tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/jail-30499/articlesJail – The Conversation2024-03-24T11:52:13Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2238152024-03-24T11:52:13Z2024-03-24T11:52:13ZAddressing deepfake porn doesn’t require new criminal laws, which can restrict sexual fantasy and promote the prison system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582946/original/file-20240319-28-spiry0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6240%2C4156&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Deepfake pornography plays a role in sexual fantasy and expression.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24050334/x-twitter-taylor-swift-ai-fake-images-trending">deepfake pornography of Taylor Swift went viral</a> on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2024/01/taylor-swift-ai-deepfake-trending-social-media.html">Swifties sprung into action</a>. They organized to report violations of X’s “<a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/manipulated-media">Synthetic and Manipulated Media</a>” policy and flooded the platform with real images of Swift in an attempt to alter X’s algorithm.</p>
<p>The incident <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/jan/26/taylor-swift-deepfake-pornography-sparks-renewed-calls-for-us-legislation">renewed calls for federal legislation</a> regarding deepfake porn. But whether we need to “<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/taylor-swift-deepfake-porn-artificial-intelligence-pushback/">defeat</a>” deepfake porn by <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/7/16982046/reddit-deepfakes-ai-celebrity-face-swap-porn-community-ban">censoring</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jun/27/sharing-deepfake-intimate-images-to-be-criminalised-in-england-and-wales">criminalizing</a> it is up for debate — or at least it should be. </p>
<p>As a criminologist and sexuality studies scholar with expertise in the <a href="https://carleton-ca.academia.edu/LaraKaraian">legal regulation of sex and sexual expression</a>, the push to conflate deepfake porn with misogyny and sexual harm is concerning, as is the call for new criminal laws.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GgSduzVDV08?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">ABC News looks at the circulation of fake explicit images of Taylor Swift on X.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Are deepfakes sexual violence?</h2>
<p>Deepfake refers to the use of artificially intelligent (AI) machine-learning applications to generate original but “fake” audio, images or videos that may appear authentic. Deepfake pornography (DFP) refers to products that are sexually explicit in nature. </p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://www.homesecurityheroes.com/state-of-deepfakes/#key-findings">2023 report by cybersecurity firm Home Security Heroes</a>, DFP makes up 98 per cent of all deepfake videos online, and 99 per cent of DFP features women. Notably, 94 per cent of these women work in the entertainment industry. </p>
<p>An <a href="https://regmedia.co.uk/2019/10/08/deepfake_report.pdf">earlier study of DFP by Deeptrace Labs</a> found that of those in the entertainment industry, most of the 10 most frequently represented individuals were actresses from western countries, followed by South Korean K-pop singers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-can-now-create-fake-porn-making-revenge-porn-even-more-complicated-92267">AI can now create fake porn, making revenge porn even more complicated</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Given their gendered, sexual and seemingly “non-consensual” nature, DFP has been widely described as gender-based sexual violence requiring <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/9631/text?s=1&r=79">greater civil and criminal regulation of both AI and deepfake porn producers</a>. </p>
<p>Others, however, suggest that deepfake porn may be <a href="https://cardozolawreview.com/deeply-fake-deeply-disturbing-deeply-constitutional-why-the-first-amendment-likely-protects-the-creation-of-pornographic-deepfakes/">deeply constitutional</a> sexual expression, and that new laws should be put off until more research about the impacts of pornographic deepfakes on those depicted, as well as on internet users, can be conducted. </p>
<p>Deepfake porn raises concerns about false representations — for instance, falsely depicting an individual as sexually active, into a certain type of sex or involved in the porn industry. Whether this constitutes sexual violence — even if a person is distressed by fake videos of them — is not self-evident.</p>
<p>Many valid reasons exist for why deepfake porn may be created and shared, and why it should not be interpreted or criminalized as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-can-now-create-fake-porn-making-revenge-porn-even-more-complicated-92267">image based sexual abuse</a>” or “<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/sextortion1-1.pdf">virtual rape</a>.” These reasons include, but are not limited to the social value of sexual fantasy — including seemingly “deviant” fantasies — and the need to resist prison expansionism and the carceral state.</p>
<h2>Need for new laws?</h2>
<p>Deepfakes, as with the <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/meta-youtube-ai-political-ads/">cheapfakes</a> that preceded them, can be created for malicious purposes including harassment, spreading disinformation and extortion. In instances where the use of one’s image is deeply upsetting to the individual depicted, legal avenues such as civil privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy laws that address “<a href="https://canlii.ca/t/sxjg">false light</a>” (making false or misleading claims about a person that cause harm to them) and take-down orders may help address their concerns. </p>
<p>When it comes to deepfake porn and minors, Canada’s child pornography and its <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-162.1.html">Intimate Images</a> provisions likely apply. And in cases where DFP images and videos are used to harass or extort individuals, laws already exist to address these harms. On or offline, however, there are reasons to resist <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spz013">pro-criminalization strategies</a>.</p>
<p>Queer and sex-radical feminists have long established that even though sex and gender are related, theories of gender oppression cannot wholly explain <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/1560/chapter/173938/Thinking-SexNotes-for-a-Radical-Theory-of-the">sex and sexual politics</a>. Importantly, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15313204.2018.1474827">anti-sexual violence feminists and anti-carceral scholars</a> have pointed out the limits and harms of using criminal law to respond to sexual violence for sexual violence victims, the accused and society more broadly. </p>
<p>Before we can determine whether sexual violence is the best framework for describing and responding to deepfake porn, we need a better understanding of deepfake porn prosumers — those who produce, consume and share their creations — as well as the importance of sexual fantasy, at the individual and collective levels.</p>
<h2>Deepfake porn prosumers</h2>
<p>It’s becoming increasingly difficult to interview or conduct research with deepfake porn prosumers given how widely they are described as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/30/how-fake-porn-opponents-are-fighting-back/">depraved</a>, as the embodiment of “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2019.1675091">toxic geek masculinity</a>,” and as driven by an interest in <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/nekqmd/deepfake-porn-origins-sexism-reddit-v25n2">owning women’s bodies</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583169/original/file-20240320-20-zoul2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a man is silhouetted against a computer screen showing blurred out images" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583169/original/file-20240320-20-zoul2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583169/original/file-20240320-20-zoul2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583169/original/file-20240320-20-zoul2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583169/original/file-20240320-20-zoul2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583169/original/file-20240320-20-zoul2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583169/original/file-20240320-20-zoul2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583169/original/file-20240320-20-zoul2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Given what we know about the demographics of computer programmers and porn consumers, it’s likely that most DFP prosumers are men.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Research suggests, however, that many deepfake porn creators are hobbyists who are more interested in contributing “to the development of such technology as <a href="http://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/1282">solving an intellectual puzzle</a>… rather than as a way to trick or threaten people.” </p>
<p>It’s likely that most deepfake prosumers are men, given what we know about the demographics of <a href="https://datausa.io/profile/soc/computer-programmers">computer programmers</a> and <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/661314/gender-distribution-of-pornhubcom-website-traffic-in-selected-european-countries/">porn consumers</a>.</p>
<p>Insights from clinical practice suggests that when men do create “fake porn” misogyny rarely serves as a key motivator. Clinical psychologist David J. Ley observes that more of these cases are “driven by <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/women-who-stray/201901/the-psychology-behind-fake-porn">feelings of loss, shame, hope, and fantasy</a> than by misogyny and anger.” Similar to Photoshopped “porno collages,” deepfakes serve as a means to explore fantasies that are likely impossible to fulfill.</p>
<p>But is sexual fantasy a valid reason to create and share deepfake porn on public and paid platforms? </p>
<h2>Sexual fantasy and deepfakes</h2>
<p>Sexual fantasy is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607221106667">more complicated</a> and more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.469">important to our sex lives and to our social well-being</a> than people typically realize or acknowledge. For many, sexual fantasy is private and limited to their mind’s eye. </p>
<p>Others, however, see sexual fantasy as something to be <a href="https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol58/iss2/3">manifested as written text, images or digital files, and publicly shared</a> for free or for a fee. </p>
<p>Critical race feminist scholars have demonstrated that <a href="https://doi.org/10.15767/feministstudies.41.2.409">sexual fantasy is both a product of and productive of our complex realities</a>, but that a line can also be drawn between fantasy and reality given the important roles that fantasy plays in our individual and collective lives.</p>
<p>At the individual level, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jsm.12734">a study that surveyed 1,516 adult cis men and women about their sexual fantasies</a> found that more than half of the respondents — 51.7 per cent of women and 61.9 per cent of men — fantasized about sex with a celebrity.</p>
<p>Sexual fantasy research has also helped establish that few sexual fantasies are statistically unusual or rare. This includes fantasies which have previously been deemed perverted or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jsm.12734">atypical</a>, such as <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-11-29/us-federal-laws-fail-to-protect-most-deepfake-pornography-victims">those that involve violence or humiliation</a>. These fantasies are not only common, but are also “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101496">unlikely to be revealing of actual behavior</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583173/original/file-20240320-24-adu4i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two pairs of women's legs wearing heels in red lighting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583173/original/file-20240320-24-adu4i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583173/original/file-20240320-24-adu4i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583173/original/file-20240320-24-adu4i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583173/original/file-20240320-24-adu4i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583173/original/file-20240320-24-adu4i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583173/original/file-20240320-24-adu4i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583173/original/file-20240320-24-adu4i5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fantasy plays an important role in individual and collective lives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to Ley, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/women-who-stray/201901/the-psychology-behind-fake-porn">reasons for publicly sharing sexual fantasies</a> range from seeking approval, demonstrating technical prowess and playing with taboo to bonding with those who share the same interests or to arouse others in the way they are aroused so as to feel less alone for having these interests and desires. </p>
<p>As legal scholar Andrew Gilden writes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the actual process of coming to terms with one’s sexual identity often entails extensive fantasizing, experimentation, education, and social interaction. And these processes <a href="https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol58/iss2/3/">are often far less romantic</a>, much less ‘dignified,’ and far less ‘PG’ than envisioned by the evolving legal narratives of sexuality.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Consent and fantasy</h2>
<p>Thinking about deepfake porn through the lens of sexual fantasy also helps us make sense of lack of consent in DFP. Consent does not factor into people’s sexual fantasies in the same ways as it does their physical sexual relations: I don’t need permission to fantasize about someone, but I do need permission to have sex with them. </p>
<p>Consent is a primarily <a href="https://www.leaf.ca/news/the-law-of-consent-in-sexual-assault/">legal term</a>, that, at its most general, means voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity. The use of consent language to refer to the creative process of DFP as “image-based sexual abuse” or “virtual rape” shuts down a <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/sex-and-harm-in-the-age-of-consent">nuanced conversation about sexual harm and freedom</a>. </p>
<h2>Expanding definitions</h2>
<p>Ultimately, sexual fantasy cannot fully explain the phenomenon of deepfake porn. But failing to acknowledge the limits of gender-based sexual violence frameworks comes with its own harms, including the ever-growing definition of sex crime and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spz013">expansion of the carceral state</a>.</p>
<p>We need to think carefully about the social and cultural motivations and intent of content creators, in addition to the potential effects of their creations. We need to consider whether expanding the scope of criminal law to address emotional harm in virtual spaces will bring about the changes we want to see, including the reduction of sexual violence. We also need to acknowledge that criminal law has largely failed to prevent, and indeed <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520385818/the-feminist-war-on-crime#:%7E:text=In%20their%20quest%20to%20secure,and%20diverting%20resources%20toward%20law">perpetuates, emotional and physical violence at a level that requires great awareness and care</a>. </p>
<p>Concerns about sexual autonomy should inform debates about emerging technologies, but alternative frameworks for making sense of and responding to deepfake porn should be considered before we censor and criminalize deepfake porn producers, consumers and products.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223815/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lara Karaian receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>Deepfake pornography raises questions about consent, sexuality and representation. The issue is more complicated than online misogyny — new criminal laws are not our best response.Lara Karaian, Associate Professor, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248422024-03-04T19:48:49Z2024-03-04T19:48:49ZPierre Poilievre’s proposed mandatory minimum penalties will not reduce crime<p>In recent months, federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has repeatedly voiced support for discredited “tough on crime” policies that will ultimately fail. In February alone, Poilievre vowed to introduce <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/mmp-pmo/p1.html">mandatory minimum penalties (MMPs)</a> for <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10284840/poilievre-extortion-mandatory-minimum/#:%7E:text=Poilievre%20said%20the%20Conservatives%20would,of%20gangs%20or%20organized%20crime.%E2%80%9D">extortion</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-bail-auto-theft-crime-1.7105046">auto theft</a> offences.</p>
<p>Generally, criminal offences have a range of sentencing options (e.g. release with conditions, community service, fines, restitution orders, parole, “house arrest” or imprisonment) with a maximum penalty set by the law. Judges then determine a fit sentence that reflects the degree of responsibility of the offender and gravity of what they actually did. </p>
<p>Instead, with MMPs, Parliament removes judicial discretion for any sentencing option other than imprisonment and imposes a minimum term of incarceration, regardless of the facts of the case. </p>
<p>As a criminal law professor and advocate for victims of crime, including a time advising former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, I used to be a proponent of MMPs. But as I’ve learned more about the unintended consequences of MMPs and harshness of imprisonment in my research, including interviews with people who were incarcerated, I’ve become convinced that MMPs are a grave policy failure and cheap politics.</p>
<p>The evidence shows that MMPs are ineffective at reducing crime, may actually increase recidivism, are highly vulnerable to being struck down by the courts as unconstitutional, can increase delays in an overburdened system, and perpetuate systemic racism.</p>
<p>Criminological research has consistently found that harsher sentences have “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1147698">no effect on the level of crime in society</a>.” Alarmingly, MMPs have also contributed to <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/jf-pf/2017/oct02.html">higher rates of incarceration</a> of Indigenous people and Black Canadians, exacerbating already troubling trends.</p>
<p>In addition, research by <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/85-002-x/2017001/article/54844-eng.pdf?st=nRM6SFsI">Statistics Canada</a> found “no evidence that MMPs have deterred crime; rather, some studies suggest that MMPs can result in overly harsh penalties and disparities, that they increase costs to the criminal justice system as a result of higher levels of incarceration, and that lengthier sentencing may actually increase recidivism.” </p>
<p>In other words, Poilievre’s idea may actually backfire, leading to more crime in the long term.</p>
<h2>Supreme Court strikes down MMPs</h2>
<p>Poilievre’s MMPs are not a new idea. They’re an old, tired idea, exposing a lack of understanding of <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-from-tough-on-crime-to-a-new-transformative-vision-for-canadas-justice/">evidence-based policies</a> that will actually make us all safer.</p>
<p>In 1987, there were just nine MMPs on the books in Canada. Since 1996, they have proliferated, with the number of MMPs escalating significantly under the Harper government. With the adoption of the Safe Streets and Communities Act in 2012, the number of MMPs in the Criminal Code <a href="https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1235&context=sclr">approached 100</a>. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court of Canada continues to strike down numerous Harper-era MMPs and related tough-on-crime measures for violating the <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/">Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms</a>, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>In the 2015 case, <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/15272/index.do"><em>R. v. Nur</em></a>, which concerned mandatory minimum sentences for possessing a prohibited or restricted firearm, the court described MMPs as “a blunt instrument.”</p></li>
<li><p>In the 2016 case, <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/15859/index.do"><em>R. v. Lloyd</em></a>, then Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin made this damning observation: “The reality is that mandatory minimum sentences for offences that can be committed in many ways and under many different circumstances by a wide range of people are constitutionally vulnerable because they will almost inevitably catch situations where the prescribed mandatory minimum would require an unconstitutional sentence.”</p></li>
<li><p>In <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/19538/index.do"><em>R. v. Ndhlovu</em></a>, a 2022 case concerning mandatory lifetime registration in the national sex offender registry, the court stated that “mandatory registration of those offenders who are not at an increased risk of reoffending does not assist police.”</p></li>
<li><p>In the 2023 case, <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/19638/index.do?q=youth"><em>R. v. Hills</em></a>, a four-year mandatory MMP for discharging a firearm into or at a home was repealed after the appeal was heard, but the Court nevertheless ruled, finding it unconstitutional. The court’s majority opinion stated: “it would shock the conscience of Canadians to learn that an offender can receive four years of imprisonment for firing a paintball gun at a home.” </p></li>
</ul>
<p>However, in a companion case in <a href="https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/19639/index.do"><em>R. v. Hilbach</em></a>, the Court upheld mandatory minimum sentences for robbery since they were found to be “narrowly defined and limited in scope.” This case is an exception to the clear trend over the last decade of MMPs being struck down as unconstitutional.</p>
<p>Other Harper-era tough-on-crime measures have also been struck down in cases such as <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/17416/index.do"><em>R. v. Boudreault</em></a> and <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/19405/index.do?site_preference=normal"><em>R. v. Bissonnette</em></a>.</p>
<h2>MMPs increase delays in justice system</h2>
<p>Despite this raft of MMP losses, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-bail-auto-theft-crime-1.7105046#:%7E:text=%22My%20legislation%20is%20Charter%2Dproof,It's%20Justin%20Trudeau.%22&text=Former%20prime%20minister%20Stephen%20Harper,been%20overturned%20by%20the%20courts.">Poilievre insists</a> his “legislation is Charter-proof and constitutionally sound.” He’s made <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/polievre-jail-bail-constitutional-experts-1.6847941#:%7E:text=Conservative%20Party%20Leader%20Pierre%20Poilievre,it%20would%20likely%20be%20unconstitutional">similar claims before</a> about other constitutionally suspect proposals. </p>
<p>If history is any judge, Poilievre’s MMPs may not be worth the paper they’re printed on. What’s worse, even if they do pass constitutional muster, they will only exacerbate the existential challenges facing the criminal justice system.</p>
<p>Former Justice Canada lawyer David Daubney <a href="https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1235&context=sclr">cautioned in 2012</a> about the expansion of MMPs at the time. His words ring true today:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The proliferation of mandatory minimum sentencing will lead to fewer guilty pleas, significant processing delays, big increases in the number of accused persons awaiting trial in already overcrowded provincial remand facilities and just plain injustice as discretion is moved from judges to prosecutors. There will be many more Charter challenges and acquittals. Canadians will be less safe.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While MMPs are widely believed to be popular with more conservative voters, there may be cracks among voters on this issue. <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/rg-rco/2018/mar02.html">A 2018 Justice Canada study</a> revealed 90 per cent of Canadians believed that judges should have the flexibility to impose a sentence that is less than the mandatory minimum. Participants described jail as an “inappropriate measure that would likely ‘do more harm than good’ and result in ‘better criminals’, rather than successfully integrating members of society.” </p>
<p>Politicians peddling flawed criminal justice policies like mandatory minimum penalties need to have their ideas publicly called out and confronted.</p>
<p><em>Prof. Benjamin Perrin is the author of Indictment: The Criminal Justice System on Trial (UTP, 2023)</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224842/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Perrin receives funding from the Law Foundation of British Columbia.</span></em></p>Pierre Poilievre’s “tough-on-crime” rhetoric relies on discredited ideas that can lead to overly harsh penalties and actually increase crime.Benjamin Perrin, Professor of Law, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2205982024-02-22T22:32:57Z2024-02-22T22:32:57ZDo pre-sentencing reports really help Black offenders in Canada’s justice system?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577425/original/file-20240222-28-fnla2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4898%2C3255&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Impact of race and culture assessment reports (IRCAs) are meant to give judges context with the aim of ultimately creating a more equitable and fair criminal justice system.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canadian courts are increasingly applying <a href="https://www.legalaid.on.ca/irca/">Impact of Race and Culture Assessment reports (IRCAs)</a>, otherwise known as Enhanced Pre-Sentence Reports, when sentencing offenders. IRCA reports help sentencing judges better understand how systemic racism has influenced and even limited the offender’s life choices and trajectory. </p>
<p>Their use has been much debated among academics, lawyers, parole and probation officers, community workers, social workers, other clinicians and offenders. These reports are said to <a href="https://theconversation.com/equitable-sentencing-can-mitigate-anti-black-racism-in-canadas-justice-system-217515">address anti-Black racism in the justice system</a> by outlining for the courts <a href="https://ccla.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Anti-Black-Racism-Fact-Sheet-2021.pdf">the myriad ways in which systemic anti-Black racism</a> has influenced the life of the offender. </p>
<p>They are meant to provide judges with context and insights with the aim of mitigating sentences and ultimately creating a more equitable and fair criminal justice system.</p>
<p>As an author of the <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2018/2018onsc5186/2018onsc5186.html">IRCA report</a> that helped set a precedent in Ontario for their use, I present a critical perspective on the issue with IRCAs, their potency and their potential. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/fund-fina/gov-gouv/supporting-soutien.html">Given the relative novelty of IRCAs in Ontario and the investments made in them</a>, we need to ask whether they are in fact doing, systemically, what they were developed to do. Moreover, we should also question whether it is even possible for IRCAs to function in the transformative manner advocates have envisioned.</p>
<h2><em>R. v. Morris</em></h2>
<p>In 2017, through a series of interviews, document reviews and research, I conducted an assessment on Kevin Morris, then an inmate at Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton, Ont. awaiting his sentencing hearing. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/r-v-morris-anti-black-racism-ontario-court-1.6205252">He was convicted</a> for possession of a restricted handgun and carrying a concealed weapon.</p>
<p>At the prison, I sat with Morris as he explained his family history, upbringing, traumas and values. Among other things, he described his experiences as a young boy in school, in his neighbourhood, with the Children’s Aid Society and his identity-shaping interactions with teachers and the police. </p>
<p>This guided tour through his life revealed how anti-Black racism shaped his life, his outlook and his self-concept. Systemic and economic inequities characterized the poverty his parents faced. In addition, his father’s death left him fatherless at a very young age. As a single parent and sole provider, his mother was also often absent from the home, working long hours for minimum wages, which in turn impacted how Morris was parented. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/interrupted-childhoods#4.2.Black%20children">Black families are more likely to be reported to and investigated</a> by the Children’s Aid Society, and so it was no surprise that Morris experienced several child welfare interruptions throughout his childhood.</p>
<p>These were initiated by the school he attended where, Morris shared, he came to see himself as not smart, not worthy, not civilized, not wanted and not destined for success by any measure.</p>
<p>Morris’s social history was consistent with the experiences of many Black Canadians in the following ways:</p>
<p>▪ <a href="https://www.povertyinstitute.ca/bhm2023">According to the 2021 Census</a>, 12.4 per cent of Black Canadians were living in poor households, compared to just 8.1 per cent of the total population. In Toronto, Black people have long been over-represented in neighbourhoods <a href="http://3cities.neighbourhoodchange.ca/wp-content/themes/3-Cities/pdfs/three-cities-in-toronto.pdf">most plagued by poverty</a> and the associated violence, heightened surveillance and other forms of disadvantage.</p>
