Nestled between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay, Sioux Lookout appears to be a typical northern Ontario town. It’s made up of a few roads and a newly minted roundabout. A hunting shop, a coffee spot and an LCBO fill out its downtown core. The quiet […]
Category: Corrections
Aging inmates seek compensation for abuse in Canadian prisons – CBC News [2024-01-30]
They couldn’t escape the law; now time has caught up with them as well. A group of federal prison inmates aged 50 and older have been given the green light to proceed with a class-action lawsuit claiming their advanced years have made them targets […]
Prisoners in the U.S. are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands – CTV News [2024-01-29]
A hidden path to America’s dinner tables begins here, at an unlikely source – a former Southern slave plantation that is now the country’s largest maximum-security prison. Unmarked trucks packed with prison-raised cattle roll out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where men are sentenced […]
Ontario inmates saw higher risk of overdose death as COVID-19 emerged: study – CTV News [2023-10-28]
Former Ontario inmates saw their risk of dying from a toxic-drug overdose jump as much as 50 per cent at the start of the pandemic compared to the years before COVID-19, says a study. The study in the medical journal PLOS One compared pandemic […]
Red-flags raised around medically-assisted death in Canada’s prisons – Global News [2023-10-13]
Since it first became legal in Canada in June 2016, 10 federal prisoners have been granted a medically-assisted death (MAID), according to the Correctional Service of Canada. The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) also says that as of Aug. 31 this year, a total […]
Heritage advocates hope to save Indigenous wall murals in former Guelph Correctional Centre – CBC News [2023-09-30]
Freddy Taylor says serving time at the now-former Guelph Correctional Centre started out as a very dark period in his life, but ended with a renewed passion for life and art. Taylor, 78, was taken from his home in Curve Lake as a child […]
Prison overdose prevention program expands to Ontario – Global News [2023-09-14]
While Canada battles an opioid epidemic, Correctional Service Canada is looking at how to address the same issue in its prisons. Starting in the fall, it will launch an overdose prevention site at Collins Bay Correctional Facility in Kingston. Originally started in 2019 at […]
‘I almost died in there’: Former inmates of London, Ont. detention centre speak out – CTV News [2023-09-13]
A court review of a $33 million class action settlement for former inmates of the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC) and their families was held in London, Ont. on Wednesday. During his address to the court, Michael Peerless described the EMDC as overcrowded, unsanitary, and […]
An overdose prevention site for inmates is coming to this Ontario prison – CBC News [2023-09-12]
Work is underway to set up a site where inmates can use drugs under medical supervision at a prison in Kingston, Ont. The overdose prevention service (OPS) at the Collins Bay Institution will be the third of its kind in Canada and the first […]
Disability and the prison system – Briarpatch [2023-09-07]
There’s a saying among prisoners: if you don’t have a disability going into prison, you’re probably leaving with one. Disability justice and prisoner justice advocates often call prisons the new asylums. Canada has long history of institutionalizing disabled people in asylums, institutions for the […]
His brother died in an Ontario jail. Advocates say calls for reform to prevent such deaths are being ignored – CBC News [2023-08-23]
In May this year, Nathan Gray noticed his phone buzzing. His cousin was trying to reach him. When he picked up the FaceTime call, he saw the serious look on his cousin’s face and knew something was wrong. “I just had this feeling,” he […]
Animal therapy program shows promise in Canadian prisons, study found – CTV News [2023-08-09]
A graduate student from the University of Saskatchewan (USask) is looking into what she describes as the transformative power of animal therapy programs at Canadian correctional facilities. Five years ago, Grace Rath, along with her black Labrador companion, Jager, volunteered in a therapy dog […]
Six alternatives to youth incarceration in Canada – rabble.ca [2023-07-27]
Evidence shows putting children behind bars leads to overall worse general adult health, higher recidivism rates and lower life expectancies. Despite this, Canada continues to jail youth by the tens of thousands each year. But a new report from the Sentencing Project presents six […]
Former Ontario inmates say complaints system is broken after docs reveal medical concerns, abuse allegations – CBC News [2023-07-14]
A cancer survivor says he wasn’t given access to pain medication. A man who lost 42 pounds says he couldn’t get the right food for a medical condition. Another man felt like he was going to die after staying in the back of a […]
Indigenous Justice and a New Path for Canada’s Prisons – The Tyee [2023-06-26]
When I asked Boyd Peters, a Sts’ailes First Nation member and BC First Nations Justice Council director, about the effects of long-term incarceration on Indigenous people, his brow furrowed. He exhaled and looked down before responding. “Nobody should have to go through that,” he […]
Ontario the latest province to stop imprisoning migrants – CBC News [2023-06-16]
Ontario has joined seven other provinces in announcing it will no longer incarcerate migrants detained for administrative reasons in its provincial jails. Earlier this week, a Radio-Canada/CBC report revealed that Quebec and New Brunswick had ended their contracts with the Canada Border Services Agency […]
Winnipeg man says he wanted federal prison sentence because of better addiction supports – CBC News [2023-06-15]
A Winnipeg man living with a cocaine addiction who has previously spent time in a provincial jail is back behind bars, this time in a federal penitentiary — and that’s what he wanted. Jason Walmsley, 34, told CBC in an interview inside the federal […]
Ontario government, Bell won’t say how much money they made from inmate phone calls – Global News [2023-05-16]
Neither Bell Canada nor the Ontario government will say how much money they made from a jail phone system that charged what lawyers describe as “exorbitant” rates for inmate calls over eight years. Bell operated the Offender Telephone Management System from 2013 to 2021 […]
The number of medically-assisted deaths in Canada’s prisons a concern for some experts – CTV News [2023-05-03]
Canada has performed nine medically-assisted deaths among prisoners in the last seven years, more than any other country which tracks and records such data. The number of federal prisoners requesting medically-assisted death (MAID) in Canada has also increased, with 27 asking for permission to […]
Ontario to pay $33M in proposed settlement for class actions over London jail conditions – Global News [2023-04-25]
A proposed settlement has been reached in two class action lawsuits against the province over conditions at London’s Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre, and allegations that thousands of inmates were deprived of their Charter rights while at the troubled provincial jail. Under the proposed settlement, still […]
