The Office of the Auditor General of Canada is launching a review of the Whitehorse Correctional Centre (WCC).

The performance review — initialized last fall — goes into full gear in the wake of criticisms over the use of solitary confinement, prisoner treatment and mental health services at the facility.

In the planning phase since last fall, the independent examination will focus not on financial matters but on the programs and activities of the jail itself.

"I think that the Auditor General would have a responsibility to address the issue of corrections in the Yukon ... how you spend the money, whether the project was well-managed, how you're responding to community needs,” NDP Justice critic Lois Moorcroft said in an interview today.

Opened in the spring of 2012, the new jail, which was budgeted at $70 million, ended up costing taxpayers $5 million more and being occupied later than scheduled after an initially unplanned unit was added.

"It was a huge cost overrun,” Moorcroft said.

Two weeks ago today, Moorcroft — a former Justice minister — called on the territorial government to initiate an independent audit looking into the use of solitary confinement at WCC in the wake of a human rights complaint against the jail on behalf of inmate Michael Nehass.

Last January, Nehass was hauled naked in front of a camera from his cell in the segregation unit and held in place by guards in riot gear as a case management conference from court to correctional centre continued.

Both the NDP's audit request — directed at the Justice department's investigations and standards office — and the human rights complaint arose from Nehass's treatment at WCC.

Filed earlier this month, the complaint states Nehass has spent 28 months behind bars in segregation and alleges inhumane treatment and discrimination based on race and mental disability, as well as other grounds.

The Justice department denies the claim.

The government recently admitted one prisoner, who it did not identify, citing privacy concerns, was confined to the segregation unit for nearly four months consecutively.

"I'm very concerned that there's an abuse of solitary confinement,” Moorcroft said. "Holding people in separate confinement is known to cause mental illness and cause health to deteriorate.”

While within the boundaries of territorial law, the prolonged periods of segregation justified in part by the inmate's apparent psychological instability clash directly with reports by international bodies like the United Nations Human Rights Council as well as academic studies that lay out the detrimental effects of isolated confinement.

Justice Minister Mike Nixon said in the house earlier this month that "it is very unfortunate that inmates with mental health issues occasionally need to be separately confined. If they can manage in the units, staff make every effort to keep them in that unit.

"However, when an inmate is delusional or refusing to take his or her medication — and we cannot force them to take their medication — or if they are at risk to harm themselves or are violent, there is little choice but to keep them away from the rest of the population,” Nixon said.

Moorcroft applauded the government launching a study into the prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder among inmates at WCC.

"But there is still work that could be done,” she said.