<p>▪ Black students are <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-crisis-of-anti-black-racism-in-schools-persists-across-generations-120856">largely disengaged by the Canadian curriculum</a> which does not reflect their identities or affirm their presence in an integrated, positive or substantial manner.</p>
<p>▪ Black students are <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-resolve-youth-violence-canada-must-move-beyond-policing-and-prison-190825">significantly more likely to be expelled</a> than their white counterparts or other racialized students. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-crisis-of-anti-black-racism-in-schools-persists-across-generations-120856">The crisis of anti-Black racism in schools persists across generations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Response to the decision</h2>
<p>The case set a legal precedent when Superior Court Justice Shaun Nakatsuru made the groundbreaking decision to use the IRCA to significantly reduce Morris’s sentence. The Crown had sought a prison sentence of four years. However, after considering the IRCA, Justice Nakatsuru sentenced Morris to 15 months. This was then reduced to 12 months because the police breached his Charter rights. At the time of his sentencing, Morris had already served all but one day in pretrial detention and was released the next day. </p>
<p>The Crown <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/black-indigenous-offenders-gladue-enhanced-pre-sentence-reports-1.5951638">appealed the decision</a>, and in 2021, the Ontario Court of Appeal <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2021/2021onca680/2021onca680.html?resultIndex=1">doubled Morris’ sentence</a>. Although the sentence was eventually stayed, it sent a clear message: decisions like Justice Nakatsuru’s, that actually attempt to factor in the consequences of anti-Black racism, would not be tolerated. </p>
<p>As part of its decision, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-ontarios-top-court-says-anti-black-racism-should-be-considered-in-the/">the Court of Appeal declared</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Frank acknowledgement of the existence of, and harm caused by, systemic anti-Black racism, combined with a careful consideration of the kind of evidence adduced in this case, will go some distance toward disassociating the sentencing process from society’s complicity in anti-Black racism.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But how does mere acknowledgement without corresponding action bring about change?</p>
<h2>Systemic anti-Blackness</h2>
<p>In the words of anti-Black racism scholar, Michael J. Dumas, “<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2016.1116852">in all the theorizing on anti-Blackness, there is a concern with what it means to have one’s very existence as Black constructed as problem — for white people, for the public (good), for the nation-state</a>.”</p>
<p>In the public imaginary, Blackness is synonymous with public threat, deviance and moral deficiency. Unfortunately, <a href="https://www.thecourt.ca/r-v-morris-systemic-racism-and-the-sentencing-of-black-offenders/">the courts are not yet at a place where they can conceive of a version of justice</a> that <a href="https://www.uwindsor.ca/law/2909/morris-modest-step-forward-and-call-action">abandons its focus on Black offender’s moral blameworthiness and the administration of punishment</a>, and instead, centres restoration and the elimination of systemic factors that create criminality. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/young-black-men-in-canada-face-racism-ageism-and-classism-when-looking-for-work-220537">Young Black men in Canada face racism, ageism and classism when looking for work</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Morris’s case illustrates <a href="https://www.blacklegalactioncentre.ca/r-v-morris/">IRCAs are not the liberatory device they were intended to be</a> because there is no institutional buy-in. The courts are happy to listen to Black offenders’ stories of hardship and appear benevolent, but far less eager to institute system-wide change or reframe practices to account for the state’s role in contributing to criminality.</p>
<p>Until the justice system reckons with its systemic racism, IRCAs will fail to shift the way the courts see Black offenders. Indeed, IRCAs will continue to be a voyeuristic exercise that reinforces popular deficit narratives about Black people and obscures the system’s failures.</p>
<p>Achieving racial equity in criminal justice requires the mitigation of sentencing as a reflective, conscientious undertaking rather than an act of pity or benevolence that wilfully disregards the culpability of the system itself. In fact, a true reckoning for the impact of Canada’s racism would make IRCA’s obsolete.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220598/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Camisha Sibblis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Until the justice system reckons with its systemic racism, pre-sentencing reports will fail to shift the way the courts see Black offenders.Camisha Sibblis, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology/Director of the Black Studies Institute, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2221572024-01-31T23:19:39Z2024-01-31T23:19:39ZMost prisoners never receive visitors, and this puts them at a higher risk of reoffending<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572078/original/file-20240130-17-whpdmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C22%2C5026%2C3684&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-girl-woman-looking-forward-meeting-1436726906">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>It was like walking through the gates of hell. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>That’s what one visitor to a prison told us about their experience. It can be a traumatic and stressful event. Family members of first-time prisoners are most often left in a state of uncertainty about what happens next. This is coupled with the feelings of loss, devastation, and disbelief, as explained by one participant in <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2023.2272910">our research</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was a smack in the face. I was not expecting it at all […] I was pretty devastated and felt pretty alone and vulnerable. I had no idea what went wrong.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We found misinformation and limited information of visitation rules and processes help create such negative experiences for visitors. Some stopped going altogether.</p>
<p>This is important to address because visitation is a crucial factor in helping prevent reoffending, but also to maintaining good mental health for those behind bars. </p>
<h2>Visits crucial for prisoners</h2>
<p>In 2021 and 2022, our research team conducted in-depth interviews with 21 participants from across Australia about the barriers to prison visitation and what their visiting experiences were like.</p>
<p>We wanted to investigate this because of the high rates of recidivism among Australian prisoners. Visitation has been shown to help with this.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/sentencing-statistics/released-prisoners-returning-to-prison">42.7% of prisoners</a> in Australia are reincarcerated within two years.</p>
<p>We also know that prison visitation has been found to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2016.07.006">reduce prisoners’ risk</a> of reincarceration by 26%. Despite this, <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2023.2272910">most prisoners</a> never get any visitors. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572088/original/file-20240130-16-cofmi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A phone on a metal cord on one side of a glass visitor booth in a prison" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572088/original/file-20240130-16-cofmi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572088/original/file-20240130-16-cofmi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572088/original/file-20240130-16-cofmi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572088/original/file-20240130-16-cofmi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572088/original/file-20240130-16-cofmi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572088/original/file-20240130-16-cofmi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572088/original/file-20240130-16-cofmi2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many prisoners never get visitors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/visiting-boothspenitentiary-area-maximum-security-detainees-1095129356">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Having visitors while in jail has other benefits too. For one, it helps prisoners to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2010.498383">conform to prison life</a>. </p>
<p>It also reduces <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/%2007418825.2018.1508606">prison violence</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/107834580301000310">mental health problems</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/449299">suicidal tendencies</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427808317574">misbehaviour</a>. </p>
<p>Additionally, visitation helps prisoners <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2013.05.001">maintain prosocial roles</a> (like being a parent) and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2012.06.007">build optimism</a> for life once they’re released. </p>
<p>We wanted to understand why prison visits might be prevented or delayed. As such, we looked at how people new to prison visitation learn to navigate the system. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-report-reveals-shocking-state-of-prisoner-health-heres-what-needs-to-be-done-217558">New report reveals shocking state of prisoner health. Here's what needs to be done</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Information confusing and hard to find</h2>
<p><a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2023.2272910">We found</a> visitation rules and procedures can differ between jurisdictions and within jurisdictions. They can also be different between low, medium, and maximum prisons, and even between public and private prisons. </p>
<p>Furthermore, prisoners are transferred between prisons an average of three times during their sentence. Therefore, visitors may need to learn new rules each transfer. </p>
<p>Being new to the visitation process, most participants expressed feeling lost, overwhelmed, mentally fatigued, helpless and alone, desperate for any information. One participant told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve never had anything to do with any of this before [he] went to prison. I knew nothing about police, courts, prisons or anything. When [he] went in I was a mess because no one told me anything […] I think it was maybe day three or four of him being in there and I had the worst nightmare I’ve ever had about stuff, you know, happening to him in there and him being killed. Yeah, after that it was a downward spiral for me pretty fast […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even before visitors needed to learn the rules and procedures, participants suffered stress from social isolation, financial hardship, the loss of their loved one and media coverage due to the court case. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/they-werent-there-when-i-needed-them-we-asked-former-prisoners-what-happens-when-support-services-fail-208949">‘They weren’t there when I needed them’: we asked former prisoners what happens when support services fail</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Chronic stress can lead to structural changes in the part of the brain responsible for memory and decision making. Additionally, chronic stress can impair a person’s cognitive flexibility, hindering their ability to adapt to change and find information. This is a normal response when people find themselves in uncertain situations.</p>
<p>Furthermore, chronic stress can precipitate or exacerbate <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2023.2272910">mental health problems</a>, as well as increase feelings of helplessness and/or hopelessness. This can negatively impact a person’s ability to concentrate and learn new information.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572090/original/file-20240130-27-s97h2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A hallway of barred prison cells in a prison" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572090/original/file-20240130-27-s97h2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572090/original/file-20240130-27-s97h2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572090/original/file-20240130-27-s97h2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572090/original/file-20240130-27-s97h2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572090/original/file-20240130-27-s97h2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572090/original/file-20240130-27-s97h2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572090/original/file-20240130-27-s97h2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A large portion of prisoners in Australia reoffend after being released.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/san-francisco-california-united-states-august-630056831">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most participants described their efforts to get the right information as confusing. Important details that had a direct impact on whether their visit was approved, cancellations, or traumatic visitation experience were omitted from the website or the phone conversations they had with corrections officers. A participant said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There was no information about him needing to put me on the approved visitor list and that I would not be approved until he did this.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another was deterred from visiting altogether:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I quickly learned not to bother […] you get in trouble when you go visit because you don’t have something you need, or you have worn inappropriate clothing because you got wrong information from them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Almost all participants expressed distrust in the available information from prisons due to their negative experiences. Instead, they rely on advice provided by strangers on social media support groups specifically set-up for families of prisoners. </p>
<h2>Small changes for a big difference</h2>
<p>To improve prison visitors’ access to reliable and correct information, and ensure they are adequately supported during this stressful period, our participants made these recommendations:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a visitation liaison person in the court to provide advice and support after sentencing</p></li>
<li><p>a visitation information support pack that can be provided to family members immediately after sentencing (if in court) or by post</p></li>
<li><p>a short demonstration video of the visitation procedure online</p></li>
<li><p>corrections/prisons to share information with the online support groups to allow them to quickly communicate changes to visitation rules and procedures, as well as any unplanned changes to visitation hours. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>These recommendations have merit and could help to increase the number and frequency of prisoners being visited, as well as help to reduce stress among visitors. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/giving-ex-prisoners-public-housing-cuts-crime-and-re-incarceration-and-saves-money-180027">Giving ex-prisoners public housing cuts crime and re-incarceration – and saves money</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222157/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Receiving visitors while behind bars was a raft of benefits, but people have reported many barriers. It must be made easier to help drive down recidivism rates.Nicole Ryan, Associate Lecturer of Criminology, La Trobe UniversityNathan Ryan, Doctor of Criminology, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2218522024-01-31T22:33:11Z2024-01-31T22:33:11ZUse of lockdowns in Canadian prisons could amount to torture<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/use-of-lockdowns-in-canadian-prisons-could-amount-to-torture" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/judge-rules-lockdowns-due-to-staff-shortages-at-nova-scotia-jails-are-unlawful-1.7084269">recently ruled</a> in a pair of decisions that it is unlawful to lock down imprisoned people due to staff shortages. Lockdowns are a practice of restrictive confinement that has become <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/east-coast-prison-justice-lockdowns-jails-prisoners-1.6117836">increasingly common</a>. This is despite the fact that, under the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/un-chronicle/nelson-mandela-rules-protecting-rights-persons-deprived-liberty">United Nations Nelson Mandela Rules</a>, those lockdowns meet the criteria for torture. </p>
<p>In November 2023, the East Coast Prison Justice Society raised alarm over institutional lockdowns at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth. One of the prisoners the society spoke with said, “<a href="https://www.eastcoastprisonjustice.ca/press-releases.html">things are worse than they have ever been</a>.”</p>
<p>Lockdowns are common not just in Nova Scotia, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/lockdowns-soaring-in-ontario-jails-due-to-staff-shortages/article_4012038e-c280-5697-b94a-08b7c3a00276.html">but across Canada</a>. Perhaps most notoriously, the Toronto South Detention Centre has been subject to <a href="https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/report-conditions-confinement-toronto-south-detention-centre">numerous investigations</a> surrounding its abuse of restrictive confinement. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/2022-data-release-inmates-ontario/human-rights-based-data-collection-inmates-restrictive-confinement">Recent data</a> collected by Ontario’s Ministry of the Solicitor General further demonstrates the extent of the problem in provincial institutions (no data is available on Nova Scotia). Between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022, 15,929 individuals, out of a total of 29,693 people in custody, spent at least one day in a unit that was regularly locked down for 17 hours or more per day. These trends are relatively stable and consistent across provinces. </p>
<p>The East Coast Prison Justice Society said they were increasingly concerned by the impact these conditions have on the physical and mental health and well-being of prisoners. Given the ongoing problem of lockdowns across prisons in Canada, what is the significance of the court’s rulings, and do they go far enough?</p>
<h2>Loss of liberty and habeas corpus</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ns/nssc/doc/2024/2024nssc11/2024nssc11.html">The pair</a> of <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ns/nssc/doc/2024/2024nssc12/2024nssc12.html">rulings</a> from the Nova Scotia Supreme Court found that the routine use of institutional lockdowns in the province’s jails to address staffing shortages is unlawful. </p>
<p>Two <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art10c.html">habeas corpus</a> petitions were filed by Durrell Diggs and Ryan Wilband, both low-risk prisoners, who were subjected to cell confinement for 51 and 29 days respectively, often with no time out of their cells. These petitions argued the use of lockdowns was a violation of their <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/">Charter rights</a>.</p>
<p>In Diggs’s case the court ruled: “It is not a ‘privilege’ to be out of one’s cell,” it is something imprisoned people are entitled to. The court ruled that the near-daily decision to put the jail on partial or total lockdown is unlawful and unreasonable.</p>
<p>The Mandela Rules state that being held in confinement for more than 15 days without at least four hours per day out of cell, two of which must include meaningful human contact, is prolonged solitary confinement and constitutes torture. </p>
<p>Nova Scotia’s correctional regulations state prisoners are entitled to fresh air for a minimum of <a href="https://novascotia.ca/just/regulations/regs/CORserv.htm">just 30 minutes every day</a>, which falls below the Mandela Rules threshold. According to the recent court ruling, Wilband likely received that minimum on only five occasions over 28 days.</p>
<p><a href="https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=reports">Another man imprisoned at the facility told researchers</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We are locked down every second day because of staff shortages. They let us out of cells in groups, sometimes two or three, sometimes eight. One time the whole range at once was let out, but not usually. Some days no one gets out of their cell at all. The guards say how many people will be let out, but it is up to the prisoners as to who it is who gets out. The younger weaker guys do not even ask to get out because they know they will get beaten up if they take a spot from someone higher in the pecking order.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Impacts of lockdowns</h2>
<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/62/2/279/6309329">Research finds</a> these kinds of lockdowns can have severe impacts on an inmate’s mental and physical health and well-being. Lockdowns disrupt communication with lawyers, contact with loved ones, access to programs, spiritual and cultural practice, hygiene and medical treatment. Inadequate time out of their cell is associated with <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJPH-06-2020-0037/full/html">worse mental health and higher suicide risk</a>. </p>
<p>In another recent decision, <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ns/nssc/doc/2023/2023nssc204/2023nssc204.html">Nova Scotia’s Supreme Court stated</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Confining persons in custody — many of whom may have pre-existing mental health issues — to their cells for exorbitant periods of time does nothing to assist and support their rehabilitation…Even a person with robust mental health would find it challenging to be regularly confined to a cell, often for more than 20 hours per day, with little notice and no ability to earn more time out. This practice is dehumanizing, and it is setting these individuals up to fail. They deserve better.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Why this ruling is important</h2>
<p>Lockdowns are not new, although reliance on lockdowns in response to institutional issues including staffing and maintenance problems, has <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9894823/burnside-jail-staffing-shortage-critical/">increased substantially</a> since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/122/article/908261">In our research</a> we examine these practices and caution that without adequate oversight, they are likely to become a new normal. </p>
<p>Importantly, our research finds that lockdowns often replicate the torturous conditions of solitary confinement, a practice which was <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-solitary-confinement-in-canada-not-exactly-124679">ended federally</a> through Bill C-83, an amendment to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, which received royal assent in 2019.</p>
<p>The recent Nova Scotia rulings are significant in that they state operational problems at the institutional level are not sufficient to justify lockdowns. Because a majority of lockdowns are caused by institutional operational issues, not prisoners’ behaviour, lockdowns constitute a “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691130644/the-society-of-captives">pain of imprisonment</a>” which exceeds the conditions and objectives of custodial sentences. </p>
<p>Lockdowns compound the pains associated with imprisonment, including poor mental and physical health, which impacts community release, reintegration and recidivism.</p>
<p>More lockdowns mean people are subject to practices that amount to torture. <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510001401&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.4&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2021+%2F+2022&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2021+%2F+2022&referencePeriods=20210101%2C20210101">Almost 80 per cent</a> of the provincial prisoner population in Nova Scotia are in jail awaiting trial, presumed innocent of charges and denied pre-trial release for reasons as simple as a lack of community housing and other supports. </p>
<h2>Recommendations</h2>
<p>Many of the recommendations in the court’s ruling are about ensuring adequate staffing to avoid lockdowns. However, this does not address other operational issues that can trigger lockdowns. An alternative is decreasing prison numbers rather than increasing prison staff, and abolishing solitary confinement altogether.</p>
<p>In 2020, prison numbers were <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/jail-population-cut-in-half-new-covid-19-measures-1.5541732">significantly decreased</a> in Nova Scotia. In total, over <a href="https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/nova-scotia-prisons-released-41-per-cent-of-inmates-during-pandemic-1.5063557">40 per cent</a> of the provincially incarcerated population was released.</p>
<p>The judiciary, corrections, crown and defense counsels, along with community organizations, <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-canada-is-serious-about-confronting-systemic-racism-we-must-abolish-prisons-141408">collaborated to cut</a> provincial prison numbers. Some imprisoned people went to new supported community residency options, which proved successful even for people with the most complex needs.</p>
<p>Beyond ending these lockdowns, a whole-of-government approach must be taken to foster and sustain community-based alternatives to pre-trial detention and to support other initiatives preventive of imprisonment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221852/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lockdowns can have severe impacts on an inmate’s mental and physical health and well-being.Jessica Evans, Assistant Professor, Criminology, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLinda Mussell, Lecturer, Political Science and International Relations, University of CanterburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2188212023-12-09T00:30:10Z2023-12-09T00:30:10ZInquest into Soleiman Faqiri’s death at an Ontario ‘super jail’ reignites calls for reform<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/inquest-into-soleiman-faqiris-death-at-an-ontario-super-jail-reignites-calls-for-reform" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Imagine your family member is experiencing a mental health crisis, but instead of being treated at a mental health facility, they are locked inside a <a href="https://www.kawartha411.ca/2019/10/24/eight-inmates-have-died-at-central-east-correctional-centre-in-less-than-two-years/">notorious provincial jail</a>. You go to help by bringing their medication and medical records but are turned away again and again. Days later, a knock at the door brings the devastating news that your loved one is dead.</p>
<p>The Faqiri family has been living this nightmare for the last seven years. They had come to Canada as <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-after-my-brothers-death-in-prison-my-family-has-lost-faith-in-the/">refugees from Afghanistan</a> in the early 1990s hoping for a better life. </p>
<p>On Dec. 15, 2016, 30-year-old Soleiman Faqiri died at the Central East Correctional Centre, a “<a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/why-wasn-t-soleiman-faqiri-sent-to-hospital-inquest-reveals-jailhouse-dysfunction-ahead-of-mentally/article_e0c8b78c-b381-535c-b798-346839d42aab.html">super jail</a>” in Lindsay, Ont. </p>
<p>He had been repeatedly struck by guards, pepper sprayed twice, his face covered in a “spit hood” and forced onto his stomach in a prone restraint position. He had earlier been arrested for allegedly stabbing a neighbour during a mental health episode. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/soleiman-faqiri-inquest-day-15-homicide-1.7053159">coroner’s inquest</a> into Faqiri’s death is concluding with Ontario coroner’s counsel calling his death a homicide and making 55 recommendations for jurors to consider to prevent further deaths. The inquest saw <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/soleiman-faqiri-video-inquest-1.7033938">graphic and disturbing</a> video evidence and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/soleiman-faqiri-inquest-day-12-thibeault-1.7049636">witness testimony</a> of the final days and moments of his life, and the brutal force used against him by corrections officers. </p>
<p>Coroner’s counsel Prabhu Rajan told jurors at the inquest that Faqiri’s death was a “preventable tragedy” and that evidence points in the direction of homicide.</p>
<p>In 2022, the Ontario Provincial Police told Faqiri’s family they would not be laying any charges against the guards involved in his death, saying there was “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/soleiman-faqiri-no-charges-1.6558485">insufficient evidence</a>” to do so.</p>
<p>The inquest has reignited concerns surrounding the use of force and deaths in custody of people experiencing mental health distress. This tragic case serves as a poignant reminder that our current approach to dealing with mental health issues within the prison system is deeply flawed, and demands immediate attention and reform from federal, provincial and territorial governments.</p>
<h2>Elevated risk of death in custody for people with mental health issues</h2>
<p>Faqiri’s death in custody is not an isolated incident. Studies have shown that a significant number of deaths in custody involve mental health issues. Tragically, federally incarcerated individuals are <a href="https://www.criminallegalnews.org/media/publications/canadian_deaths_in_custody_report_2007.pdf">eight times</a> more likely to die from homicide and suicide than the general population. </p>
<p>In one study, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2017.03.002">researchers examined 478 deaths</a> in custody in Ontario between 1996 and 2010. They found that around “half of all deaths in custody occurred among those with a history of mental illness or substance use and those deaths disproportionately occurred in local police or provincial custody.” </p>
