Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Governments across the country need to depopulate human caging sites in 2021 to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and build safer communities say prisoners’ loved ones and community advocates


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

29 December 2020 – Amidst on-going large COVID-19 outbreaks in jails, prisons and penitentiaries across the country, prisoners’ loved ones and advocates from Abolition Coalition member groups are calling on provincial, territorial, and federal governments to take urgent action to depopulate their human caging sites in 2021. Vicki Chartrand from the Centre for Justice Exchange explains: “Not only are diversion and decarceration measures necessary to reduce the spread of COVID-19, which is currently out of control in several prisons across the country, but also to prevent subjecting imprisoned people to lockdowns and segregation-like conditions that severely impact their mental health. Everyone should be concerned about these troubling and dehumanizing circumstances that have public health and community safety implications for us all”.

 

Lydia Dobson from the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project notes: “Within the span of a few months during the first wave of the pandemic, 361 federal prisoners contracted the coronavirus. Most of these cases were linked to major outbreaks in Mission Institution in BC, Grand Valley Institution for Women in Ontario, and Port-Cartier Institution, Joliette Institution for Women and the Federal Training Centre in Quebec. During the course of a five-month period from the late-spring to early-fall when Correctional Service Canada [CSC] had no cases, the federal government had the opportunity to safely release a significant number of its prisoners while the second wave of the pandemic loomed. It didn’t and today the number of CSC prisoners who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 crossed the 1,000+ case mark. Large outbreaks remain active in Joyceville Institution in Kingston, Stony Mountain Institution north of Winnipeg, and Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert. Incarcerated people, most of whom have been pushed to the margins in this country throughout the course of their lives, have unduly suffered as a result of the federal government’s inaction in the face of repeated calls to depopulate CSC penitentiaries since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic”.

 

An anonymous mother of a Joyceville prisoner underscores the urgency of the situation: “My son has contracted COVID. He’s a first-time federal prisoner and has been assessed as a low-risk to re-offend. He’s got asthma. He’s afraid he’ll die in there. He’s only receiving Tylenol to get better. He’s also worried COVID will spread to everyone on his range. Some people there don’t have the virus yet, but it seems like it’s only a matter of time that they will. My son is eligible for parole in a few months, but by then it might be too late. Why does he need to be there? If he dies, I’ll forever ask myself why, why does Public Safety Minister Bill Blair insist on keeping my son and others locked-up to stare death in the face? Where is Blair? Are we beyond mercy in Canada?”

 

A partner of a prisoner recently returned to custody at Joyceville also shares her fears: “My fiancé was recently arrested because he failed to report his relationship with me to his parole officers. Falling in love isn’t a threat to the public, yet he’s languishing in a COVID hotbed at his age without his prescriptions after being ripped from a community where he had a good job and solid community ties. Who benefits from this? It’s absurd and dangerous. He should be at home with me where it’s safe for everyone, not behind bars where no one’s presently safe”. 


Kristin Li from the Prisoner Correspondence Project echoes the concerns raised about federal prisoners living with health issues, including aging prisoners, noting: “CSC consistently fails to protect aging and elderly people who are imprisoned, a group that has grown considerably over the past decade. Even before the pandemic, older prisoners languished behind bars with insufficient medical care, with their parole eligibility dates having past for years and sometimes even decades. The recent COVID-19 outbreaks inside federal penitentiaries underscore the dire need for community-based alternatives to this inhumane system of human warehousing”.

 

Commenting on Public Safety Minister Bill Blair’s unwillingness to take meaningful and decisive action to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks inside federal penitentiaries, Sheena Hoszko from the Anti-Carceral Group observes: “Minister Blair keeps passing the buck off to the courts and the Parole Board of Canada, as if he has no control over who enters or exits federal penitentiary walls. From having CSC Commissioner Anne Kelly instruct community parole officers to use alternatives to imprisonment instead of reincarcerating federal prisoners for technical and minor breaches of release conditions to recommending the use of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy on compassionate grounds and various measures in between, he’s not powerless and he’s got options. He just doesn’t appear to have the compassion or will to use them in a serious way in these serious times”. 

 

Martha Paynter from Women’s Wellness Within adds: “This is a man who says he cares about violence against women, yet Minister Blair subjects criminalized women who’ve experienced violence throughout their lives, who are incarcerated in places like the Fraser Valley Institution where there’s currently an outbreak, to the violence of COVID-19 and lockdown imprisonment. If he doesn’t want to do what’s necessary to protect the lives of those under his supposed care, he should resign immediately and let someone else do the job before more incarcerated people and penitentiary staff contract the coronavirus”.

