New issue of the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons features writings on the (mis)management of COVID-19 by Canadian prison authorities

Today, the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons (JPP) launched Volume 29, Number 1 & 2 – a double-issue assembled during the course of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that threatened the health and prematurely ended the lives of scores of people, including prisoners. The article section of this issue features peer-reviewed contributions on a host of problems that existed in prisons prior to the pandemic such as the challenges prisoners face when coping with being disconnected from partners, family and friends, being subject to austere conditions of confinement including in segregation units that go by other names, and miscarriages of justice. The Response and Prisoners’ Struggles sections of this issue include several contributions documenting the impact of measures instituted by Canadian carceral state entities to prevent and manage the spread of COVID-19 behind prison walls. Some of the prisoner solidarity and mutual aid initiatives that have supported current and former prisoners in Canada profiled in this issue also provide a snapshot of the horrific treatment endured by criminalized people during the pandemic.        

At the time when these contributions for this collection were assembled in mid-July, there had been a reported 829 cases of COVID-19 linked to Canadian jails, prisons and penitentiaries since mid-March, of which 600 were prisoners and 229 were institution staff. As the JPP launches Volume 29(1&2), it is deeply troubling that it does so on the heels of at least another 337 new cases (237 prisoners and 100 institutional staff) linked to Canadian carceral sites in October and at least another 649 cases (542 prisoners and 107 institutional staff) reported in November. With new cases reported by the Correctional Service of Canada and their provincial counterparts this month, there have been more than 1,000 cases of COVID-19 linked to sites of confinement in Canada since October 1, surpassing reported cases noted during the country’s entire first wave of the pandemic.

Dr. Justin Piché, Co-editor of the JPP, describes the urgency of the deteriorating situation behind prison walls, both in Canada and elsewhere in the world: “Since the journal’s founding in 1988, contributors have documented the violence of incarceration in vivid detail. Our most recent issue is but another tome in the lengthy history of prison writing that establishes that institutional order and security routinely displaces other objectives of imprisonment as is evident during this pandemic where public health has been used as a pretext for frequent lockdowns and segregation-like conditions, along with the removal of programming and other means for prisoners to pass the time. How subjecting incarcerated people to these conditions will contribute to safety in the communities to which most will eventually return when they could be safely released now without being scarred by this state violence is a mystery to me”.   

Dr. Kevin Walby, also a JPP Co-editor, adds: “It is clear that sites of confinement, like other congregate settings, are key vectors of COVID-19 transmission. Not only is the health of prisoners significantly at risk in these settings, but also staff members who enter and exit carceral sites, and return to their families and communities. While some jurisdictions have diverted and decarcerated prisoners from custody to decrease the risk of COVID-19 transmission behind and beyond prison walls, more needs to be done. To flatten the curve and prevent disease transmission which can have life-altering consequences and even end lives, governments across Canada and elsewhere across the world must take more steps to reduce their prison populations and build communities where people have access to the basic necessities of life such as access to food and water along with housing, income, peer and other supports. Public health and community safety depend on it”.

Media Contacts
In English:
Kevin Walby, PhD
Co-editor, Journal of Prisoners on Prisons
 k.walby@uwinnipeg.ca

In French:
Justin Piché, PhD
Co-editor, Journal of Prisoners on Prisons  
justin.piche@uottawa.ca