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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Court of King’s Bench of Manitoba building is shown in downtown Winnipeg, Monday, April 29, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Daniel Crump<\/p>\n
Proactio, the company administering the claims, says Manitoba denied liability but opted to resolve the lawsuit without a trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The settlement will see eligible class members receive payments starting at $3,000 for adults and $9,000 for youth, with the maximum compensation available being up to $100,000 depending on circumstances.\u00a0<\/p>\n
James Sayce, lead class-action counsel, says the claims process will open up in the coming weeks and will remain open for a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think it\u2019s a very fair outcome. We believe that it will provide quite generous compensation to class members. It recognizes the seriousness of the allegations,\u201d he said on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A spokesman for Justice Minister Matt Wiebe acknowledged the court\u2019s approval of the settlement.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurther comments will be reserved pending the release of the written decision,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
The class-action was first filed in 2021 and was supposed to go to trial last November but was adjourned so the parties could work together on a settlement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It applies to three groups of people who were subjected to solitary confinement \u2014 current and former inmates living with mental-health illnesses who were put into isolation beginning Sept. 12, 2012; current and former inmates under the age of 18 who were segregated for any period beginning Sept. 12, 2006; and any inmate who was placed in solitary confinement for 15 consecutive days or more between Sept. 12, 2006 to now. \u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear how many people this would impact, but Sayce estimated it could be \u201cthousands and thousands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of the settlement conditions include reforming segregation practices in Manitoba institutions.<\/p>\n
Sayce said class-counsel will meet with representatives from Manitoba to develop a reform process that is aimed at improving the conditions of confinement in provincial jails.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur hope is that solitary confinement is not practiced. It\u2019s one thing to temporarily separate a person from the rest of the correctional population, but it\u2019s another thing completely to put them in conditions that amount to solitary confinement.\u201d<\/p>\n
The use of solitary confinement has been widely criticized over the years, with the practice being described as cruel, inhumane and a form of torture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Research has shown that the effects can lead to the deterioration of an inmate\u2019s physical and mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, an organization that provides support to women and gender-diverse people in the prison system, has said Indigenous women, Black women, the gender-diverse and others from marginalized communities are subjected to these types of stays more often than other inmates.<\/p>\n
The settlement of the class-action suit in Manitoba follows similar cases in other provinces.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The British Columbia government settled a class-action lawsuit for up to $60 million over the use of solitary confinement in provincial correctional facilities over a period of 20 years. One was settled in Ontario in the amount of $30 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 5, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG \u2013 Some inmates who were placed in solitary confinement in Manitoba-run jails will soon be able to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-717671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}