 

COVID-19 has also been raging behind the walls in several provincial jails and prisons in recent months where the outbreaks have become larger and more numerous during the second wave of the pandemic as many jurisdictions have relaxed their carceral depopulation efforts. Jessica Evans from the Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project asserts: “During the first wave of the pandemic, provinces like Ontario saw significant decreases in their prison populations. Police forces were being encouraged to release people on their own recognizance. Some crown attorneys were working with defence lawyers to free people through bail consent releases. In contested bail hearings, judges and justices of the peace were increasingly reluctant to use pre-trial detention. Prison authorities used temporary absences so that people serving weekend intermittent sentences did so at home, rather than in jail. Much more could’ve been done to support decarceration, including significantly ramping-up parole and investments in social supports like permanent housing. Yet, Ontario is among a number of jurisdictions where the jails have become fuller during the second wave, exposing more people warehoused in places like the Toronto South Detention Centre where there’s an active outbreak to a heightened risk COVID transmission. How is it, at a time when we should all be doing more to keep criminalized people, prison staff, their families and our communities safe, that governments and the judicial system are doing less? We must stand in solidarity with prisoners and their loved ones - whether in Ontario, Saskatchewan or elsewhere - who are rising up to demand action”.

 

Sites of confinement in the prairie provinces have been particularly hard hit during the pandemic, accounting for 14 of the top-25 largest COVID-19 outbreaks linked to the Canadian carceral institutions since the start of this crisis. Robyn Maynard, who’s currently involved in organizing the Abolition Coalition’s upcoming country-wide prison construction moratorium campaign, notes what’s at stake and the need for governments to act: “The prairie provinces have been home to federal penitentiaries since joining confederation that, along with policing, helped pave the way for white settler colonial genocide. The prairies have also been home to the construction of several new and bigger provincial jails and prisons that mass incarcerate a growing number of Indigenous and Black people behind the walls. The pandemic is teaching us that big box injustice has provided fertile ground for the spread of the coronavirus and yet we see, from Newfoundland to BC, governments announcing the construction of new prison spaces. This is wrong, fundamentally unjust and downright dangerous. The stakes couldn’t be higher. A human being incarcerated at Stony Mountain Institution who contracted COVID-19 died just a few days ago. Governments need to be building communities, not cages and make all efforts to contain COVID, not people. The health and safety of all depend on it, as does the struggle to end colonialism and racism”.


For media interviews with Abolition Coalition members in English or French contact:

Justin Piché, PhD

Member, Criminalization and Punishment Education Project

justin.piche@uottawa.ca | 613-793-1093


Saturday, December 19, 2020

People imprisoned at Joyceville Institution issue statement seeking access to information about CSC’s outbreak plan and supplies to get through the crisis



 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

19 December 2020 – Since the lockdown began, there’s been no information coming from Correctional Service Canada (CSC). We’ve requested meetings with the warden and are not getting them. Whether it’s good or bad, we just want information to get to us. Right now, there’s no message going. All we hear is what’s on the six o’clock news and what’s constantly repeated over and over on the news loop. This is why we’re speaking out. 

 

Here’s what we do know. The guards told us they believe COVID came in through a quarantine range with guys that came here on a ‘bad bus’. They said that they requested to management to have all the guys exiting the quarantine range tested before they were moved elsewhere. They got told “no”, so people weren’t being tested before they left the quarantine range. Those guys from the ‘bad bus’ ended-up going to other units in Joyceville, as well as Collins Bay, Warkworth and Beaver Creek. Even as late as Tuesday when word started getting out within the institution that COVID was here, CSC was still allowing legal visits and parole hearings. There were COVID cases in the institution at the time and business carried on anyways. 

 

For months, they’ve been telling us to postpone our parole hearings and do more programs, including guys that have been around for a long time, because they claimed it’s safer inside here than it is out in the community. We’re consistently being told we’re safer in prison, yet now it’s clear that this isn’t actually the case and there appears to be no plan. We’re in prison right now. We’re in a prison with COVID. It can’t get much worse for us. We’ve had to come to terms with this. They’re not moving us. People who’ve been granted parole aren’t being released. No one’s going to be accepting guys from Joyceville. We’re stuck here and visits have now stopped right before the holidays. We need more access to free phone calls and video visiting until we can see our loved ones and community volunteers again. 

 

The hot water in the institution is failing. Right now, we have a hot water tank with 1,000 litres when we need a supply of 3,000 litres of hot water across the institution, which means we run out of hot water every single day. That means we often can’t wash our hands with hot water or take showers, and we’ve been in the middle of a pandemic for almost a year and now we’re in the middle of a COVID outbreak. We don’t have access to sanitizer. We don’t have access to gloves. We’ve asked for cleaning supplies, but haven’t been given any. There’s bleach in the prison, but were not getting it. Does CSC think we’re going to take Donald Trump’s musings seriously and administer it to our bodies to somehow to rid ourselves of the virus? The situation is beyond absurd. There’s currently one prisoner per unit assigned to clean-up their unit that has anywhere between 30 to 40 guys in them. Cleaners are putting their lives on the line right now.  