<p>Canada has formally abolished the death penalty as a legal sanction, yet it effectively remains in place for many people with mental illness who are incarcerated.</p>
<p>Individuals with mental health issues face elevated risks in correctional facilities, where force is often used to control inmates. From restraint equipment to pepper spray, the arsenal of tools employed by corrections officers can exacerbate the trauma and distress of those already struggling with mental health disorders. </p>
<p>Moreover, the conditions of incarceration, including overcrowding and double-bunking, contribute to heightened stress, anxiety and incidents of self-harm and suicidal behaviour.</p>
<p>The 2020-21 annual report by the federal correctional investigator, Ivan Zinger, revealed that a staggering <a href="https://oci-bec.gc.ca/en/content/office-correctional-investigator-annual-report-2020-2021">41 per cent</a> of use-of-force incidents in federal prisons involve individuals with documented mental health conditions. However, this likely underestimates the true extent of the problem, as reliable data from the Correctional Service of Canada on mental health indicators is lacking.</p>
<p>Another disturbing aspect highlighted by Zinger is the overuse of pepper spray, a practice particularly cruel and traumatic for individuals with serious mental health conditions. He recounted a case where a certified individual undergoing a health procedure was subjected to two bursts of pepper spray, handcuffs and “physical handling.”</p>
<p><a href="https://johnhoward.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Broken-Record.pdf">A report</a> from the John Howard Society found that common behaviour and symptoms of severe mental health disorders (like bipolar or schizoaffective disorder) can be misinterpreted by corrections staff, leading to increased disciplinary sanctions and use of segregation. </p>
<h2>Independent investigators</h2>
<p>While we have an independent corrections investigator for federal institutions, there is no comparably empowered independent watchdog for provincial jails. This must change. </p>
<p>Additionally, Canada has so far refused to join 90 other countries that have ratified the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/optional-protocol-convention-against-torture-and-other-cruel">United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment</a>. The protocol requires countries to open up all places of detention to independent national and international inspections. We need greater transparency and accountability, and to fundamentally change how incarcerated people are treated.</p>
<p>Faqiri’s death is a haunting example of the fatal consequences of the criminal justice system being used to address mental health issues. Despite the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/canada-s-prisons-are-failing-the-mentally-ill/article_a98ee7cb-22fb-583b-9bc6-558394d217a3.html">coroner’s report</a> detailing the severe mistreatment leading to his death, the lack of accountability so far is deeply troubling.</p>
<p>The systemic issues plaguing our correctional facilities need to be addressed and the mental well-being of those in custody must be prioritized. Reform should focus on providing medically and culturally-appropriate trauma-informed treatment, medication and therapies in a supportive environment, rather than in prisons that exacerbate the challenges faced by individuals with mental health issues.</p>
<p>Evidence-based community mental health services are also vital to better meet the needs of people with mental health issues while protecting society. Where such services are not provided, there is an elevated risk of harm. Prevention is key.</p>
<p>“People who have a psychotic illness who are treated have the same or lower rates of violence than the general population,” Sandy Simpson, chair in forensic psychiatry at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, explained in an interview for my book <em><a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781487506278/indictment/">Indictment: The Criminal Justice System on Trial</a></em>. “So, it’s treatable if care is available and acceptable and delivered in the right way to people in need.”</p>
<p>The tragic stories of those like Faqiri demand that we reevaluate our approach to mental health in the community and in prisons as we strive for a system that promotes healing rather than perpetuating harm. Faqiri’s death must not be in vain. His family deserves answers, justice and accountability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218821/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Perrin receives funding from the Law Foundation of British Columbia.</span></em></p>People with mental health challenges are more likely to die in custody. The coroner’s inquest into the death of Soleiman Faqiri in an Ontario jail is one such tragedy that calls out for reform.Benjamin Perrin, Professor of Law, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2165212023-11-13T13:33:03Z2023-11-13T13:33:03ZWe studied jail conditions and jail deaths − here’s what we found<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557804/original/file-20231106-21-2dyu2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=431%2C44%2C2564%2C1944&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Since Jan. 1, 2023, 10 inmates have died at Fulton County Jail.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-fulton-county-jail-is-seen-on-august-23-2023-in-atlanta-news-photo/1634699529?adppopup=true">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The family of Samuel Lawrence, one of 10 people to die in Georgia’s Fulton County Jail in 2023, is fighting for answers and accountability.</p>
<p>“I got to think about him every day of my life and I don’t know when the pain stops,” Lawrence’s father, Frank Richardson, <a href="https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/samuel-lawrence-fulton-county-jail-death-release-autopsy-report#tbl-em-lnvxq3su1oqm8a7sjt9h">told a local TV station</a> in October 2023. “I pray to God that he touches that jail and puts people in place to help the other ones that are left behind.”</p>
<p>Shortly before his death, Lawrence, 34, had <a href="https://www.theroot.com/before-a-fulton-county-inmate-was-found-dead-he-sent-a-1850787506">filed a complaint</a> about jail conditions, alleging that he was brutally beaten and isolated, with insufficient food and water.</p>
<p>But Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat <a href="https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/family-of-fulton-county-jail-inmate-samuel-lawrence-holding-press-conference#tbl-em-lnvx469bxojzi9ayzta">largely blamed</a> the jail’s “outbreak of violence” on “the long-standing, dangerous overcrowding and the crumbling walls of the facility.” </p>
<p>In order to “save lives,” Labat said, his county would be requesting a “replacement jail.” </p>
<p>The Georgia sheriff is among many law enforcement officials to claim that people like Samuel Lawrence would be safer if communities reduced overcrowding by <a href="https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/broken-ground-jail-construction.pdf">building new jails</a> or enhancing existing ones. </p>
<p>But recent research my colleague <a href="https://facultyweb.kennesaw.edu/wchen30/index.php">Weiwei Chen</a> and <a href="https://sipa.fiu.edu/people/faculty/history/adler-jessica.html">I</a> published on escalating jail mortality rates nationwide calls into question that rationale. </p>
<p>In an article published in the June 2023 issue of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2022.01229">Health Affairs</a>, we examined relationships between <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hp20230622.621918/">jail conditions and jail deaths</a>, analyzing factors such as percent of jail capacity occupied, admission and discharge rates and population demographics. </p>
<p>Among the variables that appeared to be most significantly related to jail mortality were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2022.01229">turnover rate</a> – the number of people admitted to and discharged from a facility relative to its average population – as well as the percentage of Black people in the jail population.</p>
<h2>Jail mortality</h2>
<p>Jails are sometimes referred to as the <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024601">“front door” of the criminal justice system</a>. Unlike prisons, which are run by federal and state governments and hold convicted people serving relatively long sentences, jails are locally managed, and <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2023.html">the majority of their populations</a> are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011518-024601">being detained pretrial</a> while unconvicted.</p>
<p>Data on how many people die while incarcerated is <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/subcommittees/investigations/hearings/uncounted-deaths-in-americas-prisons-and-jails-how-the-department-of-justice-failed-to-implement-the-death-in-custody-reporting-act/">notoriously inaccessible</a> and <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12925/death-custody">often unreliable</a>. Still, available reports on jail deaths from the Bureau of Justice Statistics offer some perspective. </p>
<p>In 2019, overall jail death rates were below the adjusted national average of 339 per 100,000, but leading up to that year, they had steeply increased. Between 2000 and 2019, <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/mortality-local-jails-2000-2019-statistical-tables">jail mortality</a> rose by 11%, from 151 per 100,000 to 167 per 100,000. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people stand on a staircase while holding posters that have the names of people written in large letters." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557898/original/file-20231106-253869-75fy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557898/original/file-20231106-253869-75fy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557898/original/file-20231106-253869-75fy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557898/original/file-20231106-253869-75fy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557898/original/file-20231106-253869-75fy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557898/original/file-20231106-253869-75fy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557898/original/file-20231106-253869-75fy2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People hold banners with the names of people who have died in Rikers Island jail during a rally on July 11, 2023, in New York City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-hold-banners-with-the-names-of-people-who-have-died-news-photo/1534248945?adppopup=true">Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To conduct what <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/11788/life-and-death-rikers-island">epidemiologist Homer Venters</a> referred to as an “apples-to-apples comparison” of circumstances and deaths in multiple jails during a period of escalating mortality, we relied on a combination of datasets. </p>
<p>For information about facility deaths, we turned to statistics compiled by Reuters news agency reporters, who submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306385">mortality data</a> from the largest jails across the U.S. </p>
<p>Our data on jail conditions – such as annual admissions and releases, facility capacities and demographics – came from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/data-collection/census-jails-coj">census</a> and <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/data-collection/annual-survey-jails-asj">annual survey</a> of jails.</p>
<p>Ultimately, we assessed mortality rates and conditions in approximately 450 U.S. jails between 2008 and 2019. </p>
<p>Some of our most robust findings about jail deaths had to do with two factors: turnover rate – the sum of weekly admissions and releases divided by average daily population – and demographics.</p>
<p>In the jails we examined, average turnover was 67% (slightly above the national average of <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/ji19_sum.pdf">53%</a>). Relatively high turnover rates, we found, were associated with higher death rates overall, as well as due to suicide, drugs and alcohol, and homicide.</p>
<p>In addition to revealing a relationship between turnover rate and mortality, our research showed that the presence of greater proportions of non-Hispanic Black people in populations of relatively large jails was associated with more deaths due to illness. </p>
<p>Race-based differences in illness-related deaths could be due to a variety of factors, including populationwide <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33471116/">health disparities</a> in the U.S. </p>
<h2>Reliance on jails</h2>
<p>Our findings about both turnover and racial disparities should be considered alongside the broader context of jail incarceration in the United States.</p>
<p>Roughly <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/repeatarrests.html">4.9 million people</a> are arrested and jailed each year, some of them multiple times. Overall, there were approximately <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/jail-inmates-2019">10.3 million admissions</a> to more than 3,000 U.S. jails in 2019. </p>
<p>As of 2019, <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/ji19.pdf">Black people were jailed</a> at a rate more than three times that of white people. </p>
<p>People in jails have been found to be “<a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/incomejails.html">significantly poorer</a>” than people outside of jails, and more than 30 percent of those who are detained remain incarcerated because they <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/economic-justice/criminal-justice-debt-problems/">cannot afford to pay bail</a>. </p>
<p>Jailed people are also disproportionately likely to face health challenges. They are <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/mpsfpji1112.pdf">more likely to report having had</a> chronic health issues, infectious diseases, mental illnesses and <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/dudaspji0709.pdf">substance use problems</a>. </p>
<p>The United States’ remarkably <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2021.html">high population of incarcerated people</a> – and the composition of that population – are related to decades’ worth of <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691174525/getting-tough">cuts in social welfare programs</a>, <a href="https://newjimcrow.com/">structural racism</a>, <a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9781512823493/this-is-my-jail/">local</a> and <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674979826">national</a> political trends, and <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/products/178-the-end-of-policing">policing practices</a>. </p>
<p>Research has shown that the <a href="https://thenewpress.com/books/usual-cruelty">cash bail system</a> – a key driver of high jail turnover – “<a href="https://www.vera.org/news/how-the-united-states-punishes-people-for-being-poor">punishes the poor</a>” by ensuring that they are more likely to be detained than their wealthier counterparts for the same crime. A reliance on cash bail also reportedly increases recidivism and <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/5-ways-cash-bail-systems-undermine-community-safety/">undermines public safety</a>.</p>
<h2>Beyond incarceration</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2022.01229">Our study</a> suggests that ongoing initiatives geared at reducing incarceration – and by extension, jail turnover – could help achieve Sheriff Labat’s goal of saving lives. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A middle aged man dressed in a white shirt adorned withlaw enforcement patches is speaking to a crowd." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557896/original/file-20231106-270180-x9owg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557896/original/file-20231106-270180-x9owg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557896/original/file-20231106-270180-x9owg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557896/original/file-20231106-270180-x9owg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557896/original/file-20231106-270180-x9owg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557896/original/file-20231106-270180-x9owg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557896/original/file-20231106-270180-x9owg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat speaks during a news conference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/fulton-county-sheriff-patrick-labat-speaks-during-pepsi-news-photo/1311333461?adppopup=true">Paras Griffin/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some communities, for example, have successfully <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2022/03/28/harris-county-pretrial-reform-results/">limited the use</a> of cash bail. Others have enhanced <a href="https://www.vera.org/beyond-jails-community-based-strategies-for-public-safety">community-based services</a> that address mental illness, drug use and homelessness without involving police, so jails are less likely to be sites of first resort for people with complex needs. </p>
<p>A year before Samuel Lawrence died, a <a href="https://www.aclu.org/report/there-are-better-solutions-analysis-fulton-countys-jail-population-data-2022">report from the ACLU</a> suggested that by adopting at least some of the above measures, Fulton County could “reduce its jail population significantly.”</p>
<p>It could also, our research suggests, save lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Funding for this "Scholarly Works" project was made possible by Grant No. G13LM013522-01A1 from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.</span></em></p>Higher jail mortality is related to jail turnover rates and demographics.Jessica L. Adler, Associate Professor of History, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2103612023-08-21T12:25:17Z2023-08-21T12:25:17ZThe idea that imprisonment ‘corrects’ prisoners stretches back to some of the earliest texts in history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543081/original/file-20230816-27-7c81zv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1022%2C873&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hymn to the Goddess Nungal, on display at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures at the University of Chicago.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hymn_to_the_goddess_Nungal_by_a_scribe_accused_of_a_capital_offense_-_Oriental_Institute_Museum,_University_of_Chicago_-_DSC07107.JPG">Daderot/Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prisons are places of suffering. But in theory, they aim for something beyond punishment: reform.</p>
<p>In the United States, the goal of prisoner rehabilitation can be traced back, in part, to the 1876 opening of <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814766231/benevolent-repression/">the Elmira Reformatory</a> in upstate New York. Purported to be an institution of “benevolent reform,” the reformatory aimed to transform prisoners, not just deprive them – though founder Zebulon Brockway, known as the “Father of American Corrections,” was notoriously harsh. </p>
<p>Other states soon adopted the reformatory model, and the notion that prisons are <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/prisons-in-ancient-mesopotamia-9780192849618?cc=us&lang=en&">places to “correct” people</a> has become a staple of the judicial system.</p>
<p>But the idea that imprisonment and suffering were supposedly good for the prisoner didn’t emerge in the 19th century. The earliest evidence <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/prisons-in-ancient-mesopotamia-9780192849618?cc=us&lang=en&">goes back some 4,000 years</a>: to a hymn in Mesopotamia, in modern-day Iraq, praising a prison goddess named Nungal.</p>
<p>Almost a decade ago, <a href="https://rts.academia.edu/NicholasReid">as a graduate student</a> researching <a href="https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a693cd93-092e-4118-ae02-b9775bc2285e">slavery in early Mesopotamia</a>, I came across numerous texts dealing with imprisonment. Some were administrative documents dealing with everyday accounting information. Others were legal texts, literature or personal letters. I became fascinated with <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/prisons-in-ancient-mesopotamia-9780192849618?cc=us&lang=en&">imprisonment in these cultures</a>: Most of them detained suspects only briefly, but in literary and ritual texts, imprisonment was seen as a transformative, purifying experience.</p>
<h2>The ‘house of life’</h2>
<p>Around 1,800 B.C., students training as scribes at Nippur, an ancient Sumerian city, frequently copied from a selection of <a href="https://www.isdistribution.com/BookDetail.aspx?aId=17307">10 literary works</a>. Using cuneiform, these aspiring scribes would copy texts that included the exploits of the legendary hero Gilgamesh as he <a href="https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr1815.htm">fought the beast Huwawa</a>, the fearsome <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1883-0118-AH-2598">guardian of the forest</a>. They wrote about <a href="https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr24201.htm">a great Mesopotamian king named Šulgi</a>, <a href="https://cdli.ox.ac.uk/wiki/doku.php?id=biography_shulgi">who claimed to be a god</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543082/original/file-20230816-46396-o65x9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A slate-colored ancient seal has characters and an etching of a kneeling man holding a lion above his head." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543082/original/file-20230816-46396-o65x9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543082/original/file-20230816-46396-o65x9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543082/original/file-20230816-46396-o65x9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543082/original/file-20230816-46396-o65x9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543082/original/file-20230816-46396-o65x9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543082/original/file-20230816-46396-o65x9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543082/original/file-20230816-46396-o65x9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A seal from around the ninth-seventh century B.C. shows Gilgamesh overpowering a lion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/seal-depicting-a-bearded-hero-gilgamesh-kneeling-and-news-photo/152191411?adppopup=true">Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And as the master scribe dictated these various texts, the students also heard about a prison goddess named Nungal.</p>
<p>Though her justice was inescapable, Nungal was also celebrated for her compassion. Her “house” brought suffering upon prisoners, whose sorrow gave rise to lament. Through that lament, however, prisoners could be purified of their sins and made right with their personal gods, who were their protectors and mediators before <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/deit/hd_deit.html">the greater gods</a>. </p>
<p>The “Hymn to Nungal,” which dates from the second <a href="https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/title_5565.ahtml">or third millennium B.C.</a>, details how a guilty prisoner sentenced to death was not killed, but snatched “from the jaws of destruction” and put in Nungal’s house, which she calls a “house of life” – but also a place of suffering, isolation and pain.</p>
<p>Still, the hymn describes prisoners <a href="https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section4/tr4281.htm">transformed by their time in prison</a>. The goddess says her house is “built with compassion, it soothes the heart of that person, and refreshes his spirits.” Eventually, she continues, they will lament and be purified in the eyes of their deity: “When it has appeased the heart of his god for him; when it has polished him clean like silver of good quality, when it has made him shine forth through the dust; when it has cleansed him of dirt, like silver of best quality … he will be entrusted again into the propitious hands of his god.”</p>
<h2>Fact vs. fiction</h2>
<p>The extent to which the ancients <a href="https://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/event/the-gods-in-literature-myth-theology-and-belief-in-ancient-near-eastern-and-greek-poetry">believed such stories about the gods</a> remains a matter of debate. Were texts like the “Hymn to Nungal” matters of sincere religion or just fairy tales that no one took seriously?</p>
<p>Since it is a literary text, it is not a reliable source about the justice system, either. Mesopotamian kingdoms during that time seem to have used prisons to detain suspects prior to punishment, similar to jails that hold suspects before trial today. They also <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/prisons-in-ancient-mesopotamia-9780192849618?cc=us&lang=en&">detained people to force them to pay a fine or debt</a>, and to coerce labor – sometimes for over three years. But punishment, which typically involved physical or financial consequences, did not include time in prison.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543108/original/file-20230816-17-g5ko5q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A faded blue tile shows tan-colored figures walking in a line." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543108/original/file-20230816-17-g5ko5q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543108/original/file-20230816-17-g5ko5q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543108/original/file-20230816-17-g5ko5q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543108/original/file-20230816-17-g5ko5q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543108/original/file-20230816-17-g5ko5q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543108/original/file-20230816-17-g5ko5q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543108/original/file-20230816-17-g5ko5q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A detail from the Standard of Ur, from third-millennium B.C. Sumeria, shows prisoners of war between soldiers. (Held in the British Museum)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Standard_of_Ur_-_War_-_Detail_Top_Right.jpg">LeastCommonAncestor/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Still, detainment entailed suffering, with one prisoner describing the “prison” as a “house of distresses or famine” in <a href="https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/3183">a letter written to his superior</a>. <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/297">In another text</a>, the sender says he was released but complains of beatings that another prisoner endured as part of the investigative process – although the sender does not mention the nature of the suspected offense. </p>
<p>However, scholars <a href="https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/title_5565.ahtml">Klaas Veenhof</a> and <a href="https://www.lesbelleslettres.com/livre/9782251446714/la-vie-meconnue-des-temples-mesopotamiens">Dominique Charpin</a> have found evidence of Nungal playing a role in the judicial process. At some temples, oaths would be taken in the presence of a throw-net, similar to what is used to cast for fish, which symbolized Nungal and inescapable justice.</p>
<p>The vision cast in the hymn was likely folded into a later ritual practice where imprisonment was used to purify the king. During <a href="http://www.islet-verlag.de/BandAmbos2.html">the New Year festival</a>, the king was stripped of his regalia and entered a makeshift prison made of reeds, where the king offered prayers to the gods for his sins. Through prayer and ritual, he was deemed purified and able to resume his royal duties.</p>
<h2>Yesterday and today</h2>
<p>While most people may not have spent long periods in Mesopotamian prisons, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/prisons-in-ancient-mesopotamia-9780192849618?cc=us&lang=en&">they did suffer in them</a>. Perhaps it is that experience that caused a text like the “Hymn to Nungal” to be written, exploring how such an experience could be used <a href="http://www.islet-verlag.de/BandAmbos2.html">to reform the prisoner through lament</a>. </p>
<p>The notion that imprisonment can be good is pervasive, but is it accurate? How prison systems think about reform is very different today than how the “Hymn to Nungal” envisions it. Yet the powerful idea that suffering can be good for prisoners has deep historical roots – allowing incarceration systems to claim that the suffering within their walls is compassionate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>J. Nicholas Reid does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mesopotamia’s prisons were built for detaining people, not punishing them. But they shaped powerful ideas about justice and reform that aren’t so different from today’s.J. Nicholas Reid, Professor Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Reformed Theological SeminaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2089492023-07-24T20:10:09Z2023-07-24T20:10:09Z‘They weren’t there when I needed them’: we asked former prisoners what happens when support services fail<p>When Geoff* left prison after his sentence ended, he was told he would be provided with help to return to the community and get on with this new chapter in life. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>They promised a lot. Like you know transitioning to housing, even help with you know finding work and that, but […] none of those promises were met.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The result was sadly predictable. Geoff was unable to access public housing due to a lengthy wait list and he soon found himself rotating between staying with friends or at hostels and living on the street. </p>
<p>Geoff’s story is not uncommon, as we discovered when we <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395922003413">interviewed</a> 48 people formerly incarcerated in Victoria (33 men, 15 women) for a <a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/research/csrh/our-projects/identifying-factors-that-improve-the-health-of-people-newly-released-from-prison-who-inject-drugs">study</a> on post-release pathways among people who inject drugs. All had a history of drug use.</p>
