Inmate Effects

Editorial Note - The Court adds that if the prisoner had access to counsel in advance, there may have been better communication between the parties and this matter may have been resolved without the need for the court to be involved.

18. The institutional head shall take reasonable care to ensure that the effects of an inmate which, in accordance with the directives, he is permitted to bring into and keep in the institution, are protected from loss or damage.

*Judicial Consideration* -

Magrath v. The Queen - (1978), 38 C.C.C. (2d) 67 (F.C.T.D.)
	- Plaintiff claimed that certain personal possessions were lost or stolen and other unlawfully detained by institutional authorities when he was suddenly transferred from one institution to another, and sought a declaration that he was unlawfully or improperly deprived of these possessions as well as damages for those lost or stolen. It was held that he had not established on the preponderance of evidence that reasonable care was not take in respect of the missing possessions nor that he was unlawfully deprived of the other possessions. With respect to certain other possessions where it was established that he had been temporarily deprived he had not established that he had suffered any financial loss or compensable inconvenience warranting relief in his favour, either punitive or nominal.

Grabowski v Rousseau - Unreported, January 23, 1986, No. T-587-85 (FCTD)
	- prisoner’s wife sent certain personal effects to him. The effects were finally accepted at the institution in which the prisoner was detained, but the authorities notified the prisoners that they had received unauthorized personal effects and that they would be disposed of within 30 days or confiscated until a disciplinary charge had been heard and decided by a disciplinary tribunal. The prisoner was charged and acquitted by the disciplinary court. The disciplinary court ordered the effects be stored at the institution because that court had no power to order the property to be given to the prisoner. The prisoner complained to the authorities and sought to be given those personal effects. The authorities refused to do so because the prisoner had not brought the personal effects with him to the originating prison. The prisoner sought mandamus to order the prison officials to provide him with the property. At the time that the personal property was forwarded to the prisoner, the directives in force would have entitled him to have the property. Subsequently, and at the time of the court application, the directives had been changed and would not have permitted the prisoner to have the property. The court granted the application and ordered the institutional authorities to hand over the property to the prisoner in accordance with the directives that were in effect at the time that the property was delivered to the institution for the prisoner.

Editorial Note - The Court adds that if the prisoner had access to counsel in advance, there may have been better communication between the parties and this matter may have been resolved without the need for the court to be involved.

18.1 (1) Subject to subsection (2), where an inmate escapes, the effects referred to in section 18 shall be disposed of by the institutional head responsible for the escaped inmate after the period of
(a)	two years in the case of effects other than legal or official documents; and
(b)	seven years in the case of legal or official documents.
(2) The disposal referred to in subsection (1) shall only occur where reasonable steps have been taken to determine if the escaped inmate is in custody and
(a)	the escaped inmate is not known to be in custody; or
(b)	the escaped inmate is known to be in custody in a foreign state and no extradition proceedings are contemplated or in progress and, in the case where the escaped inmate is in custody in a foreign state with which Canada had a treaty by virtue of which he could be transferred to Canada, the escaped inmate has not applied to the foreign state for a transfer.
(3) Before any effect is disposed of pursuant to subsection (1) appropriate measures shall be taken to send it to the escaped inmate's known next of kin, if any.
(4) Subject to subsection (5) and in the absence of a known next of kin, any effect to be disposed of pursuant to subsection (1) shall be remitted to the Minister of Supply and Services unless the effect is valued at $50 or less, in which case it shall be turned over to a charitable organization located in the vicinity of the institution from which the inmate escaped. [SOR/86-797]
(5) Any effect to be disposed of pursuant to subsection (1) and considered by the institutional head responsible for the escaped inmate to be unusable shall be destroyed.
(6) Any legal or official documents to be disposed of pursuant to subsection (1) shall be disposed of in accordance with instructions from the Public Trustee or other appropriate official of the province in which the institution is located.
(7) For the purposes of this section, "escape" means breaking prison, escaping from lawful custody or, without lawful excuse, being at large before the expiration of a term of imprisonment to which an inmate has been sentenced. [SOR/83-199]
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