by Web Master | Apr 13, 2022 | News
Intake worker/Administrative Assistant
Prisoners’ Legal Services, Burnaby, BC
Prisoners’ Legal Services is looking for a compassionate intake worker/administrative assistant who wants to use their skills to support the rights of people in prison.
We are a small non-profit society providing legal services to federal and provincial prisoners in the province of British Columbia.
The intake worker/administrative assistant reports to the executive director. The position involves providing reception/intake, office and clerical services to support lawyers and advocates.
Duties include:
- Answering calls from clients, entering information into our database, determining their legal issues, directing calls to the appropriate staff member and taking messages as appropriate;
- Providing clients with referrals to other agencies, sending public legal education material and providing limited legal information in specific identified areas;
- Answering other calls, taking messages, arranging couriers, sending and delivering faxes and mail;
- Maintaining accurate database and filing system;
- Drafting letters;
- Track access to information requests and responses;
- Arranging legal aid lawyers to represent clients at hearings;
- providing advocacy and litigation support for advocates and lawyers;
- may assist with IT and website; and
- keeping the office organized and tidy, vacuuming and taking out recycling and garbage every other week.
Basic Qualifications:
- grade 12 education and training in administrative assistance;
- knowledge of computer systems; and
- adequate typing speed.
Skills and Abilities:
- able to be discreet and to exercise excellent judgment in matters of ethics and confidentiality;
- ability to work well with others in a team setting;
- must have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, in particular in dealing with people in prison, lawyers, prison and parole officials;
- must have ability to deal with distressed clients in a calm and respectful manner; and
- must have a desire to assist those convicted of various crimes in a non-judgmental way, including those with mental health disabilities, those with low income, or those whose first language is not English.
Salary: $41,490 (benefits after 6 months)
Closing date: April 25, 2022
Starting date: May 2022
Interested applicants should submit a covering letter describing why they would like to work in a social justice oriented organization that serves people in prison, together with a résumé outlining how their qualifications meet the position requirements to:
Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director
Prisoners’ Legal Services
Tel: (604) 853-3114
Fax: (604) 853-1038
Email: jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca
by J Metcalfe | Dec 9, 2021 | Aboriginal Prisoners, News, Submissions
Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services wrote to Premier Horgan calling on BC to fund initiatives for Indigenous-run alternatives to prison. Click here to see the letter.
by Web Master | Sep 29, 2021 | News, News Releases, Uncategorized
BURNABY, BC – September 29, 2021
Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services released a paper documenting government reports that confirm Canada’s treatment of Indigenous people held in its prisons constitutes a continuation of genocide and crimes against humanity.
Indigenous people in prison are more likely to be held in maximum security and solitary confinement. They are more likely to have violence used against them by correctional officers. Indigenous people in prison have high rates of death by homicide, suicide attempts and self-harm.
The Canadian government spends more than half-a-billion dollars each year imprisoning Indigenous people, while it denies funding to Indigenous communities to provide healing services and significantly under-funds Indigenous-run healing lodges.
On the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Prisoners’ Legal Services calls on Canada to end the genocidal practice of incarcerating Indigenous people in prisons, and calls on Canada to ensure Indigenous communities have the resources to provide healing alternatives to imprisonment.
Leading up to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Prisoners’ Legal Services has received reports from Indigenous people that correctional officers have been making racist remarks, including that the reports of unmarked graves identified at the sites of former residential schools are “fake news” and “propaganda” and that Indigenous people should “let it go”.
These remarks were made to people who are experiencing the very real pain and intergenerational trauma of genocide, in an environment where every aspect of their lives is controlled by the state.
“There is hypocrisy in creating a national holiday in the spirit of truth and reconciliation with Indigenous people while Canada actively engages in the mass-incarceration of Indigenous people. We can’t have truth until Canada acknowledges these ongoing atrocities, and we can’t have reconciliation until we stop denying Indigenous nations and communities the ability to heal,” said Jennifer Metcalfe, executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services.
Media contact:
Jennifer Metcalfe
604-636-0470
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca
by Web Master | Sep 10, 2021 | News, Submissions, Uncategorized
On September 2, 2021, Prisoners’ Legal Services presented to the BC Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services. You can read our written submission here.
by J Metcalfe | Aug 26, 2021 | News
Beginning on September 7, 2021, anyone who was in administrative segregation in a federal penitentiary in Canada
a) for 16 consecutive days or more after March 3, 2011, or
b) for any amount of time after July 20, 2009, and you were diagnosed with a mental disorder or borderline personality disorder before or during incarceration, and you suffered serious impairment as a result of your disorder and reported it to CSC,
can make a claim for compensation. You can make a claim for compensation whether you were in administrative segregation “voluntarily” or not. Please see https://www.segregationclassactionfederal.ca/en/home for more information.
Please share this information widely with anyone who might be able to make a claim.
by J Metcalfe | Aug 19, 2021 | News, News Releases, Uncategorized
BURNABY, BC – August 19, 2021 – Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services (“PLS”) filed a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission on behalf of Nick Dinardo, a 29-year-old Two-Spirit and transfeminine member of the Piapot First Nation, against Correctional Service Canada (“CSC”).
Since coming out to CSC last year, Nick has been repeatedly transferred between institutions designated for men, where they have experienced violence and harassment from both officers and other prisoners and have frequently been isolated in Structured Intervention Units (which replaced administrative segregation).
Nick has been repeatedly subject to physical force by correctional officers, and in May 2021 officers broke Nick’s arm. Officers have discussed Nick’s gender identity openly, putting Nick’s safety at risk. Both prisoners and staff have called them transphobic slurs.
Nick has often declined opportunities to come out of their cell because they fear officers will use violence against them again. Nick has not showered in approximately two months as a result. Nick has also been subject to indignities including having male officers watch them use the toilet and repeated searches by male officers, in violation of CSC policy.
These experiences are extremely traumatic for Nick, who has a history of trauma and abuse and whose family survived residential schools.
“CSC has written that it is seeking specialists in gender identity disorder for me, but my gender and culture are not a mental disorder”, Nick says. Nick’s complaint argues that not being able to live freely and safely as a Two Spirit person is a consequence of colonization and genocide against Indigenous peoples.
Nick’s requests to transfer to an institution designated for women, where they would be safer and more able to express their gender, have been denied. In making its decisions, CSC has not considered the risks to Nick’s safety and wellbeing nor their experiences of victimization in institutions designated for men.
“Nick should not have to live with a constant threat of violence hanging over their head from the people charged with their care and custody, and in conditions that regularly undermine their dignity,” said Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director of Prisoners’ Legal Services.
In July 2020, Nick filed a human rights complaint against CSC for failing to address their mental health needs and for responding to their emotional distress, including acts of self-harm, with violence and isolation, including officers in riot gear, pepper spray, restraints and bare isolation cells, which serve only to exacerbate their suffering. This complaint is ongoing.
Media contacts:
Jennifer Metcalfe
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca
604-636-0470
Nicole Kief
nkief@pls-bc.ca
604-636-0470
