April 20, 2015

 Ottawa Citizen – Kelly Egan

Profs, moms, lawyers alarmed at jail conditions at Innes Road

How bad are things at the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre (OCDC)?  Here’s what Aaron Doyle, a criminologist at Carleton University said in response to what a number of speakers reported as daily life at OCDC:  “I was shocked by some of the stories I was hearing, in a place like the nation’s capital, in one of the most affluent and progressive countries in the world… Relative to other institutions in Canada, conditions at OCDC are some of the worst.”  The jail has 525 beds and is a 75% remand centre with week-enders.  http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/egan-profs-moms-lawyers-alarmed-at-jail-conditions-at-innes-road

Related articles:  (Ed note:  Lee Chappelle of CPEP will be on CBC’s Ontario Today this afternoon talking about these issues.  The next three articles are inmate comments, with the last comment from the mother of an inmate, from the recent public forum in Ottawa around the conditions at OCDC.  Authors submitted anonymously, and to maintain anonymity, were read by others at the forum.)

Carol:  I’m 60 years old. It was pot possession. They put me in there for a few months. I’d never been in before. I was scared crapless. I tried to stay by myself…The food is terrible. It’s microwavable slop. The food, they put it in there, they don’t hand it out, everybody just goes for their own. If somebody else wants something you want, they’ll take it. I was always hungry. Somebody else is bullying you, you give it to them, and you go hungry…It was a cell with two or three other girls. They’re small. They’re so full up they had girls sleeping on the floor.  You get out for an hour. The dayroom, sometimes yard time, unless something happened and they shut you down. I used to stay by myself in a corner of the dayroom and try not to be seen. Because I was older. Scary thing…They didn’t give you any help. They didn’t allow you time with anybody, a counselor or something. I think they should have that.

Nick:  I spend a lot of time in and out of Innes Road because I commit crimes to support my drug addiction. I have mental health issues. I never get my mental health medication in there. I have medication for being schizophrenic and bipolar. After a couple of days without my medication, I start acting out. They take that as me just being a problem and they put me in segregation lock me up with another person 24 hours a day instead of treating the underlying issues.  I am locked up for 24 hours a day unless they let me out for 20 minutes for yard, if I am lucky…The guards make fun of me, they say look at that idiot, I hear them saying this stuff about me. I can’t complain to the staff in there. They just give me a blue letter and say write the ombudsman. I doubt those letters even make it out so I don’t even bother with it.

Eric:  I lived in OCDC for 16 months. For my first 6 months I lived triple-bunked in an 8×10 cell designed for 2, for the last 10 months, triple-bunked in a cell designed for 1. There’s nothing you can do to keep your cell, which is your home, clean. You have 20 square feet of personal space, which will be filthy. Sand, dirt, dust and hair accumulate uncontrollably…I lived for 10 months sleeping on the floor. Segregation cells do not have bunk-beds. They are designed for a temporary stay of 1. You have a choice, determined by seniority, when sleeping on the floor. You can sleep in front of the sliding metal door, or you can sleep with your head 2 feet from the communal toilet with no lid. There are tradeoffs, in front of the door you don’t risk having your pillow sprayed with urine in the middle of the night by your cellmate in the dark, but your bed is now a transitway. Anytime your cellmates leave or enter the cell, they walk across your bed. When they take medications 3 times daily, they stand on your bed. When they brush their teeth, they’re on your bed. Anytime the guards enter the cell, they walk on your bed, depositing outdoor muck onto your sheets…Though I could never quite see my breath, it’s cold. In the winter it’s so cold you will shiver all day.

Angela:  My son was in OCDC. You would be at the gate waiting in line to get in, sometimes in freezing weather or in the rain, but they would not let you in until exactly 9:00 a.m. Once in, you would wait in line and sign in and wait to be called.  I waited until 11:00 several times and then was told that I would not be able to see my son because they ran out of time…My son slept on the floor, damp and cold.  While there he got a cold and his chest was hurting for a long time.  Nothing was done. When he finally got to another institution, he got to see a doctor and an X-ray was done, blood was taken and was found that he had contracted tuberculosis.   He was 19 years old at the time.

 iPolitics.com – Frank Graves

The EKOS poll: Harper connecting with voters on values, interests 

Here’s the latest comprehensive polling for the choice of political party and leaders by EKOS, tracking the choice by region, age, social class and gender.  The survey was taken April 8-14, by phone, from 3,399 Canadians.  http://www.ipolitics.ca/2015/04/17/the-ekos-poll-harper-connecting-with-voters-on-values-interests/

 CTV News

Protests against Bill C-51 ramp up across Canada 

Protests took place in Halifax, Ottawa, Windsor, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria.   Final vote is coming likely next week.  NDP and Green oppose the legislation, Liberals support it with reservations.  http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/protests-against-bill-c-51-ramp-up-across-canada-1.2334219    Related article: CBC News – Laurie Peyton   Bill C-51 opposition tweeted by Margaret Atwood, Sarah Harmer    http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/bill-c-51-opposition-tweeted-by-margaret-atwood-sarah-harmer-1.3037944

 CBC News – Kathleen Harris

Correctional Service Canada offers virtual tour of federal prisons -Critics slam distorted depiction as ‘sanitized’ and ‘detached from reality’

Corrections Canada wants you to have a “virtual tour” of federal prisons and welcomed by some as demonstrating openness, critics have labelled the tour as sanitized and ignoring the crowded conditions and the lack of programming.   Called “Beyond the Fence: A virtual Tour of a Canadian Penitentiary,”  the tour, a series of still shots on 360 degree viewing, seems to be an amalgamation of views in several prisons and is intended to allow first time inmate visitors to have a sense of what to expect.  http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/correctional-service-canada-offers-virtual-tour-of-federal-prisons-1.3038371

 Toronto Star – Bruce DeMara

Prison made Piper Kerman a voice for reform: Unique Lives

Kerman is a speaker at Unique Lives at Roy Thompson Hall and the originator of the book and Netflix series “Orange is the New Black,” now in its third season.  She spent a year in US prison for her involvement with drugs.  The experience convinced her of the need for prison reform and she has become a spokesperson for change.  On the Canadian/US comparison, Kerman says:  “I think that all Canadians should have their eyes wide open about the mistakes the United States has made, when it comes to harsh sentencing particularly. We know that an increased prison population and harsher sentences do not make us safer.”  http://www.thestar.com/life/2015/04/20/prison-made-piper-kerman-a-voice-for-reform-unique-lives.html