One year after she pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the anti-G20 protests, Amanda Hiscocks filed a human rights application on Thursday against the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services and the Vanier Centre for Women, alleging that they discriminate against inmates in maximum security by denying them programs and services available to those in medium security.
In her application, Hiscocks alleged that the Ministry and Vanier Centre discriminate against inmates on the basis of political belief, citizenship, mental health status, disability, gender and other prohibited grounds.
âI hope to initiate some changes in their security classification system, which is opaque and discriminatory and contains no fair grievance process,â said Hiscocks in a statement released Thursday.
âWe deserve the right to know the reason for our security designation, and the right to challenge it under a fair grievance process.â
A year ago, Hiscocks pleaded guilty to counseling to commit mischief over $5,000 and counseling to obstruct police for her alleged role in the ant-G20 protests.
On January 13, she was sentenced to 16 months in prison at Vanier Centre for Women and was immediately placed on maximum security.
In maximum security, prisoners are double-bunked and locked in or out of their cells for extended periods of time. There are very few programs and little access to books.
In contrast, prisoners on medium security have their own cells, more access to programs, the yard and time spent outdoors.
Leah Henderson, one of Hiscocksâs co-accused, served a 10-month sentence at Vanier Centre for Women where she spent all but 10 days on maximum security.
âThe differences between maximum security and medium security are huge,â said Henderson.
âIn maximum security youâre locked up for close to 16 hours a day. You have limited access to resources and you have very limited programming.â
In addition to the quality of life differences, Henderson said the ability to ârebuildâ before your release is reduced on maximum security because itâs a more controlled environment.
âWhich means when youâre released, itâs more of a shock to the system because you have less freedom,â she said.
Making it that much harder to adjust to life on the outside.
âIn theory there is supposed to be a review of the process after a couple of weeks,â said Niiti Simmonds, counsel for Amanda Hiscocks, at a press conference Thursday morning outside the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario at 655 Bay Street in Toronto.
âWe donât think that took place in Mandyâs case.â
Especially since Hiscocks wasnât moved to medium security until the end of August.
âI never had a misconduct, was never sent to the hole, was occasionally argumentative and sarcastic with guards but never violent or aggressive towards them, and I had no run ins with other inmates,â said Hiscocks.
âI tried for months to find out why I wasn’t being given a chance on a medium security unit but my questions went unanswered by Classifications, the Superintendent and the Regional Director.â
Hiscocks, who is scheduled to be released from Vanier on December 3, argued that the institution wasnât justified in keeping her on the maximum security wing that long.
âThere should have to be a clear reason (for not moving from maximum to medium security) and inmates should have the right to know it and grieve it under a fair process if we disagree,â she said.
âThis is something I hope can be addressed at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.â
Hiscocks also expects the Tribunal to deal with the classification system that she said âdiscriminates against groups of people who are already marginalized in society.â
In the case of people held on immigration hold, immigration consultant and No One is Illegal member MacDonald Scott said a âclear, answerable and accountable process for security designations for migrants being heldâ is long overdue.
âWithout such a process the immigration officersâ decisions are based on race, class and racist and xenophobic criteria,â said Scott.
âWithout accountability, the worst of the immigration officersâ biases and racism comes to the forefront.â
Inmates with disabilities can face discrimination too.
âWhen a person identifies themselves as having a disability, especially those with needs that fall outside those of non-disabled prisoners, or when staff or administration of an institution labels a person as disabled, it is common to further remove any decision making power from the prisoner, and it is common to increase institutional control over that person,â said DAMN 2025, a a direct action group currently bringing together disabled people, those affected by ableism and their supporters.
After Hiscocksâs application is accepted by the Tribunal, it will be served to the Ministry and the Vanier Centre for Women, who have 35 days to file their response.
A mediation is scheduled and if thatâs unsuccessful in resolving the application, then a hearing takes place within the next two years.
âIn her application Mandy is seeking a number of public interest remedies to revamp the system to make it less discriminatory,â said Simmonds.
âThe Tribunal has the power to award non-monetary policy related awards that will evaluate how maximum security designations are granted and will encourage the respondents or require the respondents to develop more transparent policies that arenât discriminatory.â
Even though itâs the first time that this kind of application has been launched against the provincial system, Simmonds said âsimilar concernsâ have been addressed at the federal level and there has been âsome movementâ to improve the federal system.
âWeâre hoping that a similar result will happen at the provincial level,â she said.
At this point, Hiscocks is the only applicant but she âencourages current and former inmates held in provincial jails who believe that they have been subject to discriminatory classification to come forward and join in the application.â
Anyone wishing to get involved in the application is asked to email [email protected].
âPrisons will never be about justice, but hopefully the systemic remedies I am seeking in my application will make them a little more fair,â said Hiscocks.
âPrisoners are deprived of our liberty but we shouldnât be denied basic human rights and equal treatment.â