By Jeff Shantz April 20, 2020
The conditions in carceral institutions in Canada are always dire. COVID-19 has added a variety of new serious health risks to an already unhealthy situation.
As of April 20, 2020, the Tracking the Politics of Criminalization in Canada Project reports 352 COVID-19 cases linked to carceral sites in Canada. These consist of 170 Correctional Services of Canada (CSC) prisoners; 66 provincial/territorial prisoners; 92 CSC staff; 21 provincial/territorial staff; 1 Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) staff; and 2 contractors.
On Friday, April 17, 2020, more than a dozen people held a noise action outside the Mission Institution, where one prisoner contracted COVID-19 and has died, and where the largest number of prisoners have been confirmed with COVID-19—60 as of this writing. They honked car horns, used noisemakers, and held signs in solidarity with prisoners. Candles were lit in memoriam for the person who died.
Participants, including family members of a person imprisoned at Mission. raised the call to release prisoners for public health. The Canadian government has called on people to physically distance which is not possible in carceral institutions where conditions are made worse by the lack of adequate and proper health care resources.
