility to oppose dry cells as a practice that causes physical, mental and emotional harm.
Over 85 per cent of incarcerated women are survivors of childhood sexual and physical abuse. This early trauma is a determinant of criminalization. Most incarcerated women also have diagnoses of mental illness, and histories of substance use disorder. Dry-celling clearly retraumatizes.
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