When her preliminary hearing begins in Victoria courthouse on Oct. 28, Whitney Furber won鈥檛 be there. She prefers to stay at Alouette Correctional Centre for Women at Maple Ridge for the day.
It鈥檚 not that she doesn鈥檛 care what happens in her absence. Obviously, she鈥檚 interested because she鈥檚 charged with some serious crimes, including attempted murder, which carry stiff penalties.
The trouble is, Oct. 28 is a Monday. If Furber were to make that date, she鈥檇 have to be flown from the mainland on Friday, and spend what her lawyer called 鈥渢he misery of a weekend in Victoria police jail cells.鈥�
No police force around Greater Victoria wants to look after her for the rest of her five-day trial, her lawyer says.
There鈥檚 no remand centre for women on the Island, as there isn鈥檛 in many other B.C. communities.
Her co-accused, Dennis Fletcher, is in custody at the 91原创 Island Regional Correctional Centre on Wilkinson Road with real meals, showers and other amenities and opportunity for exercise.
Furber faces days and nights in a cramped cement cell, without showers, on a mat inches from a toilet, next to the noise of drunks and the glare of lights.
Judges have called this situation discriminatory, shameful and profoundly unfair.
Attorney General Suzanne Anton must know it is, but doesn鈥檛 want to talk about it because she鈥檚 caught up in a numbers game: There aren鈥檛 enough women on remand on the Island to justify the expense of a warehouse to house them.
Not so far, there aren鈥檛. But women are the fastest-growing category of those held in detention across Canada. And 60 per cent of inmates in provincial jails are awaiting trial, just like Furber. Their innocence is presumed still.
Anton, who prefers to issue statements rather than answer questions, says that there are standards, set by the province, that municipal police forces must follow in caring for all in detention, including women.
But police departments having to put up, and in some cases put up with, women on remand, say they aren鈥檛 equipped, trained or staffed to look after women in jails designed for short-term stays by male offenders.
Vince Bevan, a retired Ottawa police chief, wrote a report in which he found the Victoria police department incapable of coping with women who had been dumped on it by provincial sheriffs and other police forces.
He described a case in which sheriff鈥檚 officers refused to take a heroin addict held overnight in the Victoria jail for an appointed court appearance because she was suffering withdrawal and vomiting. Victoria police had to take her to hospital for treatment twice overnight.
She missed her court appearance and was remanded to appear days later. Sheriffs still wouldn鈥檛 take her. Eventually, VicPD was able to get her transferred to the Surrey Correctional Centre to be treated 鈥渁nd properly housed鈥� while awaiting trial.
Although she was a provincial responsibility, VicPD was forced to accept the risk and liability for her care, said Bevan. So it had to for the other 235 men and 344 women it had to look after while they were awaiting trial in 2009.
Victoria cancelled its remand contract with the province in 2011 on Bevan鈥檚 recommendation. But women like Furber are still cell-mat surfing or being escorted by men in latex gloves to the mainland and back.
And all Anton can do is cite provincial guidelines that their reluctant jailers are expected to follow.
One of them is that females be separated 鈥渂y sight and sound鈥� from males. But no sound baffle can shut out the bawling of drunks in adjoining cells.
A shower curtain might assure some privacy. But the women get no showers.
Anyway, they have to be watched by their custodians, male or female.
It鈥檚 recognized by the United Nations, among other authorities, that women in custody require more, not less care than men.
Their hygienic needs are different, how they are housed is more likely to affect their children and their dignity as human beings is more easily offended.
Our MLAs get $1 million in housing allowances for 36 days. There鈥檚 no allowance for Whitney Furber.
She鈥檚 a nuisance in a man鈥檚 world.
