Experts and advocates are calling on governments to release some inmates in provincial and federal jails as outbreaks of COVID-19 fueled by the infectious variant Omicron spread through the country’s correctional facilities.
People living in confined spaces are already more vulnerable to outbreaks, and the methods used in corrections to mitigate those risks, such as long-term confinement or time in segregation, are inhumane, said Martha Paynter, RN and president of Wellbeing. . Inside, a group that advocates for health equity in Nova Scotia.
Staff are also at risk of contracting the virus at these facilities and spreading it in the community, he said.
“Really, we’ve gotten ourselves into an untenable, unjustifiable and purely unethical situation,” Paynter said in an interview Tuesday. “It goes back to what we have been saying for two years, that the only solution is decarceration.”
The Correctional Service of Canada has reported outbreaks in 16 federal prisons since early December 2021, when the Omicron variant was first installed in the country. By comparison, the agency reported outbreaks at 12 institutions during the previous six months. There were 108 active cases in federal prisons as of Dec. 31, according to the department’s website on Tuesday.
Outbreaks in provincial institutions are more difficult to trace. 74 cases were detected among inmates at the Nova Scotia Correctional Center in Dartmouth, NS, as of Tuesday, according to the provincial government. That’s more than 30 percent of the 233 inmates held there.
For Paynter, “incarceration” involves the granting of early parole to inmates held in federal institutions. Many people in provincial jails are in pretrial detention awaiting trial, and that process could be sped up, he said. For those who have been sentenced, he said justice departments could find safe community alternatives, such as house arrest.
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“Number one, stop jailing people,” Paynter said. “Stop taking people into custody for minor bond violations, probation violations, and so on.”
Amelia Reimer, a board member for the Elizabeth Fry Society of Newfoundland and Labrador, says the outbreak at the Nova Scotia Central Correctional Facility is a clear sign of the risk the Omicron variant poses to inmates, staff and their communities.
His group is calling on the government of Newfoundland and Labrador to release non-violent criminals and people on remand in prisons in the province.
Calls for the release of prisoners are growing as COVID-19 cases rise in Canada’s # jails and # prisons. # Covid19 #CDNpoli #OmicronVariant
“There are so many people who are currently incarcerated that they could actually be properly managed in the community,” Reimer said in a recent interview.
Reimer’s group wrote a letter in late December to the provincial government about the situation. Justice Minister John Hogan responded, saying his department continually reviewed or issued temporary absences on a case-by-case basis, Reimer said, adding that there were regular vaccination clinics inside provincial jails.
Reimer said she was encouraged by that response. “I think we are all taking this very seriously,” he said.
In an emailed statement, a Justice Department spokeswoman echoed Hogan’s comments, noting that there has not been a single case of COVID-19 among inmates in the province.
During the first wave of the pandemic, thousands of inmates were released from federal and provincial facilities, and Justin Piché, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa, helped track those numbers as part of the Prison Pandemic Partnership, a research group that examines how prisoners are affected by COVID-19
The number of people in both federal and provincial institutions fell by about 19 percent during the first wave, from 37,976 inmates in February 2020 to 30,580 in June of the same year, according to Statistics Canada data.
As of December 2020, there were 31,981 people incarcerated in federal and provincial facilities, figures show, which is still about 16% below pre-pandemic levels.
Data from Piché shows that Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador led the country in inmate releases between February and June 2020, with drops of 40 percent and 39 percent in the prison population, respectively.
“Actions were taken from the beginning, especially at the provincial level, where there were many more bond releases that were happening, because it was seen as an urgent situation,” Piché said in a recent interview. “Since then … governments have stopped stepping on the gas and prisoners and prison staff have paid the price.”
This Canadian Press report was first published on January 4, 2022.
Reference-www.nationalobserver.com