COVID-19 Rates in Canadian Prisons
By: Harshvir Chahal
Tags: Canada, Prison, Covid 19, Prison Reform, Social Justice

With COVID-19 infection rates gradually slowing down, the general population is now less worried and more hopeful for the future of our world. People are already making post-pandemic plans! However, doesn’t it seem like we’re forgetting something or someone?

Inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic is not a new issue, nor is it one that has received much media or news coverage. With marginalized populations, such as people of color, at a higher risk of getting COVID-19, the pandemic has definitely been less fair to some than others. However, the population everyone tends to forget is those who are incarcerated. This, on top of a disproportionate amount of prison inmates being from marginalized communities, means the impact of COVID-19 is severe. Not only are prisons poorly ventilated but often cramped and unsanitary, making both social distancing and sanitary caution difficult. This, along with the rising COVID-19 rates in prisons, highlights disparities faced by incarcerated populations, thus bringing a call for change.

“As of March 31, there have been a total of 1,540 confirmed COVID-19 cases and five deaths among Canada’s federal inmate population, which averages around 14,000 people; and 14 active cases currently,” says CTV News.

The perspective we have as a society today regarding incarcerated people is already unkind. People of color, those struggling with substance abuse, and those who live or lived in poverty are at much higher risk of getting incarcerated than others. There is a deep link between incarcerated populations, racially marginalized populations, and populations struggling with substance abuse that dates decades. According to CTV News, “About 70 percent of second-wave cases occurred at two Prairie facilities — the Saskatchewan Penitentiary and Manitoba’s Stony Mountain Institution — leaving Indigenous inmates disproportionately affected.” On top of this, there is stigma around incarceration, especially for those who struggle with addiction or houselessness. The pandemic reveals how truly unempathetic humanity and authorities can be regarding marginalized and/or prison populations.

Even prior to the pandemic, prison populations lived in deteriorating and borderline inhumane conditions with no privacy or access to rehabilitation programs. In prison, people live in close proximity in poorly ventilated cells, facilitating the spread of disease. The Dr. Doob & Dr. Sprott’s SIU Report says, “It would appear to us that, using the commonly accepted UN definitions of solitary confinement and torture, Canada[‘s prisons] has serious problems with each”. During the second wave of the pandemic in prisons, COVID-19 rates doubled. Inmates do not have regular access to showers or sanitary material. Additionally, they also face a disproportionate amount of hostility from healthcare workers, who consider incarceration (and therefore, a higher risk of exposure to COVID-19) as a moral failing or a fault of their own. It’s been reported that some inmates are kept in isolation for “months on end,” underscoring the poor living conditions they face. On a similar note, in order to try and put a cap on COVID-19 cases, friends and family have been halted from visiting their loved ones in prison, resulting in an emotional as well as mental toll.

“Another Joyceville inmate John Whalen said over the phone, during a CTV News video interview with his wife that he feels relentless dread, only leaving his cell to shower.

“It’s pretty terrifying at the end of the day if I’m going to make it out… and I know if I do catch COVID, they’re not going to do anything to help me,” he said, adding that inmates like him, who have notices for early medical release, aren’t being fast-tracked out.”

A call for the release of nonviolent inmates had been made and answered in some provinces and territories. Decreasing prison populations is key when it comes to decreasing the spread of a disease such as COVID-19. However, no such action has been taken on a federal level in Canada. It begs less of a question and more of a statement: populations in prisons have historically been treated as disposable, and it took a pandemic for most to see that. Despite this, most don’t realize that “prisoners have accounted for about 80 percent of reported COVID-19 cases during the pandemic.”

And though “the Prison Pandemic Partnership is calling on provincial, territorial and federal governments to take bolder steps to protect people in correctional institutions,” more wide-scale and long term action must be taken; contact federal representatives, spread information, and advocate for those who aren’t always heard.