PLS urges Minister Blair to depopulate prisoners with low public safety risk

by | Apr 10, 2020 | News

Prisoners’ Legal Services is deeply concerned with the rate that COVID-19 is spreading in federal penitentiaries, and at BC’s Mission Institution in particular. The federal government has done nothing to meaningfully protect prisoners, staff and the broader public from the spread of the pandemic. We call on Public Safety Minister Bill Blair to take dramatic and urgent action by releasing all prisoners with a low public safety risk, and we ask others to please share this plea. You can read our letter to Minister Blair here. 

Medical professionals call for depopulation of prisons and jails

by | Apr 7, 2020 | News

On April 6, 2020, Prisoners’ Legal Services and Dr. Claire Bodkin wrote to federal and BC provincial government authorities and health officers to share a letter, signed by over 100 doctors, nurses and other health providers across Canada, urgently calling for the depopulation of prisons and jails to prevent COVID-19 from wreaking havoc within Canada’s correctional facilities.
 
The letter highlights the medical vulnerability of incarcerated people in Canada, citing the high rates of chronic illnesses that put people at risk of severe complications from COVID-19, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, tuberculosis, asthma and other respiratory diseases, and the large proportion of older people in custody. The letter also explains how the realities of the prison environment facilitate the spread of the virus. Together, the letter states, these factors create the perfect storm for COVID-19 transmission, illness and death.
 
At least 20 prisoners at four federal institutions have tested positive for COVID-19, with additional tests pending. At least one prisoner at the Okanagan Correctional Centre in BC has tested positive.
 
In the United States, where COVID-19 has been spreading rapidly throughout correctional facilities, prisoners have already died in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Louisiana, Georgia, Massachusetts and New York. At least 210 detainees and 60 staff at the Cook County Jail in Illinois have tested positive. At Rikers Island jail in New York, cases have soared, with at least 231 incarcerated people and 223 staff members testing positive. Ross MacDonald, Rikers’ Chief Physician, called it a “public health disaster unfolding before our eyes” and called for “the focus remain on releasing as many vulnerable people as possible.”
 
The window to act to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in correctional facilities is closing. We urge BC and Canada to heed the call of these health providers to stop admitting people to jails and prisons unless absolutely necessary and to release as many people as possible – especially those with chronic health conditions and those age 50 and above, so they may abide by public safety recommendations and self-isolate at home.
 

An updated version of the letter which includes additional health providers who have signed on since the letter was sent , can be found here.

 
Claire Bodkin, MD
Resident Physician, Family Medicine
McMaster University
 
 
Jennifer Metcalfe
Executive Director | Barrister & Solicitor
​Prisoners’ Legal Services
 

Call to action on the eve of National Indigenous Peoples Day

by | Jun 20, 2019 | News, News Releases, Uncategorized

Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services called on the governments of Canada and British Columbia to take immediate and dramatic action to address the crisis of the over-representation of Indigenous prisoners.

Click here to see our open letter to government.

We make this call to action with other leaders in the legal community, including the Canadian Prison Law Association, the Indigenous Bar Association, the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, the Alberta Prison Justice Society.