 

The only thing that’s changed for some of us is our masks. Some of us now have N95 masks, others don’t. For those of us who don’t, all we have is one mask sown out of old bedsheets with elastics on the side that CORCAN made that we can wash in the laundry. Media reports say that CSC has issued everyone face shields. The guards have them, but we don’t. Some of us have been making makeshift curtains to cover the bars of our cells to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID, but some CO’s have torn them down and given us warnings for putting them up.

 

In terms of health care right now, they have non-medical professionals coming onto to some of the units doing wellness checks. They wanted to have a steward bring the food carts onto the ranges to make sure everyone gets fed and we actually had to tell them to let us do it because we don’t want anyone else on our respective ranges right now in order to protect folks who haven’t tested positive and who aren’t sick. We’ve been on around the clock lockdown and are only out for 15 minutes a day, which doesn’t give us time for things like laundry. We understand the need for some kind of lockdown at this point, but we need more food and supplies to get through this. 

 

Everyone has been offered a COVID test. If someone refuses to take a test, they’re considered to be positive. That’s the standard they’re going by here. 15 out of 16 ranges have at least one prisoner with COVID. One guy has gone to the hospital. Others have shortness of breath and there are guys in here with pretty serious medical conditions that put them at significant risk of dying if they get this. CSC has publicly stated that those who’ve tested positive have been isolated, but that’s not true. Whether prisoners have COVID or not, they’re all mixed in the same units. Yesterday, we were told that there weren’t more positive tests, but that’s hard to believe. How do we hear of 80 positive tests one day and none the next? The CO’s also have a hard time believing it too based on how these things trend.

 

CSC’s probably going to keep everyone locked-down until there aren’t any positive tests and then there will likely be a 14-day quarantine period after that. At this rate, we could be on lockdown for months. Guards have been told that they need to isolate from their families for 14 days. We hear comments like “we have to be around you guys, but we can’t be around our families”, and we get it – it sucks. Everyone’s frustrated.

 

CSC is absolutely bamboozled right now. They really don’t appear to know what they’re doing.

 

- 30 -

 

For Media Interviews Contact: 

 

Jessica Evans

Member, Toronto Prisoners' Right Project

647-821-7505 | torontoprisonersrights@gmail.com

 

Justin Piché

Member, Criminalization and Punishment Education Project

613-793-1093 | justin.piche@uottawa.ca




Thursday, December 17, 2020

Largest COVID-19 Outbreaks Linked to Canadian Carceral Institutions in 2020

* Updated: 3 January 2021 at 11:40pm *

NOTE ON METHOD
The data presented below was compiled from figures included media reports and publicly available government data sets. Only COVID-19 outbreaks linked to Canadian carceral institutions of 5 cases or more are included in this post. Due to the quality of the data available, it is possible that figures linked to one outbreak are in fact from multiple outbreaks at a single carceral site within a short period of time, although as is reflected in the notes below attempts were made to exclude cases that fell outside of the beginning and conclusion of declared outbreaks to limit this possibility. It is also possible that there are many laboratory confirmed cases of COVID-19 linked to prisoners and/or staff of Canadian carceral institutions that have not been publicly reported as many jurisdictions do not report both types of cases online on a pro-active basis like the Ministère de la Sécurité publique du Québec and  Manitoba CorrectionsCorrectional Service Canada and the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General release prisoner COVID-19 case figures on a regular basis through tables accessible through a single web link, but not those of their institutional staff. All other Canadian human caging authorities do not make such data sets available online, including the Saskatchewan Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety and the Alberta Correctional Services Division that have had several large outbreaks linked to their provincial jails and prisons, as well as the Nova Scotia Correctional Services Division and British Columbia Corrections that have had smaller outbreaks linked to their provincial sites of confinement. Researchers, journalists, policymakers and practitioners using the data presented below are invited to contact justin.piche@uottawa.ca should they find any errors or have any questions. 

