Providing Alternatives to Isolation and Ensuring Oversight and Remedies in the Correctional System Act (Tona’s Law)

Bill S-205, known as Tona's Law, changes several rules governing federal prisons under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. Its stated purpose is to reduce harm from prolonged isolation of prisoners and to add more independent oversight and legal remedies within the correctional system.

The bill requires that anyone sentenced, transferred, or committed to a federal penitentiary, or moved into a "structured intervention unit" (a segregated area with restricted time outside a cell), be referred for a mental health assessment by a qualified professional, generally within 30 days, or within 24 hours for transfers into a structured intervention unit. It also caps time in a structured intervention unit at 48 hours unless a superior court specifically authorizes a longer period because it is necessary for safety or security reasons.

The bill allows the Correctional Service to enter into agreements with Indigenous organizations, Indigenous governing bodies, and community groups serving disadvantaged or minority populations, so these groups can take over care and custody of consenting incarcerated people, and can propose release and community reintegration plans. Prisoners can request support from such groups, and if the Parole Board makes a decision inconsistent with a plan these groups propose, it must give written reasons.

Finally, the bill creates a new legal remedy: a person serving a prison sentence or period of parole ineligibility can ask the court that sentenced them to reduce that sentence if a decision, act, omission, or policy of the Correctional Service was unlawful, unreasonable, discriminatory, based on a mistake, or an improper exercise of discretion. Such applications generally must be filed within 60 days of the problem occurring or being discovered, though courts can allow more time.

This bill amends the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to set time limits on segregation, require mental health assessments, allow outside entities to deliver correctional and reintegration services, and create a court process for reducing a sentence.

• Segregation limit — confinement in a structured intervention unit cannot exceed 48 hours unless a superior court authorizes an extension on application by the Correctional Service, based on purposes listed in the existing Act.
• Mandatory mental health referrals — the institutional head must refer a person to a mental health assessment within 30 days of admission, and within 24 hours of transfer into a structured intervention unit.
• Service delivery by outside entities — the Minister (or someone the Minister authorizes) may enter into agreements, including payment arrangements, with Indigenous organizations, Indigenous governing bodies, or community groups serving "disadvantaged or minority populations" to provide correctional services; the Commissioner may transfer a person's care and custody to such an entity with the person's and entity's consent, and the Commissioner must take "reasonable steps" to identify such entities and cannot deny a consented transfer unless a court finds it not in the interest of justice.
• Community release planning — community groups, Indigenous organizations, or governing bodies may propose a release and reintegration plan for a person on request; the Correctional Service must inform incarcerated persons about eligible entities and give them notice of parole review or release dates; the Parole Board of Canada must give written reasons if its decision departs from a proposed plan.
• Court-ordered sentence reduction — a sentenced person may apply to the court that imposed the sentence for an order reducing their incarceration or parole-ineligibility period, where the Commissioner (or someone acting for the Commissioner) made a decision, act or omission that was unlawful, unreasonable, discriminatory, based on error, or an improper exercise of discretion; the court decides what reduction it "considers appropriate and just."
• Application deadlines — such applications must generally be filed within 60 days of the relevant event or notice from the Correctional Investigator, but a court may set a longer period at its own discretion, at any time.