After 4 years in solitary confinement, Adam Capay moves to new cell
A First Nations man who has spent the last four years in solitary confinement is being moved to a different cell, Ontario's Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services said today.
Adam Capay, 23, of Lac Seul First Nation is awaiting trial after being charged with murder in the death of another inmate in 2012.
Ontario's Human Rights Commissioner Renu Mandhane raised alarm bells about Capay after she visited him earlier this month during a tour of the Thunder Bay District Jail.
"This individual has been moved from their cell," Corrections Minister David Orazietti said. "They are in a different location, with appropriate lighting and access to day rooms, spending time out of their cell for showers, phone calls and access to TV.
"It is my understanding, from speaking to officials, that the inmate is satisfied with the conditions they are presently in," he said.
Capay, a member of Lac Seul First Nation, had been spending 23 hours alone in his cell each day, where the light was never turned off. He was permitted out for an hour each day to shower and perhaps make a phone call.
Conditions in regular cells in the Thunder Bay District Jail, where Capay is not being held, are notoriously bad.
Inquest juries, jail guards and opposition politicians regularly call for the century-old facility to be torn down and replaced.