<p>We wanted to know more about how they were supported to find housing and work, obtain medical care or, for those wanting to do so, access help to get off drugs. Getting this kind of pre- and post-release support can drastically reduce the risk of the person re-offending.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395922003413">analysis</a>, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, reveals how services can play a crucial role in post-release success for people leaving prison.</p>
<p>Systemic failures can ultimately perpetuate the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-social-determinants-of-justice-8-factors-that-increase-your-risk-of-imprisonment-203661">revolving door</a>” of incarceration.</p>
<h2>System failure</h2>
<p>In 2019‑20, <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2021/justice">46%</a> of prisoners released in 2017-18 had returned to prison within two years.</p>
<p>People who inject drugs are disproportionately more likely to return to prison. This suggests a systemic failure; something is going wrong in the way we provide services to this group of people.</p>
<p>For this analysis, “service providers” include actors such as:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the state correctional authority (specifically, prison programs staff such as those responsible for pre-release planning and identifying support needs following release)</p></li>
<li><p>prison health staff</p></li>
<li><p>community service providers (such as housing providers and Centrelink)</p></li>
<li><p>mental health, alcohol and other drug services, as well as pharmacies; and </p></li>
<li><p>non-government organisations.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535251/original/file-20230703-146989-lezsaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535251/original/file-20230703-146989-lezsaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535251/original/file-20230703-146989-lezsaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535251/original/file-20230703-146989-lezsaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535251/original/file-20230703-146989-lezsaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535251/original/file-20230703-146989-lezsaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535251/original/file-20230703-146989-lezsaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535251/original/file-20230703-146989-lezsaf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Systemic failures can ultimately perpetuate the revolving door of incarceration.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found experiences within the first day or two of release can dramatically shape a person’s post-release pathway.</p>
<p>For example, when Jidah got out of prison, he needed crucial medication for his opioid dependence. Unfortunately, his prescription was not transferred to his community pharmacy: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I got released, I was on the Suboxone and I thought everything was
going to be fine in regards to me going straight to my chemist and picking up my dose. And I’ve gone there and nothing was sent through. And I was that frustrated that it caused me to relapse and get back on the heroin. </p>
<p>I felt like I was just left to fend for myself and to be in a vulnerable place, especially when you get out of jail, ‘cause you are relying on these organisations. […] I done what was asked of me, but they weren’t there when I needed it, so it caused me to be in a bad position, in a bad place.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Khish told us he was given some support in getting set up for post-prison life but the help was limited.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Well, they [prison-based staff] made sure that I would be getting Centrelink payments, so they organised for that, for me to talk to people from Centrelink, so that the day of release I would have some money to get a place to stay and stuff like that. That was the only thing that they actually did, yeah.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Trust is key</h2>
<p>Being able to trust a service provider is crucial and can enable a smoother transition to community. </p>
<p>However, being honest with a service provider could be a lucky dip for many of our interviewees; in some cases it could lead to necessary support, while others felt it risked reincarceration.</p>
<p>Parole officers can play a crucial role but people’s experiences varied. Dan had a positive experience, saying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>they just try to coach you through it and try to keep you out of jail, which is good, because that’s not helping anyone anyway.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ben, however, didn’t find his parole officer “useful”, saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They’re not really there to help you. They’re just there to discipline you and make sure you do it properly, I suppose. They’re there to watch over you, but they say they can help.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Getting the right support can be ‘life-changing’</h2>
<p>We did hear some success stories. Anthony told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve always re-offended, relapsed quite hard and everything, but the difference this time was […] even the staff, the corrections staff, down to the magistrate, I can’t explain the level of empathy and effort they put into me is just huge. Yeah, it has been life-changing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Overseas examples also show what’s possible. A recently adopted philosophy in the US state of Maine (referred to as <a href="https://www.maine.gov/corrections/mmc#:%7E:text=This%20operating%20philosophy%2C%20known%20as,to%20rebuild%20and%20transform%20lives.">Maine Model of Corrections</a>) has involved overhauling the way the system supports people during incarceration and preparing for release. The primary goal of the new philosophy is to “rebuild and transform lives”.</p>
<p>Under this new philosophy, Maine’s prisons focus on rehabilitation and growing respect between correctional officers and people who are incarcerated. In these prisons, the words “prisoners” and “inmates” are replaced with “<a href="https://www.maine.gov/corrections/sites/maine.gov.corrections/files/inline-files/WE%20%282022%29%20-%20Destigmatizing%20Corrections.Language%20Matters%20%28MDOC%29.pdf">residents</a>”. Drug dependence is treated as a matter of <a href="https://www.maine.gov/corrections/sites/maine.gov.corrections/files/inline-files/MDOC%20MSUD%20Year%20Three%20Report%20%282022%29.pdf">health priority</a>, with all clinically eligible residents given access to medicines for substance use disorder, regardless of their release date. </p>
<p>In contrast to Jidah’s experiences above, the Department of Corrections in Maine has a <a href="https://www.maine.gov/corrections/sites/maine.gov.corrections/files/inline-files/MDOC%20MSUD%20Year%20Three%20Report-2022.pdf">multi-disciplinary team</a> to ensure continuity of care for residents receiving medicines for substance use disorder prior to release.</p>
<p>Most people leaving prison face an uphill battle of service navigation that is too often deficit-focused, intentionally seeking out the failures of the individual and centred on punitive responses.</p>
<p>Communities of justice-involved people and people who use drugs have been clear about what they need when exiting prison: help with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njTVEBehDjQ">exhaustion</a> associated with re-entering the community, help to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oNT7u3vJ98">build and retain trust</a>, and help from a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70Ctgo-rkGw">competent workforce</a> that can improve people’s post-release chances.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/njTVEBehDjQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Identifying factors that improve the health of prisoners who inject drugs – Exhaustion. UNSW Community.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A culture of respect and prioritising health needs associated with opioid dependence will help many ex-prisoners transition back into community and break the “incarceration treadmill”. </p>
<p>It can help reduce the chances the prison system is simply reproducing disadvantage and replicating the problems it is ostensibly supposed to solve.</p>
<p><em>Names have been changed to protect identities. If you or someone you know needs help with exiting prison, you can find a list of resources <a href="https://www.crcnsw.org.au/get-help/">here</a>. The NSW Users and AIDS Association (NUAA) PeerLine on 1800 644 413 may also be helpful.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208949/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lise Lafferty does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carla Treloar has received funding from the NHMRC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerryn Drysdale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Most people leaving prison face an uphill battle of service navigation that is too often deficit-focused, intentionally seeking out the failures of the individual and centred on punitive responses.Lise Lafferty, Senior research fellow, UNSW SydneyCarla Treloar, Director, Centre for Social Research in Health, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW SydneyKerryn Drysdale, Senior Research Fellow, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2092172023-07-17T05:19:07Z2023-07-17T05:19:07ZThe ominous inevitability of Suzie Miller’s new play Jailbaby: often, our justice system has nothing to do with justice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537621/original/file-20230717-29-dx61m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C23%2C3976%2C2634&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Clare Hawley/Griffin Theatre Company</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Jailbaby, directed by Andrea James, Griffin Theatre Company</em></p>
<p>Jailbaby – a new play by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/apr/27/suzie-miller-on-prima-facie-and-her-olivier-win-london-theatre-circles-see-australia-as-the-daggy-cousin">Suzie Miller</a> – takes a steely look at what happens to an 18-year-old when his life collides with a criminal justice system that is bad and getting worse.</p>
<p>Jailbaby follows the phenomenal success of <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-suzie-millers-prima-facie-theatre-finds-a-voice-of-reckoning-on-sexual-assault-and-the-law-117588">Prima Facie</a>, which scrutinised the law’s failure to protect female victims of sexual assault. Following its premiere at Sydney’s Griffin Theatre Company in 2019, Prima Facie had seasons in London and New York, winning best new play at the United Kingdom’s Olivier Awards.</p>
<p>A one-time lawyer with the Aboriginal Legal Service and Shopfront Youth Legal Centre, Miller’s plays venture into dark places few want to confront. </p>
<p>This new play focuses on jail rape, a crime that is <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26597645/">understudied, under scrutinised and underreported</a>. It takes place in an environment where seeking help or speaking up has the opposite of the intended effect. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-suzie-millers-prima-facie-theatre-finds-a-voice-of-reckoning-on-sexual-assault-and-the-law-117588">In Suzie Miller's Prima Facie, theatre finds a voice of reckoning on sexual assault and the law</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A life of struggle</h2>
<p>AJ is a wide-eyed teenager (compellingly played by Anthony Yangoyan). His mother (Lucia Mastrantone) is a recovering drug addict. His violent father disappeared long ago. They live in social housing. They struggle. </p>
<p>AJ has a long record of troubled behaviour, mostly property crimes, which has seen him spend time in juvenile detention. At 18, AJ is highly impressionable – even gullible – and under the thumb of some older, nastier criminals.</p>
<p>When he needs $500 to go on a soccer trip he thinks will transform his life, he chooses the wrong way to get it. </p>
<p>He imagines the “massive smart TV, MacBooks, iPad” he will stuff into a blue IKEA bag “like a Christmas stocking.”</p>
<p>“Ka-ching!” he thinks. </p>
<p>Of course, it doesn’t turn out like that.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537624/original/file-20230717-228004-8ysmle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An actor in a green jumper" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537624/original/file-20230717-228004-8ysmle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537624/original/file-20230717-228004-8ysmle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537624/original/file-20230717-228004-8ysmle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537624/original/file-20230717-228004-8ysmle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537624/original/file-20230717-228004-8ysmle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537624/original/file-20230717-228004-8ysmle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537624/original/file-20230717-228004-8ysmle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">AJ is compellingly played by Anthony Yangoyan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Clare Hawley/Griffin Theatre Company</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Imagined sacred space</h2>
<p>The courtroom of the public imagination is like the last sacred space in a secular society.</p>
<p>It is presided over by judges beyond the reach of criticism. People readily imagine a defendant’s case will be carefully considered; that everybody has a lawyer in a sharp suit who will make eloquent pleas and ask searching questions. </p>
<p>In reality, the lower courts are crowded and chaotic. A duty solicitor quoted in recent research paper <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/research/law-health-justice/making-change/self-represented-litigants-family-law-proceedings-involving-allegations-about-family-violence">likened the civil courts to a “zoo”</a>. The criminal courts are worse. </p>
<p>Miller’s play rips right through this veil of illusion.</p>
<p>Despite his age, AJ fails to get bail. He is tried remotely via prison video link. The court appears as a tiny square on a computer screen.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537626/original/file-20230717-207908-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman with a manilla folder." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537626/original/file-20230717-207908-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537626/original/file-20230717-207908-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537626/original/file-20230717-207908-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537626/original/file-20230717-207908-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537626/original/file-20230717-207908-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537626/original/file-20230717-207908-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537626/original/file-20230717-207908-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People readily imagine a defendant’s case will be carefully considered. In reality, the lower courts are crowded and chaotic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Clare Hawley/Griffin Theatre Company</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>AJ’s lawyer (Mastrantone) tries. But she is already disassociating herself from what she knows will happen. Perhaps this is just the way that lawyers cope. </p>
<p>AJ still thinks, by some miracle, he’ll get off with a warning. His mind is on his upcoming football training session. He doesn’t think the court will take away his big chance to change his life. But, of course, they do. </p>
<p>And in jail, AJ loses everything.</p>
<h2>Incarceration in Australia</h2>
<p>The back cover of the <a href="https://www.currency.com.au/books/drama/jailbaby/">published script</a> says the play pinpoints “the exact moment when it all goes so, so wrong” for AJ. </p>
<p>But that moment happened long before he took the jersey or the iPhone. It happened long before AJ was born, when politicians decided locking up more – and younger – people made them popular. </p>
<p>Even as the rate of offending in Australia <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Vanishing_Criminal/RXgeEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">has dropped</a>, the prison rate has <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-prison-rates-are-up-but-crime-is-down-whats-going-on-170210">steadily climbed</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-prison-rates-are-up-but-crime-is-down-whats-going-on-170210">Australia's prison rates are up but crime is down. What's going on?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australia incarcerates <a href="https://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison_population_rate?field_region_taxonomy_tid=All">a greater percentage of its population</a> than China, Guatemala or the United Kingdom. The United States leads the world in per capita incarceration, but Australia has more people incarcerated <a href="https://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/pre-trial-detainees?field_region_taxonomy_tid=All">who have not been tried</a> or sentenced. </p>
<p>Children <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2023/01/the-fight-to-raise-australias-age-of-criminal-responsibility/">as young as ten are incarcerated</a> in some Australian jurisdictions. </p>
<p>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/black-lives-white-law">most incarcerated people in the world</a>.</p>
<p>Australian jails are brutalising. They ought to be a measure of last resort. But young people can be sent to jail simply because there are few <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/116631">diversionary programs</a> in regional, remote or rural areas, or because rehabilitation programs may be full.</p>
<p>And it happens in the dark, because newspapers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/oct/28/new-studies-suggest-continuing-decrease-in-court-reporting">seldom cover the lower courts</a>, unless a celebrity is on trial.</p>
<p>Lower court judgements are rarely published. On busy days, if you blink, you will miss it.</p>
<p>Some lawyers argue this protects the “privacy” of the accused. But when an 18-year-old like AJ is sent to adult jail, that kid has a lot more than “privacy” to worry about.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-social-determinants-of-justice-8-factors-that-increase-your-risk-of-imprisonment-203661">The social determinants of justice: 8 factors that increase your risk of imprisonment</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Ominous inevitability</h2>
<p>Jailbaby is a high impact theatrical work. It contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault by straight men against younger male prisoners. The level of detail written into these descriptions is risky, but this raw brutality is the play’s strength.</p>
<p>Like a lawyer explaining legal proceedings to a client in the courtroom, Miller tells the audience what is likely to happen to AJ at every stage. This foreknowledge is horrifying, because it makes the audience complicit in the action as it unfolds.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537625/original/file-20230717-210338-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A police line-up." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537625/original/file-20230717-210338-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537625/original/file-20230717-210338-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537625/original/file-20230717-210338-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537625/original/file-20230717-210338-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537625/original/file-20230717-210338-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537625/original/file-20230717-210338-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537625/original/file-20230717-210338-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Three actors share 14 roles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Clare Hawley/Griffin Theatre Company</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet, ultimately it doesn’t quite come together. One of the story strands is underdeveloped, and the middle-class characters (whose home AJ burgles) often feel like uncomfortable caricatures. </p>
<p>There are 14 roles shared between three actors, and perhaps this requires a level of dexterity that contributes to uneven performances. </p>
<p>An ominous inevitability ties the best parts of the play together. We are left with a gut-wrenching sense that, for kids like AJ, the justice system has nothing to do with justice.</p>
<p><em>Jailbaby is at Griffin Theatre Company, Sydney, until August 19.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em>The National Sexual Assault, Family and Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Camilla Nelson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This new play by Suzie Miller, the one-time lawyer who wrote Prima Facie, ventures into dark places few want to confront.Camilla Nelson, Associate Professor in Media and Journalism, University of Notre Dame AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080582023-06-22T21:04:03Z2023-06-22T21:04:03ZPoliticians shouldn’t determine where Paul Bernardo is imprisoned, regardless of his crimes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533180/original/file-20230621-29-mhyd5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2044%2C1217&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dozens of people line up in Toronto in 1995 outside a downtown courthouse for entry to Paul Bernardo's trial. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Moe Doiron</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Paul Bernardo is one of Canada’s <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/key-events-in-the-bernardo-homolka-case-1.933128">most notorious criminal offenders</a>. </p>
<p>Bernardo has been incarcerated since his arrest in 1993 for the sexual assaults he perpetrated as the Scarborough Rapist and for the kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and first-degree murders of teenagers Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. <a href="https://ca.vlex.com/vid/r-v-bernardo-p-681367033">He was convicted</a> on these charges, as well as manslaughter in the death of Tammy Homolka — the sister of his co-accused, Karla Homolka — and of committing an indignity to a body. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533186/original/file-20230621-3564-mdueqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in handcuffs and a grey coat sits in the back of a police cruiser." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533186/original/file-20230621-3564-mdueqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533186/original/file-20230621-3564-mdueqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533186/original/file-20230621-3564-mdueqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533186/original/file-20230621-3564-mdueqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533186/original/file-20230621-3564-mdueqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533186/original/file-20230621-3564-mdueqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533186/original/file-20230621-3564-mdueqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Paul Bernardo sits in the back of a police cruiser in April 1994 as he leaves a hearing in St. Catharines, Ont.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At sentencing in 1995, Bernardo was designated a dangerous offender based on his high risk of committing further sexual violence. In accordance with the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-44.6/page-1.html">Corrections and Conditions Act</a>, <a href="https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/350611/publication.html">dangerous offenders</a> usually receive an indeterminate sentence. When murder charges are involved, it’s normally an indeterminate life sentence. </p>
<p>After 25 years of incarceration, Bernardo can apply for parole every two years. He has been <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/notorious-killer-and-rapist-paul-bernardo-denied-parole-1.5480292#:%7E:text=The%20Parole%20Board%20of%20Canada,in%20the%20fall%20of%202018.">denied day and full parole by the Parole Board of Canada</a> the two times he has applied.</p>
<h2>Transferred to Québec</h2>
<p>Bernardo <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9741588/paul-bernardo-moved-medium-security-prison/">was recently transferred from Millhaven, a maximum-security prison in Ontario, to La Macaza medium-security prison in Québec</a>. Political and public response was immediate and visceral.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/security/001003-1000-eng.shtml">Correctional Service Canada (CSC)</a> policy says that maximum-security is meant to be temporary and prepare inmates for eventual transfer to medium-security facilities. </p>
<p>Bernardo has been in maximum-security prisons for three decades. Medium-security institutions have the same security safeguards as maximum-security prisons, but there’s more movement and interaction among inmates. The <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2023/06/07/paul-bernardo-what-did-he-do-whats-the-difference-between-maximum-and-medium-security-and-what-are-politicians-saying.html">facility in Québec is reportedly</a> well-equipped to house sex offenders who are at elevated risk of violence from other prisoners.</p>
<p>Bernardo has spent <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9751583/paul-bernardo-prison-transfer/">the majority of his 30 years in prison segregated in protective custody</a>. <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4099115/cost-prisons-incarceration-canada-pbo/">According to 2016-2017 data</a>, an inmate in segregation costs an estimated $463,045 annually compared to $92,740 for a maximum-security inmate and $75,077 for those in medium-security institutions.</p>
<p>La Macaza seems like an appropriate place to move Bernardo if he has been assessed to be at low risk of escape, even though medium-security institutions are just as secure as maximum-security prisons. Although medium-security institutions allow more interaction with others, La Macaza can specifically provide the additional protection an infamous inmate needs at a significantly lower cost to taxpayers. </p>
<h2>Predictable outrage</h2>
<p>As a criminologist, nothing about Bernardo’s transfer to a medium-security institution after 30 years is surprising to me based on standard procedures and available information. As a true crime researcher, I’m also not surprised by the outrage.</p>
<p>Tim Danson, the lawyer representing the French and Mahaffy families, said <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9746198/paul-bernardo-medium-security-transfer-mahaffy-french/">“we need an open and transparent discussion and debate</a>” about whether Canadians and victims’ families are entitled to information about people who are incarcerated, including potential transfers.</p>
<p>Family members of victims are not told of inmate transfers because it’s considered confidential information. The Bernardo transfer likely only became public because it was leaked by someone with access to the information. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A grey-haired older man looks sombre as he stands next to a woman with short dark hair wearing glasses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533185/original/file-20230621-22-dstlbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533185/original/file-20230621-22-dstlbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533185/original/file-20230621-22-dstlbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533185/original/file-20230621-22-dstlbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533185/original/file-20230621-22-dstlbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533185/original/file-20230621-22-dstlbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533185/original/file-20230621-22-dstlbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Doug and Donna French listen while the lawyer Tim Danson (not pictured) speaks to the media after Paul Bernardo’s parole was denied at Millhaven Institution in Bath, Ont., in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9765365/paul-bernardo-prison-transfer-review-underway/">The CSC has now tasked a review committee</a> “to examine the appropriateness of his new security classification and transfer to a medium-security facility, review victims’ considerations and notifications and whether the legislative and policy framework was followed in this case.” </p>
<p>The federal Conservative Party published <a href="https://www.conservative.ca/conservatives-will-ensure-paul-bernardo-rots-in-maximum-security-prison/">a statement</a> on its website pledging that “Conservatives will ensure Paul Bernardo rots in maximum-security prisons.” The party is proposing legislation that would require all dangerous offenders and mass murderers to be permanently assigned to maximum-security institutions.</p>
<p>I’m not concerned that Bernardo’s transfer to a medium-security prison puts public safety in jeopardy, but I am nervous about the potential fallout from this news.</p>
<h2>Serial killers rare</h2>
<p>Ontario Premier Doug Ford has stated: “<a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/doug-ford-says-correctional-service-commissioner-should-step-down-or-be-fired-after-bernardo-jail-transfer-1.6429654?cache=dvgujsbn">This scumbag Bernardo should rot in hell</a>.” </p>
<p>He also <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/06/06/doug-ford-paul-bernardo-move-comments/">told the media</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“When we sentence someone to life sentences, that means a life sentence in jail, maximum security, 23 hours a day. Matter of fact, I’d go one step further — that one hour he’s out should be in general population.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ford insinuates that prison violence is not only a reality of incarceration, but part of the punishment. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1665738159743807490"}"></div></p>
<p>Violence in prisons is rampant. <a href="https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/serial-killers-who-were-murdered-in-prison">Infamous serial killers</a> (including Albert DeSalvo, Léopold Dion and Jeffrey Dahmer, to name a few) have been killed by other inmates during their incarcerations. </p>
