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‘Dry cell’ class action overview:
- Who: Former inmates of Nova Scotia prisons sued the Correctional Service of Canada.
- Why: They say a prison practice called “dry celling” is discriminatory, and they seeks damages.
- Where: The lawsuit was filed in Nova Scotia.
Two former inmates of Nova Scotia prisons sued the Correctional Service of Canada over a prison practice called “dry celling” that they say is degrading and inhumane.
Plaintiff Macquel Weatherbee filed the class action lawsuit June 22 in a Nova Scotia court alleging breach of their charter rights and seeking damages for herself and other plaintiffs, CBC reports.
“Dry celling” is a type of confinement used when guards suspect an inmate of having swallowed contraband or hidden it in a body cavity, according to CBC. There is no running water or places with privacy in the dry cell, and the lights are always on.
Guards watch inmates through a window and monitor by security cameras even while using a toilet that doesn’t flush. The expectation is that the prisoner will expel the contraband in their waste.
Dry cell class action plaintiff says ‘you don’t feel like a human’
Weatherbee says she was an inmate at Nova Institution for Women in Truro in 2017 when guards placed her in a dry cell on suspicion she had pills in her vagina, she says in the dry cell class action.
She says she had hidden cigarettes there and was placed in the dry cell under 24/7 observation.
“It was humiliating. It was degrading,” Weatherbee tells CBC of her experience in the dry cell. “You don’t feel like a human.”
At the end of five days, Weatherbee says she admitted to the institution’s warden that she had cigarettes. Two female guards took her to a shower, watched her strip and instructed her to open her legs and take out the package.
“Even though, yes, we were in prison for crimes we committed, humans still do not deserve to be treated like that,” Weatherbee tells CBC. “Prison is supposed to be about rehabilitation, and there’s no way a person can rehabilitate from that.”
In a 2021 decision, a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge ruled that dry celling is unconstitutional and discriminates on the basis of sex, giving the federal government until May 2022 to come up with a new law.
Justice John Keith noted that while dry cell detention is not an “appropriate response to suspected contraband carried in a vagina,” his decision should not be interpreted to mean that carrying contraband is “suddenly permissible.”
Weatherbee and the other plaintiffs are seeking damages.
The Correctional Service of Canada responded that it will take time to review the claim and respond in due course.
In related news, in 2020, an inmate at the federal women’s prison in Joliette, Quebec filed a class action lawsuit after she contracted COVID-19.
What do you think about the allegations about dry cells? Let us know in the comments!
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