A young man’s death and the wider systemic problems with jail, bail and detention – IRPP

February 6, 2023

Pre-trial detention of legally innocent people has quadrupled in 40 years. Rights violations, abuses of power and deaths in custody must be addressed.

In late December, Nicous D’Andre Spring, a 21-year-old racialized man, should have been released from custody on bail. Instead, Quebec’s Ministry of Public Security confirmed he had been “illegally detained” and injured during an intervention by a correctional officer. He succumbed to these injuries later in hospital. In the wake of D’Andre Spring’s death, a corrections officer was temporarily suspended while the Public Security Ministry called for an administrative investigation. Provincial police and the coroner’s office are carrying out their own separate investigations. Meanwhile, D’Andre Spring’s family is demanding an inquiry into systemic racism in the provincial detention system.

While the details surrounding D’Andre Spring’s death remain unclear at this point, the wider systemic issues that relate to bail and conditions of detention in provincial institutions have been clear for some time.

Read More: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/february-2023/jail-illegal-detention/