<p>Bernardo is infamous largely due to being such an unusual offender in Canada. <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220802/dq220802a-eng.htm?indid=4751-1&indgeo=0">Violent crime is often assumed by the general public to be more rampant than it is</a>, especially when perpetrated by strangers. In fact, serial killers are incredibly rare. </p>
<p>The concern is that Bernardo’s transfer, which would probably have gone unnoticed if he were not a household name, will lead to policy changes and legislative reforms that will negatively impact other people. </p>
<p>The situation also raises questions for Canadians and politicians about prisons, public safety and justice. Rather than focusing on whether one man is being punished harshly enough, there must be necessary conversations about the purpose of prisons, whether they’re meant to be solely punitive or serve any rehabilitative functions, and what justice means to Canadians.</p>
<p>Focusing on one infamous serial killer does not make Canadians safer, nor does using an exceptional case to change correctional policy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208058/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meg D. Lonergan has previously received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). </span></em></p>As a dangerous offender, Paul Bernardo is unlikely to ever be released from custody after 30 years behind bars — even after his transfer to a medium-security prison.Meg D. Lonergan, Doctoral Candidate and Contract Instructor, Legal Studies, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2052602023-05-10T18:37:12Z2023-05-10T18:37:12ZHow colonial racism fuels Saskatchewan’s criminalization of Indigenous men<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524962/original/file-20230508-19-kitsc0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C431%2C2396%2C1164&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Margaret Verna Umpherville, mother of Boden Umpherville, reacts during a news conference in Saskatoon in April 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Liam Richards</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/how-colonial-racism-fuels-saskatchewan-s-criminalization-of-indigenous-men" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/a-sask-man-injured-in-a-violent-arrest-has-died-family-says-1.6372389">Boden Umpherville, a 40-year-old Indigenous man, recently died</a> following a brutal altercation with Saskatchewan’s Prince Albert Police Service during his arrest. </p>
<p>Twenty-five days before his death, police stopped the vehicle Umpherville was in, alleging it had been reported stolen. But <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/prince-albert-police-sirt-saskatchewan-umpherville-1.6819054">according to CBC News</a>, three other people were in the vehicle at the time, including the registered owner, who stated they had not reported the vehicle stolen.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/prince-albert-police-sirt-umpherville-1.6823509">Witness video obtained by the CBC</a> shows six police officers surrounding the vehicle and using stun guns on Umpherville multiple times. One officer used pepper spray, and at least one other officer appeared to hit Umpherville before police dragged him out of the vehicle to arrest him.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1645128260597198848"}"></div></p>
<h2>Media coverage</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/government-structure/boards-commissions-and-agencies/saskatchewan-serious-incident-response-team">Saskatchewan’s Serious Incident Response Team</a>, the civilian-led organization that investigates incidents where someone is injured or dies due to police actions or while in custody, says investigators found a loaded handgun at the scene. </p>
<p>In addition, the provincial court in Prince Albert said <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/boden-umpherville-vigil-prince-albert-police-1.6828328">a judge had issued a bench warrant for Umpherville on Jan. 5, 2023</a>, after he failed to appear in court. The charges have been stayed.</p>
<p>The reported facts so far point to alleged lethal force by law enforcement but also imply that Umpherville deserved such brute force because of suspected criminal activity.</p>
<p>It’s a narrative his brother, Darry, is resisting when he tells the media: “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/boden-umpherville-vigil-prince-albert-police-1.6828328">My brother should be in jail, not a casket.”</a></p>
<p>The deaths of Indigenous men involving law enforcement and custody in Saskatchewan are often ignored or dismissed by broader society based on the presumption that these men <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423906060215">endangered themselves due to their lifestyles</a>.</p>
<p>This justification leads to silence when it comes to demands for police accountability by the general public. In fact, the six officers involved in Umpherville’s death are back on active duty and treated as innocent until proven guilty. </p>
<p>That’s the opposite situation for the average Indigenous man in Saskatchewan who is often assumed guilty and has to prove he doesn’t deserve to be treated with brutality.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a white T-shirt and black ball cap speaks into a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524977/original/file-20230508-19-levlds.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524977/original/file-20230508-19-levlds.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524977/original/file-20230508-19-levlds.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524977/original/file-20230508-19-levlds.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524977/original/file-20230508-19-levlds.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524977/original/file-20230508-19-levlds.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524977/original/file-20230508-19-levlds.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Darry Umpherville, brother of Boden Umpherville, speaks during a news conference in April 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Liam Richards</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Living the reality</h2>
<p>One of the authors of this article — Randy Morin, a Nêhiyaw man and assistant professor in Indigenous Studies at the University of Saskatchewan — lives this reality every day. </p>
<p>He recalls a particularly telling incident about a decade ago when he was pushing his groceries out to a store parking lot in Saskatoon to load into his new Honda Civic. As he started to unlock his vehicle, the shrieks of a nearby woman startled him so he turned to see what was wrong. </p>
<p>It took him a moment to realize the woman was yelling and pointing at him. </p>
<p>She thought that, as a visibly Indigenous man, he must be stealing his new vehicle. When Morin was younger, the assumption of his criminality led to his being routinely stopped by Saskatoon police.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524951/original/file-20230508-245278-tk6y3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A T-shirt reads I am just jogging." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524951/original/file-20230508-245278-tk6y3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524951/original/file-20230508-245278-tk6y3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524951/original/file-20230508-245278-tk6y3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524951/original/file-20230508-245278-tk6y3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524951/original/file-20230508-245278-tk6y3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524951/original/file-20230508-245278-tk6y3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524951/original/file-20230508-245278-tk6y3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Randy Morin has imagined this kind of message on his T-shirt might ease suspicion when he goes out for a run.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Randy Morin)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, he takes pains to avoid unwanted suspicion in public. An avid jogger, he allays the fear of others with friendly greetings and being clearly dressed in jogging garb — but others almost always jump out of his way in fear or bristle in anger towards him. </p>
<p>Morin notes: “I am thinking of making a T-shirt and writing on it ‘just jogging’ to let others know that is all I am doing. I am not running away from a crime or from the police.”</p>
<h2>Murderous ‘starlight tours’</h2>
<p>April 2023 also marked the death of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/darrell-night-died-starlight-tour-1.6818232">Darrell Night</a> at 56 years old.</p>
<p>Night is the Indigenous man who reported that Saskatoon police officers dropped him off at the city’s edge on a freezing night in January 2000 during <a href="https://gladue.usask.ca/node/2860">an infamous police practice known as “starlight tours</a>.” His story of survival led to investigations into the freezing deaths of three Indigenous men in the same area, including 17-year-old Neil Stonechild, prompting an <a href="http://www.publications.gov.sk.ca/freelaw/Publications_Centre/Justice/Stonechild/Stonechild-FinalReport.pdf">inquiry into starlight tours</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A patch of pavement with the names of victimized Indigenous people drawn in chalk, including Neil Stonechild." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524976/original/file-20230508-197326-ooj56b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524976/original/file-20230508-197326-ooj56b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524976/original/file-20230508-197326-ooj56b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524976/original/file-20230508-197326-ooj56b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524976/original/file-20230508-197326-ooj56b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524976/original/file-20230508-197326-ooj56b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524976/original/file-20230508-197326-ooj56b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man cleanses the area with sage as the names of Indigenous people victimized by the criminal justice system are written on a sidewalk during a protest in Victoria, B.C., in March 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/darrell-night-who-exposed-a-dark-underside-in-saskatoon-policing-has-died">Commenting on his ordeal years later</a>, Night pointed out he did nothing to deserve the attempted death sentence, ensuing nightmares and lifelong fear of the police.</p>
<p>Blaming individual Indigenous men for the violence they experience prevents us from seeing how those experiences are interconnected and rooted in a systemic and social culture of racism and colonialism. These issues <a href="https://equityhealthj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12939-021-01500-8">have been studied in-depth</a> but strangely remain unquestioned by the general public and policymakers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/watchdog-report-into-rcmp-investigation-of-colten-boushies-death-confirms-police-racism-158507">Watchdog report into RCMP investigation of Colten Boushie’s death confirms police racism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Making a difference</h2>
<p>A Saskatchewan-based report that’s almost 20 years old from the <a href="https://library.usask.ca/gp/sk/j/justicecommisionnationsmetis/volume1.html">Commission on First Nations and Métis Peoples and Justice Reform</a> noted that numerous entities had focused on the over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system. </p>
<p>The 2004 commission asked: “After some 30 or so previous commissions, how can we make a difference?”</p>
<p>The report’s answer in Cree was: <em>Opintowin</em>, which aims “to encourage an environment in which all people want to lift each other up as we develop as a community.” </p>
<p>The commission noted that creating such an environment requires fundamental change beyond “simple tinkering with the system” or a singular focus on policing. The same is still true in 2023.</p>
<p>As for Morin, his ideal environment is quite simply one where people do not feel threatened, inconvenienced or scared by the mere sight of him — but instead, actually see him.</p>
<p>Like Umpherville, Morin and all Indigenous people shouldn’t have to fear police who are meant to protect them but instead are still, far too often, acting as judge, jury and executioner.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205260/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Indigenous people shouldn’t have to fear police who are supposed to protect them but instead still act as judge, jury and executioner.Kathy Walker, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Studies, University of SaskatchewanRandy Morin, Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies, University of SaskatchewanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2019432023-04-05T18:37:41Z2023-04-05T18:37:41ZRace is closely tied to who gets bail — that’s why we must tread carefully on bail reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518504/original/file-20230330-19-cy6f02.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5009%2C3681&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro speaks during a Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers' meeting on bail reform in Ottawa in March 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/race-is-closely-tied-to-who-gets-bail-—-that-s-why-we-must-tread-carefully-on-bail-reform" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Over four decades ago — on April 17, 1982 — Queen Elizabeth signed the Constitution Act, which included the <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/">Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms</a>. </p>
<p>The Charter enshrined — and therefore placed outside the reach of capricious lawmaking — certain fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed to all Canadians. The right to reasonable bail is among them. </p>
<p>The right to bail recognizes that the state is constitutionally burdened with establishing an accused person’s guilt before unduly or unjustly denying or abridging their right to liberty, especially <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2015/2015scc27/2015scc27.html">in reaction to short-term public outrage.</a> </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1640410176908869638"}"></div></p>
<p>Canadians should consider the <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/bb-lr/index.html">collateral consequences</a> of pre-trial detention, including job loss, stigmatization, family breakdown and homelessness. Also, <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/gp-pc/p5.html">when denied bail, research shows accused people are more likely to enter into rash and ill-advised plea bargains</a> or plead guilty despite having a viable defence. </p>
<p>A disturbing number of inmates <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/rib-reb/bail-liberte/index.html">in provincial detention institutions</a> have either been denied bail or are awaiting a bail hearing. These inmates often face <a href="https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/report-conditions-confinement-toronto-south-detention-centre">egregious prison realities</a>, ranging <a href="https://torontolife.com/city/inside-toronto-south-detention-centre-torontos-1-billion-hellhole/">from draconian lockdown policies</a> to a lack of meaningful access to legal counsel and basic hygiene.</p>
<p>The often overlooked problem with Canada’s bail system is not the laws surrounding bail, per se, but the need to ensure that criminally accused people receive fair access to bail — and that those who receive bail have the necessary opportunities to thrive while they await trial.</p>
<h2>Concerns about bail</h2>
<p>In the aftermath of the shooting <a href="https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/judge-who-released-man-later-charged-in-cop-s-death-weighed-indigenous-background-1.6269168">death of Ontario Provincial Police Const. Grzegorz Pierzchala, allegedly by a young Indigenous man out on bail</a>, <a href="https://www.oppa.ca/Media/Blog/premierslettertopmbailreform">all 13 premiers called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to strengthen Canada’s bail system</a>.</p>
<p>In response to their concerns, the <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Committees/en/JUST/StudyActivity?studyActivityId=12025820">Parliamentary standing committee on justice and human rights</a> is currently studying the bail system.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Pallbearers carry a coffin draped with a mostly red flag past a large group of mourners." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518481/original/file-20230330-18-mxr1j2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518481/original/file-20230330-18-mxr1j2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518481/original/file-20230330-18-mxr1j2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518481/original/file-20230330-18-mxr1j2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518481/original/file-20230330-18-mxr1j2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518481/original/file-20230330-18-mxr1j2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518481/original/file-20230330-18-mxr1j2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pallbearers carry the casket of OPP Const. Grzegorz Pierzchala after his funeral service at the Sadlon Arena in Barrie, Ont., in January 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bail is often regarded by accused people and their lawyers to be an act of judicial and prosecutorial benevolence or leniency. But it’s increasingly used as <a href="https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/80896">a proxy for punishment</a>, advancing tough-on-crime political agendas and stirring up hysteria around public safety.</p>
<p>Canadians must be mindful of political rhetoric around bail reform and instead closely consider the negative implications that a “tougher” bail system has on constitutional rights and the lives of marginalized and racialized accused people. </p>
<p>In fact, the Supreme Court of Canada <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/1992/1992canlii52/1992canlii52.html">has warned lower courts to avoid relying on factors extraneous to the bail system in determining who gets bail</a>. These factors can take the form of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/449256">entrenched attitudes around race and risk</a>. </p>
<p>How we come to know and construct risk and, more importantly, how risk is often associated with race are all salient questions that require careful examination.</p>
<h2>‘The evil of racism’</h2>
<p><a href="https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/BFI_WP_2020331.pdf">The relationship between risk construction and apportionment of blame is closely tied to race</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442687554">Scholars have even argued</a> that discussions on risk prevention — and I would add risk management and mitigation — cannot be separated from race.</p>
<p>That means those considering who gets bail <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/we-must-address-the-racial-disparities-in-bail-decisions_b_14368242">must reflect on their own beliefs and show restraint</a> as they determine risk to avoid relying on false racist narratives — for example, that Black and Indigenous people are dangerous and risk-prone.</p>
<p>Thirty years ago, Ontario’s Court of Appeal observed in <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/1993/1993canlii3383/1993canlii3383.html?autocompleteStr=r.%20v.%20parks%20&autocompletePos=2"><em>R v Parks</em></a> that examined the manslaughter conviction of a Black drug dealer accused of killing a white drug user: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Racism, and in particular anti-Black racism, is a part of our community’s psyche… Furthermore, our institutions, including the criminal justice system, reflect and perpetuate those negative stereotypes. These elements combine to infect our society as a whole with the evil of racism. Blacks are among the primary victims of that evil.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unfortunately, <a href="https://johnhoward.ca/blog/race-crime-justice-canada/">voluminous social science research</a> suggests this observation is as relevant today as it was three decades ago. The data also suggests that institutionalized racism, particularly within the criminal justice system, is difficult, if not impossible, to remedy. </p>
<p>However, to the Supreme Court of Canada’s credit, recent bail decisions like <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2017/2017scc27/2017scc27.html?autocompleteStr=antic&autocompletePos=1"><em>R v Antic</em></a> have signalled to bail jurists, Crown prosecutors and lawmakers to take a less punitive and carceral approach to bail. </p>
<p>In this case — involving a Windsor, Ont., man charged with drug and firearms offences and denied bail — the court emphasized the importance of ensuring imprisonment is used as a last resort. </p>
<p>It ruled he was erroneously denied bail, reinforcing that accused people are constitutionally presumed innocent and should benefit from a constitutional right to bail — and that there is a constitutional right not to be denied bail without just cause. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Shadows of tree limbs on the snow are seen in front of a stone court house." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518508/original/file-20230330-14-3g1di1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518508/original/file-20230330-14-3g1di1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518508/original/file-20230330-14-3g1di1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518508/original/file-20230330-14-3g1di1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518508/original/file-20230330-14-3g1di1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518508/original/file-20230330-14-3g1di1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518508/original/file-20230330-14-3g1di1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Supreme Court of Canada is pictured in Ottawa in March 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Other Supreme Court decisions</h2>
<p>In fact, for years, at least since the Supreme Court’s 1992 decision in <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/1992/1992canlii52/1992canlii52.html?autocompleteStr=pearson&autocompletePos=1"><em>R v Pearson</em>,</a> the constitutionality of reverse onus provisions have been discussed. </p>
<p>In a reverse onus situation, it’s presumed that accused people should be detained while awaiting trial unless they can demonstrate to the court that there’s no just cause for their detention.</p>
<p>The <em>Pearson</em> ruling involved the case of a convicted drug trafficker. It established that while reverse onus provisions are an affront to the constitutional rights of Canadians, they can be enabled by Sec. 1 of the Charter, which guarantees rights and freedoms subject <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art1.html">“only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.”</a></p>
<p>Nonetheless, a less punitive and carceral approach to bail is wise — any erosion of Canadians’ constitutional rights threatens the integrity and the long-term repute of the justice system. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court is seeking to balance the liberty of those accused of crimes and other constitutional rights — for example, the presumption of innocence and the right to reasonable bail — with the concern about the risk accused people may pose to public safety.</p>
<p>But despite its careful interpretations, bail remains a highly political and legally charged process in terms of public perceptions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201943/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danardo Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Those determining bail must reflect on their own beliefs and show restraint as they determine risk to avoid relying on false racist narratives. So should those calling for bail reform.Danardo Jones, Assistant Professor of Law, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1975132023-01-18T21:29:08Z2023-01-18T21:29:08Z5 ways to reform Canada’s bail system to benefit both the public and the accused<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504787/original/file-20230116-13-559uvt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4081%2C2669&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man rushes past the Ontario courthouse in Toronto in May 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/5-ways-to-reform-canada-s-bail-system-to-benefit-both-the-public-and-the-accused" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>In the wake of recent high-profile crimes allegedly committed by accused people out on bail, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/funeral-opp-const-grzegorz-pierzchala-1.6702283">including the slaying of a police officer in Ontario</a>, police leaders and politicians are calling for a tougher bail system.</p>
<p>Fuelling calls for reform is the accusation that <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/are-canadian-bail-rules-tough-enough-experts-weigh-in-after-officer-killed-1.6216708">bail is a “catch-and-release” system</a> that quickly returns people accused of crimes to the community only to see them regularly and wilfully disregarding their release conditions. </p>
<p>Critics believe the rights of the accused are being prioritized over the rights of victims and public safety.</p>
<p>Scholars and legal advocates have likewise denounced the bail system, but for very different reasons. Canadian scholars have demonstrated how bail <a href="https://johnhoward.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/JHSO-Reasonable-Bail-report-final.pdf">sets up accused people to fail</a> by imposing unreasonable conditions that entrap individuals in a revolving door of justice. </p>
<p>But is the bail system really broken? If so, how do we fix it? We argue that while the law on bail is sound, its implementation needs improvement. </p>
<h2>Many Canadians don’t understand bail</h2>
<p>Bail legislation reflects fundamental principles outlined in Canada’s <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art11e.html">Charter of Rights and Freedoms</a> that attempt to balance the rights of accused people — by upholding the presumption of innocence — with public safety and confidence in the criminal justice system. </p>
<p>The law allows for people who are deemed risky to be detained, particularly for certain indictable offences or when confidence in the administration of justice would be undermined by releasing an accused person into the community. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A man with a goatee in red and white robes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504784/original/file-20230116-12-nru3o5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504784/original/file-20230116-12-nru3o5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504784/original/file-20230116-12-nru3o5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504784/original/file-20230116-12-nru3o5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504784/original/file-20230116-12-nru3o5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504784/original/file-20230116-12-nru3o5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504784/original/file-20230116-12-nru3o5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner is seen in November 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For those who are released on bail, most must abide by conditions that restrict who they can associate with, where they can go, what they can do and where they can live. </p>
<p>Legally, however, judges must impose the fewest and least onerous conditions necessary, in adherence with <a href="https://qweri.lexum.com/calegis/rsc-1985-c-c-46-en#!fragment/sec515subsec2">provisions of the country’s Criminal Code</a> and <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/16649/index.do">precedent-setting Supreme Court decisions</a>. </p>
<h2>Bail is a rigorous process</h2>
<p>Our ongoing studies on the experience of living with bail conditions present a stark contrast to perceptions of a lenient bail system. </p>
<p>A vast majority of the accused people we have spoken to report taking their conditions seriously and accepting responsibility for their actions while on bail. They believe that the path out of the criminal justice system involves making meaningful changes in their lives.</p>
<p>Bail supervisors similarly attest that bail is a rigorous process. In interviews, they emphasized that bail supervision programs have clear criteria about who they accept into their program. They report that most accused people are committed to, and successfully complete, their bail.</p>
<p>When accused do breach bail, <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/jf-pf/2017/oct01.html">98 per cent</a> of charges are related to release conditions rather than new offences. </p>
<p>Recent <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510015401">Statistics Canada data</a> also shows that nearly 80 per cent of people in provincial custody in Ontario were legally innocent, further demonstrating that bail is not a lenient process.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The inside of a detention centre, with metallic seating areas and green doors and staircases." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504785/original/file-20230116-14-27quid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504785/original/file-20230116-14-27quid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504785/original/file-20230116-14-27quid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504785/original/file-20230116-14-27quid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504785/original/file-20230116-14-27quid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504785/original/file-20230116-14-27quid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504785/original/file-20230116-14-27quid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The general inmate facility is shown during a media tour of the Toronto South Detention Centre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Inequalities in bail</h2>
