Saskatoon jail outbreak sparks talk about problems with incarceration

Amid a growing COVID-19 outbreak at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre, there's renewed discussion around alternatives to incarceration.

As of Tuesday, active cases included 116 inmates and 26 staff at the jail, according to the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees Union.

A Tuesday panel discussion streamed online featured participants from different parts of the country who looked at the existing penal system, disproportionate incarceration of racialized people and abolition of the penal system in the wake of the outbreak.

The discussion, “Free them All: Solidarity with Prisoners in Saskatchewan and Beyond,” was led by Erica Violet Lee of the Indigenous Joint Action Committee, an organization that promotes decolonization.

Lee said the situation at the Saskatoon jail provides a clear look at the conditions behind bars.

“A lot of us who are involved in the movement have relatives and have loved ones who are involved in the prison system and who are impacted by the prison system, so we know what it's like,” she said.

“For the average person on the street, they may not know how terrible the conditions are, and I think that everyone deserves to know what prisoners are facing in their everyday lives.”

Lee said she believes in abolishing the existing penal system, arguing there has to be a different way to deal with problems in society regarding crime and people harming one another that doesn't involve more harm, locking people away or using solitary confinement.

She believes in a harm-reduction approach, and in the interim, improving conditions for people who are incarcerated, she said.

Active COVID-19 cases have been reported at four adult jails and three youth correctional sites in Saskatchewan.

The outbreak declared Nov. 17 at the Saskatoon facility is the system's largest.

Masks have now been distributed to all inmates. A mask-use requirement extending to all inmates, staff and visitors was included in a provincial public health order last week.

Inmates who have spoken to The Starphoenix in recent weeks have described crowding in Saskatoon jail units and inmates who have tested positive being housed in the same dorm-like conditions as those who have not.

Advocates renewed calls on Tuesday to lower the numbers of incarcerated inmates through the release of people who are immunocompromised and not a risk to reoffend, including sentenced offenders, through the use of community-based sentences.

Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Minister Christine Tell told media the government doesn't have the ability to release sentenced or remanded inmates, describing corrections as the “back end” of the system. When asked how the virus got into the jails in spite of the precautionary measures in place, she said she had no answer.

Lee said it seems the government is detached from what is happening in the jails it controls, adding that there's no excuse for people to be “jam-packed in these institutions, to be living in conditions that are squalid.”