NOTABLE PRELIMINARY FINDINGS 
- There were at least 46 reported COVID-19 outbreaks linked to Canadian carceral institutions of 5 cases or more since the global pandemic was declared in March 2020.
- 34 of the 46 or 73.9% of the largest reported COVID-19 outbreaks linked to Canadian carceral institutions occurred during the second wave of the pandemic after 1 October 2020.
- 4 of the top-5 or 80% of the largest reported COVID-19 outbreaks linked to Canadian carceral institutions occurred during the second wave of the pandemic after 1 October 2020.
- 7 of the top-10 or 70% of the largest reported COVID-19 outbreaks linked to Canadian carceral institutions occurred during the second wave of the pandemic after 1 October 2020.
- 19 of the top-25 or 76% of the largest reported COVID-19 outbreaks linked to Canadian carceral institutions occurred during the second wave of the pandemic after 1 October 2020.
- Based on the preliminary findings above, it appears that amongst the COVID-19 outbreaks of five cases or more linked to Canadian carceral institutions, coronavirus transmission of this scale has not only become more widespread within these sites during the second wave versus the first wave of the pandemic (34 vs. 11 outbreaks of five cases or more), but has also generally been more severe on average (73.7 vs. 66.6 positive cases in outbreaks of five cases or more). Put simply, the spread of COVID-19 inside Canadian provincial jails and prisons, as well as federal penitentiaries, appears to be accelerating. There is an urgent need for governments across the country to take additional measures to depopulate their sites of human caging to the degree that is possible to limit potential COVID-19 exposure behind bars and to better manage the spread of the coronavirus when outbreaks within carceral institutions occur.

COVID-19 OUTBREAKS OF 5 CASES OR MORE 
IN CANADIAN CARCERAL INSTITUTIONS      

#1 Calgary Remand Centre | second wave 
Calgary, Alberta
- 335 provincial prisoners 
- 56 staff members
- 1 contractor
Total = 392

Source: CBC News (22 December 2020)

#2 Stony Mountain Institution | second wave 
Stony Mountain, Manitoba
- 343 federal prisoners (1 dead)
- 33 staff members
Total = 376

Sources: CBC News (28 December 2020) | Correctional Service Canada (30 December 2020)

#3 Headingley Correctional Centre | second wave 
Headingley, Manitoba
- 206 provincial prisoners
- 44 staff members
Total = 250

Source: CTV News (22 December 2020)

#4 Saskatchewan Penitentiary | second wave
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
- 207 federal prisoners
- 14 staff members
Total = 221

Sources: CTV News (24 December 2020) | Correctional Service Canada (30 December 2020)

#5 Federal Training Centre | first wave 
Laval, Québec 
- 162 federal prisoners (1 dead)
- 10 staff members
Total = 172

Source: TPCP-Canada (28 May 2020)

#6 Saskatoon Correctional Centre - November | second wave 
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
- 116 provincial prisoners
- 26 staff members
Total = 142

Source: Global News (30 November 2020)

#7 Calgary Correctional Centre | second wave 
Calgary, Alberta
- 112 provincial prisoners
- 28 staff members
Total = 140

Source: Calgary Herald (7 November 2020)

#8 Joyceville Institution | second wave 
Kingston, Ontario
- 135 federal prisoners *
- 4 staff members
Total = 139 
* Note: there are additional cases linked to this outbreak not included in the figures above through transfers from Joyceville to Beaver Creek (at least 1), Collins Bay (at least 6) and Warkworth (at least 3) institutions.

Sources: Kingston Whig-Standard (18 December 2020) | Correctional Service Canada (30 December 2020

#9 Établissement de détention Bordeaux | first wave 
Montréal, Québec
- 96 provincial prisoners (1 dead)
- 39 staff members 
Total = 135 

Sources: TPCP-Canada (29 May 2020) | CBC News (17 July 2020)

#10 Mission Institution | first wave 
Mission, British Columbia
- 120 federal prisoners (1 dead)
- 12 staff members
Total = 132

Source: TPCP-Canada (7 May 2020)

#11 Ontario Correctional Institute | first wave 
Brampton, Ontario
- 91 provincial prisoners
- 25 staff members
Total = 116

Source: Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General (25 May 2020)

#12 Brandon Correctional Centre | second wave 
Brandon, Manitoba
- 89 provincial prisoners
- 18 staff members
Total = 107

Source: CTV News (22 December 2020)

#13 Joliette Institution | first wave 
Joliette, Québec
- 54 federal prisoners
- 49 staff members
Total = 103

Source: TPCP-Canada (28 May 2020)

#14 Saskatoon Correctional Centre - December | second wave 
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
- 67 provincial prisoners
- 18 staff members
Total = 85

Source: Newstalk 610 CKTB (16 December 2020)

#15 Regina Correctional Centre | second wave 
Regina, Saskatchewan
- 60 provincial prisoners
- 3 staff members
Total = 63

Source: CBC News (31 December 2020)

#T-16 Toronto South Detention Centre | second wave
Toronto, Ontario
- 61 provincial prisoners
- No disclosed staff member cases
Total = 61

Source: Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General (20 December 2020)

