Front Burner - Enduring the Wrap: “I was left broken.”

Episode Date: June 28, 2023

When Matthew Michel was 14, he was subject to a device called the Wrap for the first time, while in youth detention in Saskatchewan. It’s essentially a series of straps that bound his torso, legs and ankles. A shoulder harness would keep his body in a forward-sitting position, with his hands cuffed behind his back and clipped in. According to provincial records, Michel was in the Wrap 12 times. CBC investigative journalist Joseph Loiero talks about Michel’s story, wider concerns about the Wrap itself, and what its use might say about Canada’s youth detention system. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hey, it's Saroja. A warning before we start today. There is strong language and some pretty distressing audio in this edition of Front Burner, so please listen with care. Matthew Michel was 14 when he was first subjected to a device called The Wrap. This was at the Paul Dojak Youth Center in Regina, Saskatchewan.

In this video from a year later, this is in 2010, Matthew's torso, legs and ankles are strapped in. The video is only public now because of a CBC News investigation. What you're seeing is that there is a shoulder harness keeping him locked into a forward sitting position, his hands cuffed tightly behind his back. Fucking strangle me, fuck me. hands cuffed tightly behind his back. What you're hearing and what you can see in the video is that Matthew is having a really hard time breathing. He is hyperventilating.

And at other points, he's groaning in pain. There are two members of jail staff sitting next to him. Occasionally, a third person checks in on how Matthew is doing. The subject is crying. That's the voice he is crying. Now he's settling. I'm not fucking crying, man. I'm fucking trying to fucking suffocate myself to death, fuck.

Matthew Michel was kept in that wrap for three hours that day. And over the course of his time in youth detention, he was given it at least 12 times. he was given it at least 12 times. Today, I'm talking to investigative journalist Joseph Loyero about Matthew's story. He's been talking to him for years about what he says was the impact of that time. Joseph has also been looking at the controversial use of the rap in the youth detention systems more widely in Canada. Joseph, hello. Hi.

Matthew Michel is the young man who we are hearing in that video. At the time, he was 15 years old. He's almost 30 now. Can you tell me a little bit more of his story and about his upbringing? Definitely, yeah. So Matt, he's a young Indigenous man. He grew up in Saskatoon. He's actually from Fishing Lake First Nation, his family, but he grew up about 230 kilometers west of there in Saskatoon. And he had a pretty tough life from the get-go. His mom and dad were never really in the picture, so he never had those like immediate mother and father figures from an early age. From an early time, he suffered physical abuse at a certain point in his life. His grandmother actually really becomes his parent,

his caretaker, and he even describes his grandmother as both his mother and father figure at the same time. She was doing whatever she could to help raise him. But there was trauma in that relationship as well, because he didn't get to talk with her much about it, but his grandmother went to either residential school or day school. But it's not something he could really ask her about because she would cry. She would cry when she would think about it. It would cause her to drink and just be emotional and sad. So it wasn't something they could really discuss.

So things got off to a tough start for him. At a certain point, you know, he's bouncing around. The welfare system doesn't really have a steady home. His life very early ends him in corrections. At the age of 12, he arrives in, you know, provincial youth custody in Saskatchewan. And from there, his life kind of just starts to become a pattern of being in and out of juvenile detention. The streets kind of become part of his support system. And even at a certain point at a young age, he ends up joining a gang. So

unfortunately, like he had a really, a really tough upbringing, like kind of from day one. What were the crimes that wound him up in detention? day one. What were the crimes that wound him up in detention? When his file starts, when he's around 12, we're talking breaking a window at a Toys R Us, stealing a bicycle, stealing chocolate bars, breaking windows in cars, those kinds of things, right? So nothing violent, nothing super aggressive. But those are crimes, so that does land him in youth detention. And as he gets older, you know, the crimes do start to get more serious as he becomes a young man and an adolescent. And it's in youth jail that Matt was first put in the rap. That was back in 2009. You've seen multiple videos of this happening. What do we know about the moments that led up

to that point? The moments when Matt's getting put in the wrap, they're usually for being even what the files themselves call defiance, passive aggressive, disrespectful. Sometimes he's swearing at staff, giving them the finger, blocking his window with his mattress. So he's being a bit of a disobedient kid. And this is what gets him in trouble. And in a lot of the times in the video, he's not posing a threat to anyone. He's not posing a harm. He's not harming himself. He's not harming others.

