Trauma of 16 days in N.S. dry cell endures, though court win a solace: former inmate

A N.S. Supreme Court judge has given Ottawa six months to reform provisions of the corrections law that discriminate against women. A former inmate wants dry ceiling to end.

The cramped space, bright lights and watching eyes continue to haunt Lisa Adams.

Though the 34-year-old was buoyed by a court decision last week that found unconstitutional the form of solitary confinement she endured, the former inmate says her 16 days in a “dry cell” still flood back in the form of anxiety and claustrophobia.

The mother of two boys, now living in Saint John, N.B., made headlines Friday when a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge gave Ottawa six months to reform provisions of the corrections law that discriminate against women.

“Working to have the law changed has certainly helped my well-being, but there are things that trigger me,” Adams said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Monday.

Dry celling is when inmates are kept under surveillance alone in a cell without running water so their human waste can be examined for concealed drugs.

Justice John Keith’s decision determined the law doesn’t take into account that a substance suspected to be hidden in the vagina wouldn’t necessarily be expelled during the detention. He said that creates risks women will remain detained unjustly.

Adams was put in a dry cell at Nova Institution for Women in Truro, N.S., on May 6, 2020 and remained there until May 22 on suspicion she had smuggled crystal meth into the facility in her vagina.

She describes a harrowing, catch-22 situation, where she couldn’t expel drugs because there were none and yet remained detained and closely watched _ particularly when she went to the washroom.