#T-16 Edmonton Remand Centre - November | second wave 
Edmonton, Alberta
- 58 provincial prisoners
- 3 staff members
Total = 61

Source: CTV News (17 November 2020)

#18 Edmonton Remand Centre - December | second wave 
Edmonton, Alberta
- 51 provincial prisoners
- 8 staff members
- 1 contractor
Total = 60

Source: Edmonton Journal (20 December 2020)

#19 Établissement de détention New Carlisle | second wave
New Carlisle, Québec
- 51 provincial prisoners
- 8 staff members
Total = 59

Source: Le Droit (23 November 2020)

#20 Milner Ridge Correctional Centre | second wave 
Beausejour, Manitoba
- 30 provincial prisoners
- 17 staff members
Total = 47

Source: Data MB (24 December 2020)

#21 Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre | second wave
Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta
- 37 provincial prisoners
- 9 staff members (1 dead)
Total = 46

Source: CBC News (11 December 2020)

#22 Port-Cartier Institution | first wave 
Port-Cartier, Québec
- 15 federal prisoners
- 26 staff members
Total = 41

Source: TPCP-Canada (26 April 2020)

#23 Établissement de détention Trois-Rivières | second wave 
Trois-Rivières, Québec
- 18 provincial prisoners
- 15 staff members
Total = 33

Source: Radio-Canada (31 October 2020)

#24 Women's Correctional Centre | second wave 
Headingley, Manitoba
- 26 provincial prisoners
- 3 staff members *
Total = 29

Source: CTV News (23 November 2020)
* Note: a fourth staff member case excluded from the figures above was later reported by Data MB in December 2020.

#25 Établissement de détention de Percé | second wave 
Percé, Québec
- 14 provincial prisoners
- 14 staff members
Total = 28

Sources: Radio-Canada (9 December 2020) | Gouvernement du Québec (28 December 2020)

#26 Prince Albert Correctional Centre | second wave 
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
- 20 provincial prisoners
- 4 staff members
Total = 24

Source: CBC News (22 December 2020)

#27 Central North Correctional Centre | second wave
Penetanguishene, Ontario
- 19 provincial prisoners
- 3 staff members
Total = 22

Source: Collingwood Today (22 December 2020)

#28 Winnipeg Remand Centre | second wave 
Winnipeg, Manitoba
- 10 provincial prisoners
- 11 staff members *
Total = 21

Source: Data MB (24 December 2020)
* Note: one prior staff member case excluded from the figures above was reported in October 2020.

#29 Drummond Institution | second wave 
Drummondville, Québec
- 18 federal prisoners *
- No disclosed staff member cases
Total = 18

Source: Correctional Service Canada (27 November 2020)
* Note: a nineteenth prisoner case excluded from the figures above was reported by Correctional Service Canada on 29 December 2020. The department claims the case "occurred off-site". 

#30 Agassiz Youth Centre | second wave 
Portage la Prairie, Manitoba
- 12 provincial youth prisoners *
- 5 staff members
Total = 17

Source: CTV News (23 November 2020)
* Note: a thirteenth prisoner case excluded from the figures above was reported by Data MB in December 2020.

#31 Grand Valley Institution for Women | first wave
Kitchener, Ontario
- 8 federal prisoners
- 2 staff members
Total = 10

Source: TPCP-Canada (20 April 2020)

#32 Drumheller Institution | second wave 
Drumheller, Alberta
- 9 federal prisoners
- No disclosed staff member cases
Total = 9

Source: Correctional Service Canada (30 December 2020)

#T-33 Edmonton Institution | second wave 
Edmonton, Alberta
- 1 federal prisoner
- 7 staff members
Total = 8

Source: CTV News (21 November 2020)

#T-33 Établissement de détention Hull | second wave 
Gatineau, Quebec
- 6 provincial prisoners
- 2 staff members
Total = 8

Source: Le Droit (22 October 2020)

#T-35 Toronto South Detention Centre | first wave
Toronto, Ontario
- 7 provincial prisoners
- No disclosed staff member cases
Total = 7

Source: Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General (21 May 2020)

#T-35 Okanagan Correctional Centre | in between waves 1 and 2
Oliver, British Columbia
- 0 provincial prisoners
- 7 staff members
Total = 7

Source: Global News (14 September 2020)

#T-37 Collins Bay Institution | second wave 
Kingston, Ontario
- 6 federal prisoners *
- No disclosed staff member cases
Total = 6

Source: Correctional Service Canada (29 December 2020)
* Note: These cases are linked to transfers from Joyceville Institution where there was an outbreak declared in December 2020.