He's being essentially a pain in the ass. There was one time, in all transparency, leading up to one of the events where he did headbutt a staff member before he was put in, so that did involve an aggressive act towards someone else. But in all the other events that we see, it's essentially for disobedient behavior. And at no times was he ever found to have been harming himself or harming another youth offender in any of these scenarios. In the one scenario I'm thinking of, he's actually pressed a mattress up against what is a door with this small window panel beside it,

and he's blocked them from being able to see him. Can you tell me what happens then? At that point, the staff at the institution then enter his cell, and there's about six of them. They go in, they take him down, they bring him to the ground, they shackle him, they handcuff him, and then they place the device, the wrap, on him. And so they've got him cocooned in it,

they clip his hands in the handcuffs, attach it to the back of the device, and now they've got him fully restrained. He's not doing well in the wrap, so at times he's fidgeting around, he's moving. Fucking fidget! At one point he even slams his head against the wall because he's so distressed to be in the device. From there, staff place a motorcycle helmet over his head.

They literally pick him up in the device and carry him out like he was a piece of luggage to another part of the institution where they then leave him on a blue mat, picture like those blue mats when you were in elementary school in a gymnasium and he's left there. At a certain point, he's so distressed and distraught that he starts hyperventilating. He starts crying. Staff aren't able to comfort him or treat him. You just see him stuck in this essentially 90 degree position in a full body restraint

for hours at a certain point he starts convulsing and spitting up so now he's got a spit hood at a certain point you know they say oh matt you're crying he's saying i'm not crying i'm trying to suffocate myself to death that's that's the voice he is crying now he's settling i'm not fucking crying i'm fucking trying to fucking suffocate myself to death fuck And so he's in that device for over three hours by the time they let him out of it. The thing that was interesting in that video is actually watching the guards because they're very calm. And one is actually sitting reading a book beside him. They check in on Matthew, but they call him the subject. And it's clear that they are following guidelines,

that this is institutional recommendations for how to do this. But it also feels very, as you're watching it, very dehumanizing. It's very removed while Matt's literally on his side, literally having a meltdown, but they're so calm. And it's as if they're just following orders, right? They're not they're not there to personally hurt matt but that's their job their job is to put this kid in a restraining device that the experts we've spoken with liken to torture and we spoke with dr gabber mate who's a childhood trauma specialist and what he says is these guards themselves like they don't necessarily even know what they're doing i don't know what's in the hands of these guards.

I don't imagine they think they're torturing him. I think they're just doing their job. But he's experiencing it as torture. They're so detached from it all because this is what the correction system is, and this is what they know, and there's no correction in the correction system. That's the policy. This is what you do. So, yeah, they're just following rules. But they're not calling him Matt.

At times they do, and at times they're saying, are you okay? But other times, subject is crying, subject is now doing this. It's a very dehumanized, removed way of interacting with him. How can any human being in touch with their emotions sit next to this kid? I'm not accusing them of being cold-hearted or of being inattentioned. I'm saying they traumatize themselves. They're totally cut out from their own emotions. What it says about the protocol itself is that it's completely based on control of behavior and of maintaining power over people rather than trying to rehabilitate them.

I want to try and let people imagine how Matt might have been feeling at that moment. And obviously you weren't wearing the wrap, but you've had a lot of conversations with him. Has he told you at all how it actually physically feels? He says it's like having your muscles pulled and torn. It feels painful. It really does. Because there's four metal rods in there. You cross your legs, and you push forward, and it strains your muscles,

and it feels like your muscles are tearing sometimes. It depends on how tight they put it on you. You can hear him in the videos, screaming, writhing in pain. At certain points, the cuffs are too tight or the device is too tight, and he's yelling, he's swearing. Even now as an adult, when he thinks back about being in that device, he just thinks about the thought of wanting to kill himself.

Think of thoughts of suicide, things like that, you know? Because that's how much pain you're in. You're like, kill me already, you know? Because, like, that's how much pain you're in. You're like, kill me already, you know? He says it was torture. He can actually, to this day, still feel the pain, that physical pain of his muscles tearing, of the pain in his body when he thinks about it. That's how much it's lasted with him.

Oh, man, I can according to the official records. It's my understanding that it was used on him at least 12 times, at least that's according to the official records. Why was it used so many times? If you ask the province, because he was being disobedient and opposing extraordinary circumstances that needed to be de-escalated. They say it was used properly on all 12 occasions, that it was necessary to prevent some kind of further dangerous situation from happening. But when you look in the video, at times you can see he's on the other side of a cell door, not posing harm to himself or others.