<p>Bail can also exacerbate social marginalization and criminalization. The imposition of <a href="https://ccla.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Set-up-to-fail-FINAL.pdf">restrictive and onerous conditions</a> that require residency conditions for those experiencing homelessness, for example, makes completing bail without breaching its conditions more difficult. </p>
<p>While awaiting trial, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-us-canada-jails-race-exclusive-idCAKBN1CO2RD-OCADN">Black people in Ontario spend longer in custody</a> than white people, and <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/gladue/p2.html">Indigenous people are denied bail more frequently</a> than other accused people. </p>
<p>Time spent in pre-trial custody has <a href="https://www.legalaid.on.ca/documents/a-legal-aid-strategy-for-bail/#section2">negative legal and social implications</a>. Not only does it compel accused people to plead guilty and agree to unreasonable release conditions, it also disrupts employment and familial responsibilities. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/broken-system-why-is-a-quarter-of-canadas-prison-population-indigenous-91562">Broken system: Why is a quarter of Canada's prison population Indigenous?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>5 ways to reform bail</h2>
<p>Focusing bail reform narrowly around “tough-on-crime measures” is unlikely to enhance public safety. Here are five proposals to reform bail:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Timely bail decisions</strong>. Quick decisions on bail will have two benefits. First, they’ll decrease the likelihood the accused will accrue additional charges, often for non-criminal behaviour, if they breach their conditions. And they’ll also reduce the amount of time accused people spend in the community before serving their sentences. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Access to community resources.</strong> Homelessness, mental health issues, substance use, addiction and/or trauma are realities that make access to bail, and adhering to bail conditions, extraordinarily challenging. Not knowing where you’re sleeping every night or having an active addiction means compliance becomes an afterthought. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>More funding for enhanced bail supervision programs.</strong> Bail supervision programs are a cost-effective way to monitor accused people with higher risks or needs in the community, and act as vital conduits to desperately needed resources. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Inter-agency communication.</strong> Increased communication among social service agencies, courts and police will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of bail. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Systematic collection of bail statistics.</strong> Currently, the statistics on bail are inadequate. Collecting data, and disaggregating it in meaningful categories, is essential for informing evidence-based responses. </p></li>
</ol>
<h2>Probing the causes of crime</h2>
<p>Demands to reform the bail system are understandable in the face of the violent victimization of innocent Canadians. Yet calls solely for punitive responses mask our unwillingness to address the structural causes of crime. </p>
<p>Crown attorneys and judges must clearly continue upholding the law on bail, which requires restraint while also protecting the presumption of innocence and balancing public safety. </p>
<p>But to protect communities, we must also improve the likelihood that accused people can comply with their bail conditions by offering greater support and collaboration on several fronts, from social services to law enforcement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carolyn Yule receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura MacDiarmid does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To protect communities, we must improve the likelihood that accused people can comply with their bail conditions by offering greater support on several fronts, from social services to law enforcement.Carolyn Yule, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of GuelphLaura MacDiarmid, Assistant Professor, Justice Studies, University of Guelph-HumberLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1908252022-12-07T17:57:46Z2022-12-07T17:57:46ZTo resolve youth violence, Canada must move beyond policing and prison<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499364/original/file-20221206-11770-sz9tym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=381%2C911%2C6685%2C3411&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Two fatal shooting incidents at Toronto high schools, 15 years apart, show just how little has been done to address the root cause of violence in schools. Here people protest gun violence in Toronto in March 2018. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ben Singer</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The most recent <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/scarborough-school-shooting-1.6635808">shooting involving a Toronto high school student this October</a> highlighted a rising problem with gun violence in North American schools. In Canada’s largest city, it raised alarms about how <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-youth-gun-violence-1.6353947">the crisis is getting worse and skewing younger</a>. </p>
<p>The recent tragedy is reminiscent of other high-profile shootings within Toronto high schools. In 2007, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/he-was-my-heart-says-mother-of-toronto-shooting-victim-1.669954">15-year-old high school student Jordan Manners</a> was fatally shot at school. In the years since Manners’s death, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/mother-blames-culture-of-silence-in-son-s-shooting-death-1.740936">numerous recommendations</a> on gun violence came out of reports and committees. However, little has been done to improve the danger of gun violence for Toronto teens.</p>
<p>To make things better, policy conversations about gun violence need to shift. They need to expand beyond the person behind the gun and gun regulation and move towards <a href="https://organizingengagement.org/models/trauma-informed-community-building-model/">trauma-informed community programming</a> that dismantles systemic barriers and inequities.</p>
<h2>Risk factors that lead young people to violence</h2>
<p>Many studies indicate that problems like poverty and unemployment <a href="https://youthrex.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/rootsofyouthviolence-vol1.pdf">are major risk factors</a> that increase the likelihood of an individual gravitating towards gun violence.</p>
<p>In Canada, <a href="https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/ststclsnpsht-yth/ssyr-eng.pdf">only one in five children who need mental health services receive them</a>. A <a href="https://peopleforeducation.ca/report/guidance-report-2018/">2018 report by People for Education</a> found that in Ontario there was on average only one in-school guidance counsellor for every 396 students. Trauma and a lack of attention to it also <a href="https://www.the-crib.org/uploads/1/2/9/6/129649149/social_determinants_of_homicide_011022.pdf">leads to having intergenerational impacts</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/gun-violence-can-be-reduced-with-a-strategy-focused-on-deterrence-187682">Last year, there were 277 firearm homicides in Canada</a>. According to a <a href="https://www.the-crib.org/uploads/1/2/9/6/129649149/social_determinants_of_homicide_011022.pdf">recent report</a> by The Centre for Research & Innovation for Black Survivors of Homicide Victims (CRIB), racialized Ontarians account for 75 per cent of Canadian gun homicide victims; 44 per cent of those victims belong to African, Caribbean or other Black communities.</p>
<p>If we do not improve standards of living and create genuine opportunities in communities, the cycle of poverty, violence and crime will continue.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gun-violence-can-be-reduced-with-a-strategy-focused-on-deterrence-187682">Gun violence can be reduced with a strategy focused on deterrence</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485172/original/file-20220918-34710-321qhw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graph showing violence trends in TDSB schools." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485172/original/file-20220918-34710-321qhw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485172/original/file-20220918-34710-321qhw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485172/original/file-20220918-34710-321qhw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485172/original/file-20220918-34710-321qhw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485172/original/file-20220918-34710-321qhw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485172/original/file-20220918-34710-321qhw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485172/original/file-20220918-34710-321qhw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rates of violence in TDSB schools have increased in recent years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(TDSB)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Disrupting the school to prison pipeline</h2>
<p>Education is one of the most effective protective factors in aiding reintegration and mitigating recidivism after release from prison. </p>
<p>There needs to be an ideological shift about the purpose of prisons. They should not be places that punish people by incarcerating them, but spaces that promote their rehabilitation.</p>
<p>As outlined in the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a>, education is a human right that should be upheld for everyone. That right extends to individuals who are incarcerated.</p>
<p>To see where we are with this, the <a href="https://ccla.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/CCLET_Laidlaw_Report_Final_Digital.pdf">Canadian Civil Liberties Association</a> conducted 50 interviews with youth (ages 12-17), staff and teachers at detention facilities and justice system professionals to explore education for youth in detention and the barriers they face.</p>
<p>They found that “facilities were treating youth as security threats to be managed, rather than students deserving of rehabilitation through educational opportunities”.</p>
<p>It costs the Correctional Service of Canada <a href="http://www.intersectionalanalyst.com/intersectional-analyst/2017/7/20/everything-you-were-never-taught-about-canadas-prison-systems">an average of $111,202 per year to incarcerate one man (and twice as much to incarcerate one woman), with only $2950 of that money spent on education per prisoner</a>. </p>
<p>There is a lack of capacity within incarceration institutions to meet educational demands. And there is a lack of partnerships with school boards and post-secondary institutions <a href="https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/publications/092/005007-2014-eng.pdf">to offer education in prisons</a>.</p>
<p>That lack of access to education is highly problematic given that the <a href="https://www.prisonfreepress.org/Facts.htm#:%7E:text=65%25%20of%20people%20entering%20prisons,of%20literacy%20the%20prisoner%20achieves.">majority of people incarcerated do not have a high school diploma or its equivalent</a>.</p>
<h2>Harm reduction</h2>
<p>A lack of mentorship and culturally relevant, responsive and sustaining education leads to many minoritized identities being pushed out of schools due to the content, policies, and teaching of schools not being reflective of their identities, histories or lived experiences.</p>
<p>For example, 80 per cent of school suspensions in Toronto are given to male students. <a href="https://www.tdsb.on.ca/Leadership/Boardroom/Agenda-Minutes/Type/A?Folder=Agenda/20210623&Filename=CaringandSafeSchoolsAnnualReport201920204134.pdf">Indigenous, Black, Middle Eastern and mixed-race students are over-represented in the suspensions and expulsions relative to their overall representation within the TDSB student population</a>. </p>
<p>To counter this, there needs to be culturally relevant and responsive curriculum content and teaching to support learners and their families in relation to larger unmet needs at the community level.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499381/original/file-20221206-20-is41t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A sign that reads: Toronto District school board in front of a brown building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499381/original/file-20221206-20-is41t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499381/original/file-20221206-20-is41t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499381/original/file-20221206-20-is41t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499381/original/file-20221206-20-is41t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499381/original/file-20221206-20-is41t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499381/original/file-20221206-20-is41t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499381/original/file-20221206-20-is41t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Racialized students at Toronto schools are over-represented when it comes to suspensions and expulsions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Police and prevention</h2>
<p>If Canada is going to become the egalitarian role model it aims to be on the world stage, the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-investigation-racial-bias-in-canadian-prison-risk-assessments/">over-policing of racialized communities</a> across the country must end. </p>
<p>Instead, more resources and emphasis on community-based intervention and prevention projects must be adopted such as <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/07/15/why-we-need-to-focus-on-gun-violence-as-a-public-health-crisis.html">Toronto’s TO Wards Peace and Public Safety Canada’s Peace Core New Narrative</a>. </p>
<p>Both initiatives propose a <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2019/hl/bgrd/backgroundfile-139315.pdf">public health approach rooted in supporting access to opportunities across different sectors</a>. The projects were spearheaded via collaboration between different levels of government, community agencies and non-profits including <a href="https://yaaace.com/">Youth Association for Academics, Athletics, and Character Education (YAAACE)</a> in Jane and Finch and <a href="https://www.think2.org/">Think 2wice</a> in Rexdale in Toronto. These are projects I am also involved in. In fact, I started as a youth counsellor at YAAACE when I was 17. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2020/cc/bgrd/backgroundfile-156834.pdf">TO Wards Peace (TWP)</a> is a community-centric interruption model that features frontline “violence disruption workers.” These folks have lived experience and deep community connections which strengthens their capacity to build rapport with communities. In this way, they may be able to intervene peacefully and constructively, even in seriously violent or escalating situations. </p>
<p>At YAAACE, another initiative features <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyZC0-Bw_DU">“Community Resource Engagement Workers” supporting those impacted by the justice system</a> (people who have been released from incarceration or are incarcerated) to use their strengths in pursuing healthy lifestyle choices and building life skills. This involves access to programming and connecting people with needed social support services in a timely manner. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2022/06/government-taking-action-on-gun-violence-in-toronto-through-new-funding-for-gang-prevention-initiatives.html">recent pledge by the Canadian government</a> to fund community programs such as those mentioned above is a step in the right direction.</p>
<p>Canada needs to start putting the “human” back into the way it treats, responds to and serves marginalized communities. </p>
<p><em>Evie Mae Stevenson, a 3rd year undergraduate student who worked at YAAACE, helped write this article.</em></p>
<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/3ccb12ac-6927-4844-ae7d-3c0c82945809?dark=true"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-572" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/572/661898416fdc21fc4fdef6a5379efd7cac19d9d5/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190825/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ardavan Eizadirad receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). </span></em></p>To resolve growing violence in schools, policy conversations about gun violence need to include community programs that dismantle systemic barriers and inequities.Ardavan Eizadirad, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1940992022-11-24T18:46:21Z2022-11-24T18:46:21ZWorking prisoners are entitled to employment and safety standards just like anybody else<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495728/original/file-20221116-12-6oaixy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C1985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A view of the Collins Bay Institution in Kingston, Ont. Prisoner work is meant to aid in rehabilitation, not provide private businesses with cheap labour.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN/Lars Hagberg</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/working-prisoners-are-entitled-to-employment-and-safety-standards-just-like-anybody-else" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) recently <a href="https://www.thewhig.com/news/local-news/abattoir-at-joyceville-institution-now-closed">ended its longstanding relationship</a> with the meatpacking company, Wallace Beef. </p>
<p>This means that federal prisoners incarcerated in the Joyceville Institution near Kingston will no longer provide slaughterhouse labour for the private firm. </p>
<p>The announcement comes after years of campaigning by animal rights and prison farm activists. Groups like <a href="https://www.thewhig.com/news/local-news/prison-farm-group-critical-of-joyceville-institution-abattoir">Evolve Our Prison Farms have long criticized the Joyceville abattoir operation</a> as cruel to animals and exploitative of prisoners. They also <a href="https://evolveourprisonfarms.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Bloody-Bad-Business-Report-on-the-Joyceville-Institution-Abattoir-2022.pdf">raised a number of concerns</a> about the operation’s lax oversight and poor environmental practices. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1577729472975048732"}"></div></p>
<p>CSC has yet to announce if it will seek a new contractor, but regardless of what happens to the abattoir at Joyceville, it is long past the time for Canada to reconsider its approach to prison labour. </p>
<p>As Halifax lawyer Asaf Rashid and I argue in our new book, <em><a href="https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/solidarity-beyond-bars">Solidarity Beyond Bars: Unionizing Prison Labour</a></em>, there is no good legal or moral argument for denying prisoners their rights as workers.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1541488904662032384"}"></div></p>
<h2>Work as rehabilitation</h2>
<p>According to the law and to correctional policy, prisoners in Canada work as part of their rehabilitation, not as punishment. This labour takes two main forms. </p>
<p>The first is institutional maintenance — prisoners perform much of the cooking, cleaning, clerical and other work necessary for the day-to-day functioning of the prisons in which they are incarcerated. Some also work in prison industries, designed to give prisoners “work-like” experience. </p>
<p>Federal prison industries are operated by <a href="https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/corcan/002005-index-en.shtml">CORCAN</a>, a special operating agency of the Correctional Service of Canada. Among other activities, <a href="https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/corcan/002005-0001-eng.shtml">prisoners working for CORCAN produce office furniture and textiles, run construction, printing and laundry services</a> and work on Canada’s <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/prison-farms-comeback-ontario-1.5247129">few remaining prison farms</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-correctional-service-of-canadas-goat-plans-wont-help-inmates-153183">The Correctional Service of Canada's goat plans won't help inmates</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The problems with prison labour in this country are well known by the government. The Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI), Canada’s federal prison watchdog, <a href="https://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/annrpt/annrpt20122013-eng.aspx">routinely</a> <a href="https://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/annrpt/annrpt20172018-eng.aspx">admonishes</a> CSC’s employment programming. In the most recent report, Correctional Investigator Ivan Zinger <a href="https://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/annrpt/annrpt20212022-eng.aspx">highlighted employment and pay discrimination against Black prisoners</a> in particular.</p>
<p>The year before, Zinger honed in on CORCAN’s inadequate programming for women, <a href="https://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/annrpt/annrpt20202021-eng.aspx">noting that</a> “jobs for women are often grounded in gendered roles and expectations, offering few marketable skills.”</p>
<p>The OCI’s 2019-2020 report <a href="https://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/annrpt/annrpt20192020-eng.aspx">starkly states</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Few CORCAN-run industries provide training or teach skills that are job-relevant or meet labour market demands. The service has continued to maintain obsolete infrastructure and technological platforms for such an extended period of time that these problems now appear insoluble.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Wage clawbacks</h2>
<p>Pay is another significant issue. In 2013, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government implemented new room and board and other fees that amounted to a 30 per cent <a href="https://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/annrpt/annrpt20132014-eng.aspx">wage clawback</a> and eliminated incentive pay for CORCAN work. </p>
<p>In announcing the new fees, the government ignored the fact that pay scales for federal prisoners, implemented in 1981, already accounted for room and board deductions. The maximum pay for federal prisoners is $6.90 per day, minus mandatory fees. </p>
<p>According to the OCI, since these changes, the <a href="https://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/annrpt/annrpt20152016-eng.aspx#fn20-rf">average pay for prisoners working full time is around 30 cents an hour</a>. Meanwhile, the cost of living in prison has skyrocketed as more and more expenses — including the cost of basic hygiene items — have been downloaded onto prisoners.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495735/original/file-20221116-25-7rafjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A prison phone booth" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495735/original/file-20221116-25-7rafjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495735/original/file-20221116-25-7rafjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495735/original/file-20221116-25-7rafjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495735/original/file-20221116-25-7rafjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495735/original/file-20221116-25-7rafjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495735/original/file-20221116-25-7rafjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495735/original/file-20221116-25-7rafjp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prison phone calls require prisoners to spend money.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Piqsels)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Money is also required for the letters and phone calls prisoners need to maintain community relationships, which are viewed favourably when parole boards make decisions. What’s more, scholars — and prisoners themselves — have warned that <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/2012/05/14/plan_to_cut_inmates_pay_will_accomplish_nothing.html">low pay hinders prisoners’ ability to successfully reintegrate post-release</a> (like avoiding committing crimes out of financial necessity), which ultimately reduces public safety.</p>
<p>Prison labour, like other work, <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fct/doc/2008/2008fc1047/2008fc1047.html?searchUrlHash=AAAAAQAGQ09SQ0FOAAAAAAE&resultIndex=22">can also be dangerous</a> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/contractor-in-fight-with-public-works-after-asbestos-exposure-1.1336575">and unhealthy</a>. </p>
<h2>No labour rights</h2>
<p>However, just as they are excluded from employment standards and labour laws, prisoners are generally excluded from health and safety laws designed to protect workers. </p>
<p>There is no public safety justification, let alone a moral one, for the exclusion of working prisoners from normal employment and health and safety protections. There’s no reason at all to curtail prisoners’ labour rights.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1297002764363497479"}"></div></p>
<p>A union for prisoners may seem far-fetched, but there is historical precedent. In 1977, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/llt.2018.0035">provincial prisoners working in a privately managed abattoir at Ontario’s Guelph Correctional Centre unionized</a>, winning full rights as workers. The union lasted nearly two decades before the operation was moved off the prison grounds as part of a corporate merger.</p>
<p>As the OCI and other critics have made clear, federal prison labour schemes are failing prisoners and the public. In looking to the future, CSC should seriously consider this success from the past. All workers deserve full rights and protections.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194099/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jordan House does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There is no good legal or moral argument for denying prisoners their rights as workers. Canada must overhaul how it deals with prison labour.Jordan House, Assistant Professor, Labour Studies, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1928292022-10-31T16:20:10Z2022-10-31T16:20:10ZMigrants deserve the right to make decisions about where they live<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491801/original/file-20221026-13-d7sx1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C154%2C2869%2C2048&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An asylum-seeker crosses the border from New York into Canada at Roxham Rd. in March 2020 in Hemmingford, Que.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/migrants-deserve-the-right-to-make-decisions-about-where-they-live" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>In recent weeks and months, there have been a number of stories about migrants being sent to places without their consent. </p>
<p>In the United Kingdom, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-61782866">a new policy</a> has been introduced to send certain asylum-seekers to Rwanda instead of hearing their claims for protection. </p>
<p>In the United States, the Republican governors of Florida and Texas <a href="https://www.salon.com/2022/10/03/mysterious-woman-allegedly-helped-desantis-lure-migrants-to-marthas-vineyard-flight-identified/">have made headlines</a> for sending migrants arriving in their states to Martha’s Vineyard and Washington, D.C. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491803/original/file-20221026-1887-5gbu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Black man in a blue paisley suit speaks into a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491803/original/file-20221026-1887-5gbu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491803/original/file-20221026-1887-5gbu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491803/original/file-20221026-1887-5gbu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491803/original/file-20221026-1887-5gbu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491803/original/file-20221026-1887-5gbu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491803/original/file-20221026-1887-5gbu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491803/original/file-20221026-1887-5gbu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mayor Eric Adams speaks at an event in July 2022 in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The suggestion by New York Mayor Eric Adams that migrants be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/nyregion/eric-adams-migrants-cruise-ships.html?searchResultPosition=1">forcibly housed on cruise ships</a> because the city’s shelters are overflowing was met with outrage from housing activists who deplored the conditions in which people might be kept. </p>
<p>Yet, historically, people have sought refuge in shelters, and even jails, because they have been understood as relatively safe. The issue is about choice.</p>
<h2>Giving up control</h2>
<p>In each of the recent cases, whether out of benevolence or ill will, government authorities are making decisions about where people should receive refuge. </p>
<p>In doing so, they are compounding a decades-old problem that implies that if people have been forced to flee their homes, whether for political, environmental or economic conditions, they have given up any say about their futures. Instead, the argument goes, people should be grateful for any assistance they receive or any home they might be offered. </p>
<p>This expectation is at the heart of the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/mandate/policies-operational-instructions-agreements/agreements/safe-third-country-agreement.html">Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement</a>, a deal that allows Canada to turn away asylum-seekers trying to enter the country from the U.S. at official land border crossings.</p>
<p>Refugee advocates and leading human rights organizations such as Amnesty International are currently <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/06/canada-supreme-court-safe-third-country-agreement/">challenging the legality of this agreement in the Supreme Court of Canada.</a></p>