#T-37 Pine Grove Correctional Centre | second wave 
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
- 6 provincial prisoners
- No disclosed staff member cases
Total = 6

Source: Newstalk 610 CKTB (16 December 2020)

#T-37 Toronto East Detention Centre | second wave 
Scarborough, Ontario
- 6 provincial prisoners
- No disclosed staff member cases
Total = 6

Source: Government of Ontario (13 December 2020)

#T-37 Edmonton Institution for Women | second wave 
Edmonton, Alberta
- 5 federal prisoners
- 1 staff member 
Total = 6

Source: Edmonton Journal (24 November 2020)

#T-37 Edmonton Remand Centre - October | second wave 
Edmonton, Alberta
- 6 provincial prisoners
- No disclosed staff member cases
Total = 6

Source: Edmonton Journal (23 October 2020)

#T-37 Établissement de détention Rivière-des-Prairies | first wave 
Montreal, Quebec
- 1 provincial prisoner
- 5 staff members 
Total = 6

Source: TPCP-Canada (29 May 2020)

#T-37 Saskatoon Correctional Centre | first wave 
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
- 0 provincial prisoners
- 6 staff members
Total = 6

Source: Global News (6 April 2020

#T-44 Red Deer Remand Centre | second wave 
Red Deer, Alberta
- 2 provincial prisoners
- 3 staff members
Total = 5

Source: Red Deer Advocate (15 December 2020)

#T-44 Maplehurst Correctional Complex | first wave
Milton, Ontario
- 5 provincial prisoners
- No disclosed staff member cases
Total = 5

Source: Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General (22 May 2020)

#T-44 Établissement de détention Bordeaux | second wave 
Montréal, Québec
- No disclosed prisoner cases
- 5 staff members 
Total = 5 

Sources: Gouvernement du Québec (30 December 2020)

RESEARCH PROJECT AND FUNDING 
The data above was compiled as part of the "COVID-19: Investigating Canada's Carceral Response to the Coronavirus through the Prison Pandemic Partnership" (principal investigator: Kevin Walby, PhD - uWinnipeg | co-investigator: Justin Piché, PhD - uOttawa | partner organization: Canadian Civil Liberties Association) project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The partnership project is housed within the Centre for Access to Information and Justice at the University of Winnipeg.

Friday, December 11, 2020

The JAIL hotline marks its two-year anniversary by continuing to work in solidarity with prisoners at OCDC to end the use and harms of human caging


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

11 December 2020 (unceded and unsurrendered Algonquin Territory) – Yesterday, members of the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project (CPEP) marked the two-year anniversary of the Jail Accountability & Information Line (JAIL). Since its launch on 10 December 2018, the JAIL hotline has taken more than 6,800 calls, including 810 calls this past quarter, from human beings forcibly confined at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre (OCDC) and their loved ones. With the goal of working with callers to reduce the use and harms of imprisonment, the JAIL hotline has documented human rights violations and community re-entry barriers faced by OCDC prisoners, as well as engaged in solidarity work and public education initiatives with criminalized people to hold accountable, and demand concessions from, Ministry of the Solicitor General officials and the Innes Road jail’s administration. 

 

As the JAIL hotline begins its third year of operations, it does so having achieved important gains with and for OCDC prisoners on matters ranging from brokering access to urgent medical care that was being denied to them under the all-encompassing and disingenuous grounds of institutional security to ensuring that practicing Muslim people held at the facility could access their food and medications outside of fasting hours during the holy month of Ramadan. Working in partnership with comrades from groups like the Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project (TPRP), JAIL hotline advocacy also helped paved the way for other meaningful changes such as the establishment of a more affordable and accessible provincial prison phone system that now allows prisoners to make calls to cell phones and switchboards at cheaper rates through the #BellLetsTalkJails campaign, as well as significant reductions in Ontario’s prison population during the first wave of the pandemic through the widely supported “Contain COVID, Not People” campaign and webinar series. Our work with the TPRP on the COVID-19 Prisoner Emergency Support Fund also helped raise and distribute over $135,000 directly to incarcerated and newly released people, and their families during the pandemic.

 

Souheil Benslimane – Coordinator for the JAIL hotline – reflects on the initiative’s milestone and the work that remains to be done: “People held at OCDC used the hotline to organize against state repression. They raised the profile of their plights and used our service as a tool in their struggles against a tyrannical institution designed to harm them. This is a win in itself! However, the public’s education of prison issues, especially the privileged public, cannot come at the expense of the lives of criminalized bodies. The work undertaken by prisoners has revealed the Ministry of the Solicitor General to be a violent colonial institution that cannot exist without the creation of a disenfranchised underclass through violent processes of social exclusion, such as policing, courts, borders, and the prison industrial complex. If the jail cannot accommodate the most basic needs of prisoners, such as access to a healthy diet, spiritual and religious ceremony, and basic healthcare, how can it solve our most complex societal and interpersonal problems and conflicts? With this knowledge at our disposal, we’re all obligated to stand in solidarity with OCDC prisoners and support their demands for change behind and beyond jail walls”.