So some might wonder, well, what's the immediate threat? Who's he about to harm? He's not going to harm himself. He's not harming anyone else. He's not harming staff. So the province just views it as doing things properly and as per policy. Was there any kind of assessment done on Matt before the RAP was used? No, not before. It was years before he would get an assessment. When the device was first used on Matt, he was 14 years old.

He doesn't end up getting an assessment until years later, after he's been placed in the RAP the 12 times. Then he finally gets an actual mental assessment. And it's so important because Matt has mental health issues himself. And when he was a youth in these detention centers, he was suffering from auditory hallucinations, which essentially means he would hear voices. And those voices would freak him out. And it would cause him sometimes to be disruptive, to be defiant. He would be banging on his door, kicking on his door. And I guess that's where some of the defiance he comes on.

He was being a nuisance. He was being extremely disruptive. But in his head, he's hearing these voices that he's heard since he was a kid. And so part of what he's told us is that actually banging on the door for him would help alleviate those voices. But meantime, he's seeing threats, he's hearing threats all around him. He thinks the guards are threats. So he's swearing at them, he's yelling at them, and they're perceiving that to be him being aggressive or being defiant. But meanwhile, he's having a mental health crisis. But he doesn't get an assessment and any treatment until years after he's been put in the wrap on a number of occasions. So it comes much too late at that point in terms of avoiding being put in the rap. I got put in it quite often.

And every time I got put on it, I felt dehumanized. I felt worthless. It's hard for me to let go because of the thoughts you have when you're in there. It's hard to process sometimes, and sometimes you don't even think. You just feel sad for yourself because, like, they're just watching you like an animal, you know? I want to look a little bit more closely at the wrap itself, where it came from and what's intentional, what the use was, what was intended.

The device, what was it made for originally? Originally, and the wrap is designed by an American company and it's been around almost 30 years. made by American law enforcement and health experts for situations like law enforcement, where you're trying to detain someone or in a health situation where you have someone who's just completely uncontrollable, but you need to help them out. And so we spoke with the president of the company that designs the wrap, and he's adamant this is a safe device. And what it's intended to do is put someone in a controlled and restrained situation, but in a safe device. And what it's intended to do is put someone in a controlled and restrained situation, but in a safe way. And he says the reason it's safe is because with the people's legs out in front of them and seated in an upright position, that allows them to breathe.

So that helps avoid situations where their chest is on the ground and it restricts breathing. Maybe we could just remind people what it actually looks like. So what you've described is their legs are out in front of them, but their legs are actually wrapped. They're literally wrapped in a full lower body cocoon of Velcro. And the upper body, your hands are handcuffed behind you. And then they take the handcuffs and they clip it to the lower body part of the device. So imagine yourself with your legs completely stretched in front of you, but with your arms tied behind you and clipped below you.

So you're essentially like a right angle seated, but you're not really able to move. You can't stand up. You can't walk around. What the company says is that allows people to be then treated. It allows them to get the mental health they need. It allows them to get the physical health they need right away. And that will calm things down. And once things calm down, then actually, if needed, you can actually loosen the device. You can loosen the straps. That allows people to be able to stand up, move around. What's interesting, though, is that we never

actually see that happen in terms of getting up, walking around, stretching with Matt. At times you see staff trying to readjust the device because he's in so much pain. And in fact, sometimes when they're adjusting it, they're doing it in a way that makes him scream out for pain. He's so anguished. He's yelling at the top of his lungs. But at no point do we see in the videos we have them actually letting him get up, have a walk, stretch around. He's essentially just left on the ground for hours. I'm wondering how the rap compares to other forms of restraint

that are used in the correctional system for young people. What's actually really important here is when you talk to experts, when you talk to someone like Dr. Gabor Mate or Senator Kim Pate, who's a huge champion of corrections reform, what they're saying is you shouldn't be doing things like this.

And that's the whole problem. You shouldn't be putting them in devices like this because these are young people and you're going to traumatize them. And they're often already traumatized in their lives. They've suffered something that's probably affected them at a very young age and brought them here. So instead of just using restraints, you should actually move away from that kind of a system completely and get them the actual mental health help they need, the physical help they need, the holistic treatment they need to help them actually heal and be better as opposed to putting them in restraining devices. and restraining devices. Trauma shapes how you see the world.