<p>The Safe Third Country Agreement, in effect since 2004, forces migrants in the U.S. or Canada to make an asylum claim in their country of arrival. This agreement and many other laws, regulations and policies both implicitly and explicitly assume that along with fleeing their homes for safety, migrants are also giving up the right to make decisions about their futures. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canada-must-grant-permanent-immigration-status-to-undocumented-residents-187415">Canada must grant permanent immigration status to undocumented residents</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Losing the right to have rights?</h2>
<p>It’s a variation of political philosopher Hannah Arendt’s observation, made after the Second World War, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-right-to-have-rights-and-the-plight-of-the-stateless">that refugees were people who had lost the right to have rights.</a></p>
<p>But freedom of mobility is a fundamental human right. It is enshrined in the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">Article 13 of the declaration states</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state [and] … everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Crucially, the declaration is silent on the right to enter. That’s why refugee determination processes that are intended to protect people under the terms of the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/1951-refugee-convention.html#:%7E:text=The%201951%20Refugee%20Convention%20and,of%20States%20to%20protect%20them.">1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees</a> are so important.</p>
<p>People have the right to make asylum claims under both the 1951 Convention and 1948 Declaration, yet despite these safeguards, governments are denying migrants these rights. And they’re doing so by deliberately obfuscating the choices and rights available to migrants. </p>
<p>Some scholars suggest that the lack of choice in the current international refugee regime makes taking refuge, especially in camps, the equivalent <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/26326663221084591">of being imprisoned</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People walk by an arid compound crammed with white tents." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491802/original/file-20221026-24-5tqk25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491802/original/file-20221026-24-5tqk25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491802/original/file-20221026-24-5tqk25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491802/original/file-20221026-24-5tqk25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491802/original/file-20221026-24-5tqk25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491802/original/file-20221026-24-5tqk25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491802/original/file-20221026-24-5tqk25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Syrian refugees walk by their tents at a refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, in July 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The irony is that, historically, migrants and other people who found themselves in vulnerable situations chose to repurpose prisons for refuge and sanctuary. They obviously weren’t intended as such, <a href="https://www.prisonpublicmemory.org/hudson-prison-history">but people made jails into sites of refuge</a> when the elements or <a href="https://www.historycolorado.org/story/preservation/2015/06/28/3-historic-colorado-jails-and-one-prison-you-dont-know-about">hostile citizens</a> proved too threatening. </p>
<p>If we understand the diversity of historic sites of refuge, then we can better understand how the issue of choice is so imperative in any discussions about asylum-seeking and protection in the present.</p>
<h2>Unlikely shelters</h2>
<p>In the late 19th century, across North America, the twinned issues of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519584/">homelessness and poverty</a> often overwhelmed existing charities. When people couldn’t find refuge in a shelter, they often engineered a petty crime that <a href="https://doi.org/10.7202/010443ar">would land them in jail for the night</a>. It wasn’t ideal, but it gave them shelter from the elements and sometimes a warm meal.</p>
<p>Police stations were also used as refuge by people fleeing various forms of violence. </p>
<p>In 1907, South Asian migrants <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/20514530.2021.1908719">took refuge in a local jail in the face of mob attacks in Washington state</a>. The origins of this violence were rooted in increasingly tense labour relations when white workers violently reacted to the arrival of South Asian workers in Bellingham, Wash. </p>
<p>As the number of South Asian workers moving to the area began to rise, white labour leaders called for the migrants’ expulsion. In September 1907, a mob attacked South Asian workplaces and residences. Many South Asians were literally driven out of town but others sought refuge in the local jail where it was relatively safe.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r423_z2WQL4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A segment on the Bellingham riots of 1907 on the Swarajya YouTube channel.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Migrants have rights</h2>
<p>The idea of police stations as sites of refuge seems incredible given current concerns about police violence, including campaigns to <a href="https://defundthepolice.org/">defund police</a>. </p>
<p>But just because it’s hard to imagine police stations serving as sites of refuge doesn’t mean we should forget that asylum-seekers have the right to determine what’s best and safest for them.</p>
<p>People don’t give up their right to be mobile or their right to make decisions about their lives simply because they are forced to flee untenable circumstances. Human rights are inevitably constrained, but they still exist. </p>
<p>Recent government actions would have people believe otherwise. But if we sacrifice the capacity of some people to be treated as fully fledged human beings, we’re putting that right at risk for all. </p>
<p>By remembering that people historically sought refuge where they could, even in some surprising locations by today’s standards, then we can better understand why people are moving now and why it is wrong to force them into circumstances where they have no say.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192829/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Madokoro receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Early Researcher Award Program of the Government of Ontario. </span></em></p>People don’t give up their right to be mobile or their right to make decisions about their lives simply because they are forced to flee untenable circumstances.Laura Madokoro, Associate Professor, Department of History, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1774982022-02-18T21:36:10Z2022-02-18T21:36:10ZThe end of the ‘freedom convoy’ in Ottawa: Why rejoicing when occupiers get arrested isn’t the answer<p>The occupation of Canada’s capital by the so-called “freedom convoy” is over after more than three weeks. A massive police presence on Saturday <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-convoy-protest-fourth-weekend-1.6358094">cleared the streets in front of the Parliament buildings</a> that had been blocked by dozens of trucks. More than 170 people who have protested against anti-vaccine mandates have been arrested and dozens of vehicles have been towed away and impounded.</p>
<p><a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/convoy-families-with-children-defy-emergency-laws-as-downtown-occupation-continues">Some children may have witnessed</a> their parents’ arrest, may <a href="https://twitter.com/OttawaPolice/status/1494718932212662284?s=20&t=BkyQqyuSRcwCi5LIqDTQXg">have been used as human shields</a> or separated from their parents by jail walls. </p>
<p>Many in Ottawa and across Canada have been calling for police action. Some on Twitter have even said they would be watching excitedly with popcorn. <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/02/17/trudeau-emergencies-act-poll/">Many welcome</a> the enactment of the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-justice/news/2022/02/canadas-emergencies-act.html"><em>Emergencies Act</em></a> allowing expanded state powers to clear out the convoy. And a poll suggests the majority support this action even if means “<a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/two-thirds-of-canadians-support-use-of-emergencies-act-and-want-freedom-convoy-cleared-out-poll">people who will not leave may get hurt, or worse</a>.” </p>
<p>What does this all reveal about Canadians?</p>
<p>I have been part of community-organizing conversations to respond to the Ottawa occupation as a member of the <a href="https://cp-ep.org/">Criminalization and Punishment Education Project</a>. I am a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa and have written about the carceral state and non-violent alternatives. My colleagues and I recently published a piece on “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10282580.2021.2018655">carceral enjoyments</a>” — the satisfaction in seeing others punished through state institutions — and this is exactly what we’re seeing happen in Ottawa right now.</p>
<h2>Justified emotions</h2>
<p>The so-called “freedom convoy” has occupied Ottawa for over three weeks. The police began <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8630014/ottawa-final-showdown-police-freedom-convoy/">pushing to clear the blockades on Friday</a>, with tactical officers on the ground carrying rifles, gas masks and duffle bags. </p>
<p>Convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber were <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/tamara-lich-chris-barber-arrested-ottawa-1.6355960">arrested on Thursday</a>, and fellow convoy leader Pat King was <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/police-action-convoy-protest-1.6356444">arrested the next day</a>.</p>
<p>The last three weeks have seen intense criticism of law enforcement’s lack of response to the convoy, especially in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/20/canada-indigenous-land-defenders-police-documents">comparison</a> to responses against other protests led by Indigenous and racialized people. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/black-and-indigenous-protesters-are-treated-differently-than-the-convoy-because-of-canadas-ongoing-racism-176653">Black and Indigenous protesters are treated differently than the 'convoy’ because of Canada's ongoing racism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Residents reported hundreds of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-airport-convoy-protest-traffic-1.6346256">hate incidents</a>, the <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8609284/ottawa-trucker-convoy-airport-disruptions">911 line was purposely jammed</a> and people were exposed to high levels of <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/more-than-annoying-what-trucker-convoys-nearly-nonstop-honking-could-be-doing-to-people-in-ottawa">noise at all hours</a>. </p>
<p>Residents <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/truck-convoy-downtown-ottawa-residents-mental-health-1.6333674">expressed feeling</a> angry, scared, frustrated, anxious, stressed, exhausted and abandoned by government — particularly people of colour, people with disabilities, seniors, women, people who live and work downtown and people who are immunocompromised. </p>
<p>People are justified in these emotions, but carceral responses are not the answer. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Canada flag hangs over protesters and police." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447368/original/file-20220218-43691-n7jpbh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447368/original/file-20220218-43691-n7jpbh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447368/original/file-20220218-43691-n7jpbh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447368/original/file-20220218-43691-n7jpbh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447368/original/file-20220218-43691-n7jpbh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447368/original/file-20220218-43691-n7jpbh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447368/original/file-20220218-43691-n7jpbh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police move the line up as they work to end a protest, which started in opposition to mandatory COVID-19 vaccine mandates and grew into a broader anti-government demonstration and occupation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Carceral enjoyments</h2>
<p><a href="https://dilts.org/wp-content/uploads/Dilts-2021-CarceralEnjoyments-FINAL-1.pdf">Carceral enjoyments</a> is a term coined by political scientist Andrew Dilts. It refers to a type of satisfaction that arises from witnessing the “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674986909">social death</a>” of other people through carceral action — such as arrest and confinement in jail. </p>
<p>And social death (coined by sociologist Orlando Patterson) refers to the end of a person’s ability to function as a social being. It happens when people are set apart from the rest.</p>
<p>Dilts argues if we want to disrupt white supremacy, we need to pay attention to the pleasures of carcerality and develop strategies to disrupt those enjoyments. Recognizing our material and emotional attachments to carceral enjoyments lets us cultivate certain ways of “killing the joy” of seeing others punished. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/648513">Killing joy</a> references the work of scholar Sara Ahmed on feminists speaking uncomfortable, necessary truths. Killing joy in the case of the convoy means disrupting the pleasure of seeing others punished as well as resisting reforms that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10282580.2021.2018655">extend the reach</a> of the carceral state.</p>
<h2>Police, jails, child removal not the answer</h2>
<p>Norwegian sociologists Thomas Mathiesen and Ole Kristian Hjemdal write about “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571826.003.0016">suitable victims</a>” of punishment, and they reject the legitimacy of inflicting pain through policing and imprisonment in order for others to gain the pleasure of revenge.</p>
<p>Convoy participants have been cast as suitable targets of carceral action. There is feeling present that this group may not respond to anything except aggression, and that they “<a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/two-thirds-of-canadians-support-use-of-emergencies-act-and-want-freedom-convoy-cleared-out-poll">bring it upon themselves</a>.” </p>
<p>Convoy participants have <a href="https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canadian-association-journalists-freedom-convoy-violence">dehumanized</a> many, but they have also been <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottaw-tow-truck-operator-receives-hundreds-of-threats-from-both-sides-of-the-convoy">dehumanized</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protesters stand as police on horseback and tactical units approach" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447370/original/file-20220218-46094-sjwmy8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447370/original/file-20220218-46094-sjwmy8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447370/original/file-20220218-46094-sjwmy8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447370/original/file-20220218-46094-sjwmy8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447370/original/file-20220218-46094-sjwmy8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447370/original/file-20220218-46094-sjwmy8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447370/original/file-20220218-46094-sjwmy8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police officers on horseback and an armoured vehicle are shown near the site of a trucker blockade in Ottawa, on Feb. 18, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The carceral state has extended its reach in response to the convoy. Neither the House of Commons nor the Senate <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8630068/parliament-debate-cancelled-expected-police-operations-says-speaker-of-house/">met Friday</a> over the <em>Emergencies Act</em> invocation, with House leaders expressing security concerns. </p>
<p>Police have set up at least <a href="https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-secured-area-in-downtown-ottawa-1.5785593">100 checkpoints</a> around the downtown core. Only individuals with a “lawful” purpose for needing to be in the core will be permitted entry. </p>
<p>The Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa is <a href="https://www.casott.on.ca/en/news-and-events/caso-updates-on-police-action/">working alongside police</a> regarding children present. Arrest is not only harmful to <a href="https://news.uci.edu/2017/08/25/being-arrested-takes-mental-health-toll-uci-researchers-find/">adults</a>, but also to <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10826-013-9717-2">children</a> who witness it. </p>
<p>It is unclear what precedent this crackdown sets for other protests and organizers in Ottawa, as well as normalizing police violence and additional resourcing. </p>
<h2>Building a better future</h2>
<p>It is important for the convoy to end, but we shouldn’t eat popcorn while watching.</p>
<p>We must continue to imagine a better future that features non-carceral responses to transgression in our communities — by equipping communities with the tools they need to disrupt and intervene in patterns of harm, but also developing accountability processes for those who enact it. Much work needs to be done to counter fascism, extremism and white supremacy, but carceral enjoyment from policing and imprisonment isn’t the answer.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.choosingrealsafety.com/">Choosing real safety</a> for all in our society requires avoiding dehumanization, including people that have caused and continue to cause harm. </p>
<p>Carceral options are appealing because they are tangible and the process is familiar, but we must continue to develop effective and safe ways to de-escalate violent situations without using carceral tools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177498/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda Mussell receives funding from SSHRC. She is affiliated with the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project.</span></em></p>Suggesting jail or prison is appealing because it is tangible and the process is familiar, but we must ask what is a better, effective and safe way to de-escalate potentially violent situations.Linda Mussell, Postdoctoral fellow, Political Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1702102021-10-22T00:18:11Z2021-10-22T00:18:11ZAustralia’s prison rates are up but crime is down. What’s going on?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427716/original/file-20211021-15-keas69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imprisonment rates in Australia are currently the highest they have been in a century, despite a significant fall in crime, and the Productivity Commission is <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/news-media/articles/imprisonment">stepping in</a> to determine why.</p>
<p>The commission is due to release research around imprisonment rates in coming weeks, suggesting this key component of the criminal justice system is not providing value for money. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/incarceration-nation-exposes-the-racist-foundations-of-policing-and-imprisonment-in-australia-but-at-what-cost-165951">Incarceration Nation exposes the racist foundations of policing and imprisonment in Australia, but at what cost?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It also recognises the efficiency of our prisons is important. Apart from the expense involved, they are supposed to provide justice and keep our community safe. And yet for a substantial part of the prison population, there is a “prison-crime-prison” revolving door. </p>
<p>Let’s look at the figures. </p>
<h2>It’s not a crime wave</h2>
<p>The rate of offending in Australia fell by 18% in the decade to 2020. Over the same period, the imprisonment rate rose by 25%. There are now more than 40,000 Australians in prison. Put simply, crime is down, but more and more people are being incarcerated. </p>
<p>As commissioner Stephen King <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/news-media/news/imprisonment">explains</a>, the rise in incarceration rates over the past 20 years had come principally as a result of “tough on crime” government policies. This has cost taxpayers about $13.5 billion more than if the imprisonment rate had remained steady.</p>
<p>He notes Australia is “out of line” with other developed countries in this respect. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[United Nations] data shows the growth in our imprisonment rates since 2003 was third highest in the OECD, exceeded only by Turkey and Colombia […] These numbers wrongly suggest some sort of Australian ‘crime wave’.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>So why is crime falling?</h2>
<p>One could be forgiven for assuming crime is falling now precisely because more people are being incarcerated. Is there perhaps a causal link? </p>
<p>There are two clear reasons why this is not the case: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>There are many other reasons why crime rates can fall. Those studying <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/18613/chapter/1">the long-term drop</a> in crime in western democracies since the mid-1990s say these include, economic prosperity, good policing strategies, demographics (in 1995, the last of the baby boomers turned 35, the age at which criminality drops away significantly), welfare support, and cheaper, better <a href="https://crimesciencejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40163-015-0028-3">security devices</a>. </p></li>
<li><p>There is no consistent relationship between crime rates and imprisonment rates. Indeed, there have been crime drops in jurisdictions where the rate of imprisonment has remained the same or declined. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Let’s look more closely at this. </p>
<h2>The Queensland example</h2>
<p>Queensland provides a good case study. From 2003 to 2012, the state’s <a href="https://qpc.blob.core.windows.net/wordpress/2020/01/SUMMARY-REPORT-Imprisonment-.pdf">imprisonment rate fell</a> at the same time as violent and property crime rates were in decline. </p>
<p>Other countries, such as Finland, enjoy a <a href="https://www.numbeo.com/crime/country_result.jsp?country=Finland">very low crime rate</a> and a <a href="https://www.prisonstudies.org/country/finland">very low imprisonment rate</a> at the same time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Prisoners at Lotus Glen Correctional Centre in northern Queensland" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427717/original/file-20211021-25-y5f127.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427717/original/file-20211021-25-y5f127.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427717/original/file-20211021-25-y5f127.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427717/original/file-20211021-25-y5f127.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427717/original/file-20211021-25-y5f127.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427717/original/file-20211021-25-y5f127.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427717/original/file-20211021-25-y5f127.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queensland shows crime and jail rates can drop at the same time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Human Rights Watch/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Conversely, <a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-decade-had-the-most-crime.html">until the mid-1990s</a>, the United States had a very high crime rate and continues to have <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/u-s-prison-population-trends-massive-buildup-and-modest-decline/">a very high imprisonment rate</a>. But when New York, New Jersey and California reduced their prison populations by some 25% in recent years, their crime rates generally <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/the-facts/#map">declined</a> at a faster pace than the national average.</p>
<p>True, longer sentences may reduce the rates of some crimes simply by shutting perpetrators out of the crime market for a while. But this can be subject to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2012.02522.x">diminishing returns</a>. That is, money spent on extra prison beds will eventually exceed any savings that may have been made by having less crime. </p>
<h2>Jail is not the only option</h2>
<p>The Productivity Commission says the question facing policymakers now is whether our “current prison policy is providing the best value outcomes for Australia”. If it is not, what are the alternatives? </p>
<p>The commission notes there are several other options for low-risk offenders, such as home detention, especially if they are linked to mental health and drug and alcohol services. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-maximum-security-prison-offers-a-pathway-to-academic-excellence-and-a-phd-169625">How a maximum security prison offers a pathway to academic excellence and a PhD</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There is also the argument put forward by theorists such as criminologist <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1362480697001002001">Elliott Currie</a> that a secure community is built on equality of opportunity and the development of strong social capital, which simply means creating more resilient and more vibrant communities <a href="https://www.justicereforminitiative.org.au/media_release_productivity_commission_should_expand_its_scope_for_smarter_criminal_justice_and_stronger_communities">that leave no-one behind</a>. This would include building and embedding culturally-safe programs that are led by First Nations communities.</p>
<p>Just imagine what could have been achieved if $13.5 billion had been spent on these initiatives thereby limiting the chances that people will turn to crime, or continue to offend, rather than on custodial services.</p>
<h2>Spending justice dollars differently</h2>
<p>In summary, prison sentences, necessary as some may be, <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814717196/the-punishment-imperative/">are a blunt</a> (and largely counter-productive) instrument in the fight against crime.</p>
<p>It would be far better if we applied our minds to finding more efficient ways to spend our criminal justice dollars. As criminal justice scholar Bronwyn Naylor <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evidence-is-in-you-cant-link-imprisonment-to-crime-rates-40074">has written</a>, imprisonment is a political choice. It’s worth repeating her call to invest “much more in schools, families and communities, and much less in prisons”.</p>
<p>Wise words indeed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170210/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rick Sarre is President of the SA Council for Civil Liberties and a South Australian patron of the Justice Reform Initiative</span></em></p>The Productivity Commission is examining Australia’s incarceration rates, arguing our jails are not providing value for money.Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1675912021-09-08T20:03:56Z2021-09-08T20:03:56ZOn 50th anniversary of Attica uprising, 4 essential reads on prisoners’ rights today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420095/original/file-20210908-26-nvlelu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C58%2C2965%2C1992&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some of the demands by prisoners in 1971's Attica rebellion still resonate today.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>On Sept. 9, 1971, nearly 1,300 incarcerated men at Attica Correctional Facility in New York state <a href="https://www.wbfo.org/heritage-moments/2018-09-10/heritage-moments-the-attica-prison-uprising-43-dead-and-a-four-decade-cover-up">took control of the facility</a>, prompting a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/10/nyregion/the-lessons-of-attica-25-years-later.html">multiday standoff</a> with authorities that ended in a massacre.</p>
<p>The incident resulted in the deaths of 43 people, many of them inmates, and marked an important moment in the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights/attica-every-prison-and-every-prison-attica">prisoners’ rights movement</a> in the United States. The men behind what has variously been described as a “riot,” “rebellion” and “uprising” at Attica <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396811414338">were demanding improvements</a> to medical and food supplies behind bars, greater visitation rights and an end to insanitary conditions and guard brutality.</p>
<p>The uprising took place before the <a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/05/16/US-prison-population-exploded-in-1980s/4744674366400/#:%7E:text=But%20during%20the%201980s%2C%20the,at%20the%20end%20of%201990.">huge increase in America’s prison population</a> in the 1980s and 1990s. But as The Conversation’s authors have explained in recent months, many of the grievances raised by the Attica prisoners – health care, visitation rights, brutality and neglect – remain a concern for today’s incarcerated men and women. Here are four essential reads:</p>
<h2>Behind bars and suffering from dementia</h2>