 

While the province claims that a new 235-bed prison in Kemptville with a planned opening in 2027 and renovations to OCDC down the road will address the concerns raised about imprisonment in and around Ottawa, Sarah Speight – Research Coordinator for the JAIL hotline – notes: “If we can learn anything from the construction of the South West Detention Centre in Windsor and the Toronto South Detention Centre it’s that jails in new buildings bring the same old problems”. Whether people are caged in old or new sites of confinement in eastern Ontario in the coming years, CPEP – including its criminalized members – will continue its work in solidarity with imprisoned people to diminish their suffering and to build communities where we can keep each other safe so that one day we may put an end to the violent, racist, unjust, costly, and ineffective practice of human caging.


For English and French Media Interviews

Email jailhotline@gmail.com or Contact:


Souheil Benslimane 

Coordinator, Jail Accountability & Information Line 

819-592-6469 


Sarah Speight

Research Coordinator, Jail Accountability & Information Line 

613-567-5245

Monday, December 7, 2020

Alternatives to Building a New Prison in Kemptville to Enhance Community Well-being and Safety in Eastern Ontario

According to the latest figures from Statistics Canada, it costs an average of $264 per day or $96,360 per year to imprison just one person in Ontario's jails and prisons. If the Government of Ontario builds a new 235-bed prison in Kemptville, it'll cost up to $22.6 million a year just to cover the operations of the facility. It'll cost hundreds of millions more to pay for the 30-year public-private-partnership mortgage to design, build, finance and maintain the prison. With the funds earmarked to cover the operational costs alone, the province could implement any one of the following measures instead that would actually enhance community well-being and safety in Eastern Ontario. 

* Note: Click on the images below by the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project's Audrey Monette to view them in a larger size * 





Residents of Eastern Ontario living on unceded and unsurrendered Algonquin Territory need care, not cages. Tell @fordnation and @SteveClarkMPP to say #NOPE | No to Ontario Prison Expansion and #YESS | Yes to Equity and Social Supports. 

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Confirmed COVID-19 Cases Linked to Canadian Carceral Institutions - November 2020

649 Newly Reported COVID-19 Cases Linked to Canadian Jails, Prisons and Penitentiaries in November 2020

Federal Prisoners = 116
Provincial-Territorial Prisoners = 426
Total Prisoners = 542

Federal Prison Staff = 18
Provincial-Territorial Prison Staff = 89
Total Prison Staff = 107

Significance of Preliminary Findings
From when COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic on 11 March 2020 to 17 July 2020 (a period of just over four months), there were a reported 600 prisoners and 229 prison staff members, for a total of 829 human beings linked to Canadian carceral sites, that tested positive for COVID-19 according to CBC News

While figures for mid-July to the end of September have not yet been compiled, our findings from October 2020 (237 prisoners + 100 prison staff = 337 people) and November 2020 (542 prisoners + 107 prison staff = 649 people) indicate that in the past two months alone there have been 986 COVID-19 cases linked to Canadian jails, prisons and penitentiaries. In roughly half the time of the first wave of the pandemic there have been 157 more COVID-19 cases linked to Canadian carceral settings in October and November 2020. These figures do not account for transmission beyond bars linked to these cases. It is clear that the risk of significant spread of COVID-19 in sites of confinement in Canada remains. 

Prison authorities across the country need to recommit to diverting and decarcerating people from custody to the extent that is safely possible to prevent and limit the spread of the coronavirus behind and beyond concrete walls and razor wire fences. Investing more in community supports for criminalized people like permanent and supportive housing now, instead of planning the construction of new prison spaces in the name of economic recovery would be a far better use of taxpayer dollars to enhance public health and our collective safety both in the short- and long-term.