When you don't experience safety right from the beginning, you live in a world that's dangerous. And when you live in a dangerous world, you're always in a defensive mode. And when you're in a defensive mode, you either completely shut down or you become aggressive. What they need is safety. When there's safety, the nervous system relaxes and then the brain can start making rational decisions. trained to understand the psychology of these kids. A simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem.

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That's not a typo. 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Cops. Joseph, earlier you were talking about a conversation that you had with officials as you were trying to get the lay of land in this story. And I'm wondering, in Matt's case, this was being used at a youth detention center that was overseen by the provincial government in Saskatchewan.

So what were the officials saying to you about why they used the rap? We reached out to the province of Saskatchewan about this story and their response was very minimal. And they say the reason for that is because Matt is currently suing the province, so they couldn't comment for legal reasons. What they did provide us with was the policies outlining what allows them to use the RAP in these scenarios and it's supposed to be to prevent self-harm, to prevent harm to others, extreme circumstances of trying to escape those kinds of things. But again, they're extreme circumstances. They're not supposed to be used as a first resort or punitively. But so we asked the province though, well, how often do you use this device? The device is approved to be put on kids in your institutions.

How often are you doing this? And the province of Saskatchewan says, well, we don't track its use. Where else is the RAP being used? In addition to Saskatchewan, the RAP's also approved for use in Manitoba and New Brunswick. And Manitoba actually provided us with some information. They've used it 11 times in youth facilities since 2018. New Brunswick in the last few years hasn't used it at all. But so we asked them historically how much they've used it, but they never provided that

information. So in Canada right now, it's approved for use in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick for youth. If we look at adults, it's approved in several other provinces as well. So it varies from youth and adult, but it is in several provinces in Canada. What do we know about the kind of impact using a restraint like the RAP could have on young people? Well, when you talk to experts, psychiatrists, people like that, in terms of the impact, expert psychiatrists, people like that, in terms of the impact, their concern is that this couldn't be a more horrific situation for someone like that because they're so young. Their brain is developing. They're in their formative years. They're in adolescence. And what this is going to do is just re-victimize them, re-traumatize them.

And you're just going to end up creating someone who ends up having problems with authority, someone who's going to potentially now end up going and committing more crimes. So now we have recidivism coming in, someone who's going to potentially develop addiction problems, alcohol, drugs, and someone who's going to potentially develop mental health problems. So essentially, we spoke with Dr. Gabor Mati and he said you couldn't have a better school for creating the future criminal, the future drug addict, the future mental health disorders in people because they're so young and you're affecting them at such a young, important age when their brains are still developing. I want to come back to Matthew Michel. He's the young man who was subjected to the rap. You've described how many times that happened to him. And a few years ago, he filed that lawsuit against the province

over the harms that he alleges he sustained while in youth detention. As this case unfolds, and we're going to have to see where that goes, I'm wondering what his main concerns are about it now. The device has left Matt broken. And those are his own words. He says it broke him. So his main concern is that that doesn't happen to anyone else. I believe they should discontinue it and not use that device anymore

because it affects a lot of people, not only myself, but my family members, you know, and other families and other kids that go through that. I wish they discontinue that so they don't have to go through what I went through. You have been covering stories about Canada's prison system for many years now. If everything that Matt tells you is true, what do you think Matt's story and the use of the rap tells us about Canada's youth detention system? People leave worse than when they went in. And that's the concern. When you do this to young people, when you are in a facility, when you're in the care of others, and instead of feeling like you're rehabilitating at all or getting on a better track in life, that you're just being victimized, you're being picked on, you're being

bullied in their minds, they're being assaulted, they're being abused, they leave psychologically impacted, psychologically traumatized. That then carries impacts into their daily lives. It affects their own sense of self. It affects their interactions with people, their relationships with others. Who do they rely on? Who can they trust? They leave scarred and they're supposed to be leaving better and what it speaks to is a lack of correction in the correction system people are supposed to be able to get back on track in Canada that's what Canada's correction system is literally the word correction is in the system but yet we're just we're just creating people who are going to create more crimes create more problems have lasting trauma and then that just affects our entire society

because then we see more crime, we see more abuse, we see more horrible things every day. And it's our correction system that is significantly contributing to that and creating that. I'm really grateful for your observations today. It's a really difficult story to tell and you've helped us understand so much of it. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.

If you're interested in reading more about Joseph Loyero, Jorge Barrera, and Michelle Allen's report on the rap, you can head to cbc.ca. This has been FrontBurner. I'm Saroja Coelho. Thanks so much for listening. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.