TORONTO -- The Ontario government is launching a review of the solitary confinement policy in provincial jails.
A statement from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services says the review will look at how segregation practices interact with other mental-health policies.
Consultations with mental health experts, civil liberty groups, correctional staff and others are set to begin this summer.
The ministry says on any given day about 7,700 people are in custody in Ontario's 26 institutions and about five per cent are in segregation.
Minister Yasir Naqvi says all inmates placed in segregation have their placement reviewed after 24 hours and every five days thereafter.
A coroner's inquest last year into the death of Ashley Smith in an Ontario women's prison recommended that the Correctional Service of Canada abolish indefinite solitary confinement and prohibit placement of women in segregation for longer than 15 days.