LIST OF INSTITUTIONS IMPACTED AND SOURCES 

Federal / Correctional Service Canada (CSC)


Drummondville Institution

Prisoners = 18

Staff = 0

Total = 18

Source: Correctional Service Canada (27 November 2020)

 

Stony Mountain Institution

Prisoners = 92

Staff = 8

Total = 100

Sources: Correctional Service Canada (27 November 2020) | 

Newstalk 610 (23 November 2020)


Edmonton Institution

Prisoners = 1

Staff = 7

Total = 8

Source: CTV News (21 November 2020)

 

Edmonton Institution for Women

Prisoners = 5

Staff = 1

Total = 6

Source: Edmonton Journal (24 November 2020)


Mission Institution

Prisoners = 0

Staff = 2

Total = 2

Source: CTV News (19 November 2020)


Provincial - Quebec

Établissement de détention New Carlisle
Prisoners = 41
Staff = 7
Total = 48
Source: Radio-Canada (20 November 2020)

Établissement de détention de Percé 
Prisoners = 0
Staff = 2
Total = 2

Établissement de détention de Sorel-Tracy 
Prisoners = 0
Staff = 1
Total = 1

Provincial - Ontario

Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre
Prisoners = 1
Staff = 0
Total = 1
Source: Government of Ontario (29 November 2020)

Toronto East Detention Centre
Prisoners = 2
Staff = 0
Total = 2
Source: Government of Ontario (29 November 2020)

Toronto South Detention Centre
Prisoners = 3
Staff = 0
Total = 3
Source: Government of Ontario (29 November 2020)

Maplehurst Correctional Complex
Prisoners = 4
Staff = 0
Total = 4
Source: Government of Ontario (29 November 2020)

Vanier Centre for Women
Prisoners = 1
Staff = 0
Total = 1
Source: Government of Ontario (29 November 2020)

Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre
Prisoners = 1
Staff = 2
Total = 3
Sources: Government of Ontario (29 November 2020) | 
Barton Prisoner Solidarity Project (28 November 2020)

South West Detention Centre
Prisoners = 1
Staff = 0
Total = 1
Source: Government of Ontario (29 November 2020)

Provincial - Manitoba


Agassiz Youth Centre 

Prisoners = 12 (-7 reported in October)

Staff = 5 (-1 reported in October)

Total = 9

Source: CTV News (23 November 2020)

 

Brandon Correctional Centre

Prisoners = 0

Staff = 3 (-3 reported in October)

Total = 0

Source: CTV News (23 November 2020)

 

Headingly Correctional Centre

Prisoners = 201 (-74 reported in October)

Staff = 42 (-21 reported in October)

Total = 148

Source: CTV News (23 November 2020)

 

Manitoba Youth Centre

Prisoners = 0

Staff = 3 (-1 reported in October)

Total = 2

Source: CTV News (23 November 2020)

 

Milner Ridge Correctional Centre

Prisoners = 0

Staff = 3 (-2 reported in October)

Total = 1

Source: CTV News (23 November 2020)

 

Women’s Correctional Centre

Prisoners = 26 (-16 reported in October)

Staff = 3 (-3 reported in October)

Total = 10

Source: CTV News (23 November 2020)

 

Winnipeg Remand Centre

Prisoners = 3

Staff = 6 (-1 reported in October)

Total = 8

Source: CTV News (23 November 2020)


Provincial - Saskatchewan


Regina Correctional Centre

Prisoners = 1

Staff = 2

Total = 3

Source: CBC News (28 November 2020)


Paul Dojack Youth Centre

Prisoners = 2

Staff = 1

Total = 1

Source: CBC News (28 November 2020)


Saskatoon Correctional Centre

Prisoners = 116

Staff = 26

Total = 142

Source: Global News (30 November 2020)


Kilburn Hall Youth Centre

Prisoners = 0

Staff = 1

Total = 1

Source: CBC News (27 November 2020)


Pine Grove Correctional Centre

Prisoners = 1

Staff = 0

Total = 1

Source: CBC News (28 November 2020)


Prince Albert Correctional Centre

Prisoners = 0

Staff = 1

Total = 1

Source: CBC News (28 November 2020)


Prince Albert Youth Residence

Prisoners = 0

Staff = 1

Total = 1

Source: CBC News (28 November 2020)


Provincial - Alberta


Calgary Correctional Centre

Prisoners = 8 + 41

Staff = 8 + 1

Total = 58

Sources: Calgary Herald (7 November 2020

Global News (30 November 2020)

 

Edmonton Remand Centre

Prisoners = 58

Staff = 3

Total = 61

Source: CTV News (17 November 2020)


Canadian Jurisdictions without Newly Reported COVID-19 Cases 
Linked to their Provincial-Territorial Jails and Prisons in November 2020
Newfoundland and Labrador
Prince Edward Island
Nova Scotia
New Brunswick
British Columbia
Nunavut
Northwest Territories
Yukon

RESEARCH PROJECT AND FUNDING 
The data above was compiled as part of the "COVID-19: Investigating Canada's Carceral Response to the Coronavirus through the Prison Pandemic Partnership" (principal investigator: Kevin Walby, PhD - uWinnipeg | co-investigator: Justin Piché, PhD - uOttawa | partner organization: Canadian Civil Liberties Association) project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The partnership project is housed within the Centre for Access to Information and Justice at the University of Winnipeg.