The Nova Scotia government has decided to end the practice of “dry celling,” which involves keeping inmates isolated in cells without toilets to determine if they are concealing drugs in a body cavity.
Provincial Justice Minister Mark Furey made the announcement Thursday after a cabinet meeting.
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Furey says a provincial review of the practice concluded the use of new body scanning technology has eliminated the need for dry celling.
The minister says the province’s Correctional Services will update their policies, but he says he will not release the report that led to the change.
In November, a prisoner rights’ lawyer told a Nova Scotia court that a law used to keep an inmate in a solitary confinement dry cell in a federal prison for 16 days last May should be struck down because it allows for cruelty.
Lisa Adams of New Brunswick was accused last May of concealing drugs in her body. At the time, she was serving time for drug trafficking at the Nova Institution for Women in Truro, N.S.