OTTAWA - Canada's federal prison ombudsman is noting a steep decline in the use of solitary confinement in jails in the past two years, but remains concerned some inmates are facing long periods of isolation in the cells where they're placed instead.

Ivan Zinger says that on any given day in the early part of last year about 400 inmates were in solitary confinement in a federal prison, about half the roughly 800 that were segregated in 2013-14.

A report he released on Tuesday evening says that the average length of stay also fell from 44 days a decade ago to 26 days last year.

Overall, admissions last year were down to the lowest figure in a decade, falling to 6,782 from the previous year's 8,321.

Zinger says the trend is positive and has been continuing this year, and he credits the decline to a change in approach by senior management at Correctional Service Canada.

The correctional investigator says some of the decrease is due to a shift of prisoners into mental health units, but he's concerned in some instances the prisoners are going into cells among other prisoners where they're still kept in confinement for all but a few hours a day.