The End of The Hole

 

There was an important announcement by the federal government earlier this week which shouldn't be missed in the craze of reporting about...other things. A decision has been made to phase out solitary confinement in prisons, and this is significant. There have been several high-profile deaths in solitary in recent years as inmates have taken their own lives. The BC Supreme Court ruled that solitary confinement is unconstitutional earlier this year, which may have had a greater influence on this decision. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale outlined what the alternative will be in order that inmates have "significant human contact."

I am convinced that this is a matter of basic human decency and justice and I say that based on my experience as a chaplain intern in the summer of 1979. My assignment at Kingston Penitentiary as a 24-year-old who'd never even visited a jail before, let alone a maximum security prison was to visit "the Hole" as solitary confinement was known. 

 

When we went on a tour of KP this past summer we did not visit the Hole which was a part of the 19th prison and actually underground. We saw the "new" solitary confinement unit which replaced it before the prison was eventually closed. I can't find a single photo of the old facility. We did walk past the entrance and I was moved at the thought of the men who were confined there and my role.

With Goodale's announcement came my realization that on many days I was the "significant human contact" for the guys in those bleak cells. The guards fed them and shuffled them into the enclosed yard for some daily exercise. A nurse came with meds and some inmates had occasional visits from the very busy psychologist. I was the person who had time to actually converse with the men who were often desperate in their isolation. I knew next to nothing about how to relate to them but I could listen and on occasion I prayed with them. 

In retrospect I'm grateful for what I could offer, as limited as that was. I came as a Christian chaplain and while we rarely talked faith my presence was meant to be a "cup of water" in his name.