<p>America’s prisons are facing a growing aging population. Research shows that by 2030, almost <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/30aa/ac3ae03558fe6b9d92598de4cafe85fafdf9.pdf">one-third of all incarcerated people</a> will be over the age of 55. Rachel Lopez, <a href="https://drexel.edu/law/faculty/fulltime_fac/Rachel%20Lopez/#:%7E:text=Rachel%20L%C3%B3pez%20is%20an%20Associate,at%20the%20Harvard%20Kennedy%20School.">a law professor at Drexel University</a> and former commissioner on Pennsylvania’s Sentencing Commission, explains how the aging population will <a href="https://theconversation.com/prisoners-in-us-suffering-dementia-may-hit-200000-within-the-next-decade-many-wont-even-know-why-they-are-behind-bars-138236">place an additional burden on authorities</a>: Research has shown that by the end of this decade, up to <a href="https://www.ncchc.org/filebin/images/Website_PDFs/24-2.pdf">210,000 elderly prisoners</a> will have dementia. The cost of their medical upkeep will fall on taxpayers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A prisoner sips water as he stands in a room at the hospice wing of California Medical Facility." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420097/original/file-20210908-27-c7wk4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420097/original/file-20210908-27-c7wk4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420097/original/file-20210908-27-c7wk4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420097/original/file-20210908-27-c7wk4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420097/original/file-20210908-27-c7wk4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420097/original/file-20210908-27-c7wk4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420097/original/file-20210908-27-c7wk4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A prisoner on the hospice wing of California Medical Facility.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/john-gillis-age-73-a-hospice-care-patient-diagnosed-with-news-photo/457461857?adppopup=true">Andrew Burton/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Moreover, keeping someone with dementia behind bars is, Lopez argues, an affront to human dignity and may even violate the United States Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.</p>
<p>“Forcing those who cannot understand their punishment to live the remainder of their days behind bars appears to be exactly the type of excessive and cruel punishment that the Eighth Amendment was meant to protect against,” Lopez writes.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/prisoners-in-us-suffering-dementia-may-hit-200-000-within-the-next-decade-many-wont-even-know-why-they-are-behind-bars-138236">Prisoners in US suffering dementia may hit 200,000 within the next decade – many won't even know why they are behind bars</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Prisoners with intellectual disabilities</h2>
<p>The elderly are not the only vulnerable population being kept behind bars. In March 2021, the Bureau of Justice Statistics <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/drpspi16st.pdf">revealed that around a quarter</a> of the 24,848 incarcerated people it surveyed across 364 prisons had an intellectual, developmental or cognitive disability. Across the entire prison and jail network, that would equate to some 550,000 people. Jennifer Sarrett <a href="http://catalog.college.emory.edu/department-program/faculty.php?YToxOntzOjI6ImlkIjtzOjM6Ijc5MyI7fQ==">of Emory University</a> conducted in-depth interviews with several adults within the criminal justice system who have intellectual and developmental disabilities.</p>
<p><iframe id="aZQHB" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/aZQHB/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>“Prisoners with these disabilities are at greater risk of serving longer, harder sentences,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-prisons-hold-more-than-550-000-people-with-intellectual-disabilities-they-face-exploitation-harsh-treatment-158407">Sarrett notes</a>.</p>
<p>They also run the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2015.1062994">risk of exploitation and abuse</a> – both from other incarcerated people and from prison staff. As one man explained to Sarrett, officers look to see who only watches TV and never reads, marking them out for exploitation: “Some of the corrections officers … they’ll slide up onto the disability boy and use him, you know, making him feel like ‘This is my dog. This is my boy right here. Come and do this for me.’”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, needing extra time to process instructions – particularly in high-stress situations – can be interpreted as obstinacy by prison officers. In turn this can lead to prisoners with intellectual disabilities being written up for disciplinary issues, which can result in time added to a person’s sentence, removal of certain privileges or solitary confinement. A 2018 study found that over 4,000 people with serious mental health concerns were <a href="https://www.nyaprs.org/e-news-bulletins/2018/11/30/study-over-4-000-prisoners-w-serious-mental-illness-are-held-in-solitary-confinement">being held in solitary confinement</a> in the U.S.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/us-prisons-hold-more-than-550-000-people-with-intellectual-disabilities-they-face-exploitation-harsh-treatment-158407">US prisons hold more than 550,000 people with intellectual disabilities – they face exploitation, harsh treatment</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Guard brutality still an issue</h2>
<p>Between 2012 and 2016, <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/msfp0116st.pdf">128 state and federal prisoners died as a result of homicide or accident</a>, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Those were the most recent figures available to Heather Schoenfeld of Boston University when she <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-are-dying-in-us-prisons-and-not-just-from-covid-19-141358">wrote an article for The Conversation</a> in July 2020 looking at violence by corrections officers. Another problem with the data other than it not being up to date: The agency does not distinguish in the figures between incidents involving prison staff and prisoner-on-prisoner violence.</p>
<p>“In the absence of detailed and reliable data, what we do have are accounts of sadistic and retaliatory violence by prison guards against people in prison,” Schoenfeld writes.</p>
<p>She describes an “ongoing humanitarian crisis” in U.S. prisons of excessive force by corrections officers that has only been made worse by understaffing and overcrowding. “Studies show that officers who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139649681">work in chaotic and hostile work environments</a> are more likely to adopt an ‘us vs. them’ mentality and resort to retaliatory violence,” she writes.</p>
<p>She adds: “Similar to excessive police force, brutality by prison officers is part of systemic state violence against people of color, and Black people specifically.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/people-are-dying-in-us-prisons-and-not-just-from-covid-19-141358">People are dying in US prisons, and not just from COVID-19</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>COVID-19 and visitation rights</h2>
<p>Brutality and neglect are not the only things killing America’s incarcerated population. Prisoners have been particularly vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic. Incarcerated men and women living in cramped indoor conditions with only basic sanitation and poor ventilation are at <a href="https://eji.org/news/covid-19s-impact-on-people-in-prison/">higher risk of infection and death</a> from the virus.</p>
<p>They have also face being isolated from their families for extended periods as a result of lockdown measures. <a href="https://hcap.utsa.edu/directory/alexander-testa-ph-d/">Alexander Testa</a> and <a href="https://hcap.utsa.edu/directory/chantal-fahmy-ph-d/">Chantal Fahmy</a> at The University of Texas at San Antonio <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-visits-and-barely-any-calls-pandemic-makes-separation-even-scarier-for-people-with-a-family-member-in-prison-158592">looked at the effect this has had</a> on the prisoners’ families.</p>
<p>The two scholars surveyed 500 people with a loved one serving time behind bars in Texas during the summer of 2020. What they found was a high level of concern.</p>
<p>“My son has been locked in a cell with temperatures over 100 degrees for up to 23-plus hours a day for weeks on end now due to COVID,” one 74-year-old woman told Testa and Fahmy. “I fear he will either perish from the conditions or somehow take his own life.”</p>
<p>The concern was not only of the risk of infection but also the sudden removal of visitation rights.</p>
<p>During the pandemic Texas prisons <a href="https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-texas/269-38e0b2c8-3cdc-4afd-acfb-5ab12ca39566">severely limited all types of contact</a> with the outside world – including video and phone calls. Visitation was barred completely on March 13, 2020, and only resumed a year later.</p>
<p>Reflecting on the this, alongside other grievances including “deplorable” living conditions “and lack of medical and dental care,” one mother of an incarcerated person commented: “We don’t incarcerate, we torture.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-visits-and-barely-any-calls-pandemic-makes-separation-even-scarier-for-people-with-a-family-member-in-prison-158592">No visits and barely any calls – pandemic makes separation even scarier for people with a family member in prison</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The Attica uprising marked a milestone in the prisoners’ rights movement. Many of the grievances aired in 1971 are still relevant to today’s incarcerated population.Matt Williams, Senior International EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1431782020-07-23T02:55:35Z2020-07-23T02:55:35ZWhy prisons in Victoria are locked up and locked down<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349019/original/file-20200723-30-m7w7q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C2%2C988%2C495&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/prison-interior-jail-cells-shadows-dark-1118920109">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week <a href="https://www.corrections.vic.gov.au/covid19">revealed cases</a> of coronavirus infection in a Victorian prison guard and a prisoner in quarantine on remand. Now <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-21/victoria-coronavirus-cases-rise-by-374-as-three-more-people-die/12471912">six Victorian prisons</a> are in lockdown. </p>
<p>This is not the first time there has been a positive COVID-19 test for prison personnel in Australia; <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-people-keeping-covid-19-out-of-prison-20200515-p54tg6.html">three justice health staff</a> in New South Wales tested positive earlier this year.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1285557373801660418"}"></div></p>
<p>Public health and prison officials look fearfully at the toll coronavirus has taken on incarcerated populations <a href="https://www.ussc.edu.au/analysis/how-bad-is-coronavirus-in-jails">around the world</a>. They recognise Australian prisons are also at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/mar/19/australias-overcrowded-prisons-could-struggle-to-control-coronavirus-expert-says">high risk</a> for coronavirus outbreaks. </p>
<p>Many have <a href="https://croakey.org/a-croakey-exclusive-timely-call-for-action-to-protect-prisoners-during-pandemic/">pushed for</a> proactive measures to prevent this. Now the adequacy of the implemented measures is being tested. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-why-prison-conditions-can-be-a-perfect-storm-for-spreading-disease-134106">Coronavirus: why prison conditions can be a perfect storm for spreading disease</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why are prisons and prisoners at increased risk?</h2>
<p>Prisons and prisoners are at <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-prisoners-are-at-higher-risk-for-the-coronavirus-5-questions-answered-136111">increased risk</a> of coronavirus for many reasons, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Prisoners and staff (who come and go into the community) are in close contact. So it is easy to see how transmission could occur between the community and prison populations, and back again.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/24/security-at-risk-as-number-of-prisoners-jumps-by-40-leaving-cells-overcrowded">Overcrowding</a> means prisoners cannot self-isolate.</p></li>
<li><p>Hygiene standards are <a href="https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/debbie-kilroy-has-recovered-from-covid-19-is-concerned-for-those-in-our-overcrowded-prisons/">poor</a> and there have been <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-03/coronavirus-restrictions-spark-inmate-unrest-in-nsw-jails/12113820">reported shortages</a> of personal protective equipment (PPE) for both staff and prisoners. National Cabinet agreed <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/update-coronavirus-measures-050520">in May</a> supplying PPE to corrections facilities should be a priority “if COVID-19 cases are confirmed in the sector”, so it is not clear if this has happened.</p></li>
<li><p>Prisoners have higher rates of <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/2e92f007-453d-48a1-9c6b-4c9531cf0371/aihw-phe-246.pdf.aspx?inline=true">social disadvantage</a> and many are <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/2e92f007-453d-48a1-9c6b-4c9531cf0371/aihw-phe-246.pdf.aspx?inline=true">medically vulnerable</a> due to lifelong difficulties accessing health care; mental health and substance abuse problems; violence; and unhealthy prison conditions.</p></li>
<li><p>Indigenous Australians are <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4517.0%7E2018%7EMain%20Features%7EAboriginal%20and%20Torres%20Strait%20Islander%20prisoner%20characteristics%20%7E13">significantly over-represented</a> in the prison population. While coronavirus has been <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/19/indigenous-australians-avert-coronavirus-outbreak-for-now-aboriginal/">kept out of</a> Indigenous communities, there is every reason to believe Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, like other First Nations people, are at <a href="https://www.ussc.edu.au/analysis/covid-19-the-big-questions-why-are-racial-minorities-and-first-nations-communities-more-impacted-by-covid-19">increased risk</a> from coronavirus infection and death.</p></li>
<li><p>There is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-14/australias-booming-prison-population-in-three-charts/8616876">significant churn</a> in the justice system as people are taken into custody, bailed, jailed and released.</p></li>
<li><p>There is <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/174881">little data</a> to assess the adequacy of health-care facilities in prisons. But prisoners have an inherent health-care disadvantage as they cannot make their own decisions about their health care, <a href="https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2017/27/call-to-include-prisoners-in-medicare-and-pbs/">or access</a> Medicare and medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What’s happening in prisons during the pandemic?</h2>
<p>There is little information about what is happening to protect Australian prisons from the pandemic. </p>
<p>One <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/mar/19/australias-overcrowded-prisons-could-struggle-to-control-coronavirus-expert-says">media report</a> in March outlined some measures individual states and territories have taken. All jurisdictions have limited prison visits and most, <a href="https://www.corrections.vic.gov.au/covid19">including Victoria</a>, have instituted a 14-day quarantine for new prisoners. </p>
<p>There has been some testing in some prisons, but the extent is not known. A <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/covid-19-testing-rolled-out-to-prisoners-and-prison-staff-20200507-p54qng.html">media report</a> in May stated Victoria would increase testing in prisons after three inmates returned inconclusive tests that were later found to be negative.</p>
<h2>Should we be releasing prisoners?</h2>
<p>Australian governments have faced <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/hundreds-of-experts-sign-open-letter-calling-for-release-of-prisoners-to-avoid-coronavirus-deaths">renewed calls</a> to urgently release some prisoners into the community. This would cut the number of people held in prisons and other places of detention, particularly <a href="https://changetherecord.org.au/covid-19">Indigenous people</a> and others at increased risk. </p>
<p>Governments <a href="https://www.ussc.edu.au/analysis/how-bad-is-coronavirus-in-jails">in some states</a>, have responded by introducing legislation to allow for this, although we don’t yet know the extent of any releases.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-first-nations-people-coronavirus-has-meant-fewer-services-separated-families-and-over-policing-new-report-139460">For First Nations people, coronavirus has meant fewer services, separated families and over-policing: new report</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, release into the community is only a safe option if people have appropriate housing and support services. There <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/26/coronavirus-is-a-ticking-time-bomb-for-the-australian-prison-system">are concerns</a> that releases — which are based on risk to the community, the safety of victims and access to accommodation — will be culturally biased against those most likely to benefit such as Indigenous prisoners. </p>
<p>Many Indigenous communities are closed to visitors and no-one can return until after a 14-day isolation period. This presents difficulties for those prisoners who do not have accommodation options outside their communities.</p>
<h2>We need to avoid what’s happening overseas</h2>
<p>The clear lessons from the second outbreak of coronavirus in Victoria and from the <a href="https://croakey.org/public-health-lessons-from-the-worlds-leader-in-incarceration/">disastrous situation</a> of rising coronavirus cases in prisons in the United States is that swift, concerted actions are needed to curtail spread of the virus. </p>
<p>The only way to know what is happening is rapid testing of prisoners and staff, whether or not they show symptoms, and effective isolation of anyone possibly infected. </p>
<p>At the same time, the human rights of this vulnerable population must be protected and their physical and mental health needs addressed. Already most prisoners are unable to have visitors and <a href="https://www.corrections.vic.gov.au/covid19#property">in Victoria</a> they are unable to receive needed supplies such as toiletries, books, food and clothing. </p>
<p>Families <a href="https://croakey.org/stand-with-us-and-clean-out-prisons/">are reportedly</a> “sick with worry” they will not be notified if a family member falls ill.</p>
<p>The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1060252">said</a> that during a global pandemic,
the consequences of neglecting the prison population was “potentially catastrophic”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-a-history-of-pandemics-in-prison-136776">Coronavirus: a history of pandemics in prison</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In Australia, <a href="https://staffportal.curtin.edu.au/staff/profile/view/Hannah.Mcglade/">Hannah McGlade</a>, academic, human rights lawyer and a member of the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues, <a href="https://indigenousx.com.au/covid-urgency-and-calls-for-release/">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Prison is the most unsafe place that Aboriginal people can be in a pandemic.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Victorian government is already on notice. A <a href="https://croakey.org/supreme-court-rules-victorian-government-breached-duty-of-care-to-person-in-prison-in-their-response-to-covid-19-pandemic/">recent decision</a> of the Victorian supreme court found it had breached its duty to take reasonable care for the health of people behind bars during the coronavirus pandemic. </p>
<p>It is imperative that in the days ahead coronavirus infections in prisons and other correctional facilities are accepted as a public health problem for everyone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143178/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lesley Russell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Coronavirus infections in prisons are a public health problem for everyone, not just prisoners and sfaff.Lesley Russell, Adjunct Associate Professor, Menzies Centre for Health Policy, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1380992020-05-08T12:16:57Z2020-05-08T12:16:57ZMothers behind bars nurture relationships with visitors in this unusual prison garden<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333439/original/file-20200507-49546-578ebh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=563%2C0%2C6495%2C4320&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The design called for plants and play spaces – big improvements over brick and razor wire.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iowa State University student design team</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Leaves are rustling. You can hear the sound of children kicking a ball, plinking the keys of a toy xylophone. People are laughing and talking.</p>
<p>Are you picturing a prison? My colleagues and I did – and we turned these visions into reality. The garden and playscape we created at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women (ICIW) is changing the way incarcerated women spend time with their children, family and friends.</p>
<p>“Home” is not a word typically associated with prison environments, but that’s one way respondents in our recent study <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2020.1733165">described the new outdoor area</a>. Our design-build team made up of <a href="https://www.design.iastate.edu">Iowa State University design students</a> and incarcerated women and staff at ICIW created a space where incarcerated women can forget their identity as inmates and step back into their roles as mothers or grandmothers, sisters or aunts.</p>
<h2>Hard to maintain connections with home</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333445/original/file-20200507-49558-150wjvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The outdoor space before renovation was far from child-friendly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julie Stevens</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People living inside prisons must endure isolation, tight spaces, loss of identity and separation from loved ones. Prisons are typically stark and void of color and living plants. Visits from loved ones can ease this difficult situation, but prison visits are complicated.</p>
<p>Many incarcerated people find it difficult to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16625-4">maintain connections with loved ones</a>, <a href="https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/89601/parent-child_visiting_practices_in_prisons_and_jails.pdf">especially children</a>. These bonds can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020279">a critical component of successful reentry</a> back to their home and community after release. Though often cold and condemning, the prison visiting room may be the place where mothers and children first face one another after the traumatic events that led to incarceration – with security officers and other incarcerated people and visitors within earshot.</p>
<p>And that’s only if children make the difficult trip. It is often financially and logistically impossible for those caring for the children of incarcerated parents to make a visit happen. Caregivers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854815613528">might be worried about the conditions</a> they’d be bringing children into.</p>
<p>Why is this important? Because <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/6148/">more than 5 million children</a> in the U.S. have seen a parent sent to prison. Forty-eight percent of women in federal correctional facilities and 55% in state prisons <a href="https://www.aecf.org/resources/a-shared-sentence/">are mothers of children under the age of 18</a>. Children of incarcerated parents <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2020.1733165">are at increased risk of</a> themselves becoming incarcerated, struggling with mental health and performing poorly in school. They also tend to display behavioral issues and feelings of shame and abandonment.</p>
<p>When my students and I started working with the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in 2011, our task was seemingly simple: beautify the grounds. The warden wanted calm inmates. These goals were linked – and I can happily say <a href="https://doi.org/10.3368/lj.37.1.55">we’ve achieved both</a>.</p>
<p>But from the start, one project felt most significant to me – creating a nurturing outdoor space where mothers could build and maintain those incredibly important relationships with their children.</p>
<h2>Adding nature within prison walls</h2>
<p>Research suggests that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-4944(95)90001-2">natural environments can</a> <a href="https://plantsolutions.com/documents/HealthSettingsUlrich.pdf">help mitigate stress and</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122668">offer other psychological benefits</a>.</p>
<p>The original outdoor visiting space consisted of brick and razor wire. As landscape architects, my team used <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916589215001">environmental psychology</a> and <a href="https://www.workman.com/products/therapeutic-gardens">therapeutic landscape</a> theories to carefully design active and passive spaces surrounded by gardens. Our aim was to employ the benefits of nature to improve connections between an incarcerated individual and her loved ones.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333579/original/file-20200508-49584-bvf965.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We took participatory design theories to heart, putting the power of design in the hands of incarcerated women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lauren Dietz</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through <a href="https://islandpress.org/books/design-democracy">participatory design</a>, we honored the needs and desires of the incarcerated women by including them as the most knowledgeable members of the design team. With pencils and play dough in hand, resident designers and their child visitors explicitly described what they wanted: a garden that felt and looked like home or a park.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333448/original/file-20200507-49573-1psixbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Asked to draw their favorite part of the garden, several children shared their love for the ‘tulip spinners.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julie Stevens</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The finished garden includes a circular walk wide enough for two tricycles or wheelchairs to pass comfortably. Play equipment like the tulip spinners provide a fun way for kids to release energy and are a great conversation piece for observers. We installed more comfortable seating where residents and visitors can take advantage of the positive natural distractions of colorful plants and rustling Quaking Aspen leaves.</p>
<p>One Saturday afternoon, we watched as a family arrived to visit mom. The younger children embraced her with warm hugs while a teenager stayed silent with arms crossed. Mom gave him a little space as they walked to the garden and then began to talk.</p>
<p>Even though it was exactly what we hoped would happen in the garden, we watched in amazement as their body language changed from tense to accepting and they started talking together. The visit eventually ended with the warmth that every mother and child need from each other. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333449/original/file-20200507-49573-5mnxwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Incarcerated women enjoy the space with young visitors and stop to play the xylophone. The plants will mature and fill in over time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julie Stevens</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What moms and kids say about the new space</h2>
<p>To learn more about the garden’s effect on incarcerated women and their visitors, my colleagues <a href="https://directory.tacoma.uw.edu/employee/btoews">Barb Toews</a> and <a href="https://www.designconsultation.net">Amy Wagenfeld</a> conducted <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2020.1733165">interviews and surveys</a> with them in the garden itself. They told us that visits had changed in four important ways:</p>
<ul>
<li>More child-friendly: Visits are now more conducive to “kids being kids.”</li>
<li>Improved emotional experience: Visits are less stressful or boring. Interviewees used words such as “cozy,” “calm” and “fun” to describe their experience in the garden.</li>
<li>Home-like environment: The “backyard” feel to the garden facilitates natural play and conversations between the incarcerated women and their visitors.</li>
<li>Improved parent-child relationship: Child visitors come more often, stay longer, enjoy better activities and improved quiet time. Overall the garden improved the quality of the time incarcerated women and their kids spent together.</li>
</ul>
<p>People tend to support strengthening mother-child relationships, but I do sometimes hear critiques. Some argue that improving prison environments is a poor use of money – but the garden was supported by donors and the sweat equity of the ICIW women and our students. Others say that people just shouldn’t commit crimes, or that if a prison is too nice people will want to stay. But while the prison may indeed be the safest place many of these women have lived, they just want to go home. And I’d argue that <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/publication/4286-towards-humane-prisons">healthy environments are a necessity</a>, not a luxury.</p>
<p>Mothering is at once an extraordinary and challenging journey. I know this firsthand and I cannot imagine doing it from prison. Based on the requests for information and consultations I’ve received from around the world, many people, especially the newest generation of environmental designers, recognize these challenges and care about strengthening those mother-child bonds by changing prisons’ physical spaces.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138099/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Stevens has received funding from the Iowa Department of Corrections and The Wellmark Foundation.
She is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Environmental Design Research Association. </span></em></p>About half of incarcerated women in the United States are mothers to children under age 18. Natural spaces within a prison can help maintain their mother-child bonds.Julie Stevens, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1365632020-04-20T11:10:16Z2020-04-20T11:10:16ZCoronavirus: why swathes of prisoners are being released in the world’s most punitive states<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328649/original/file-20200417-152567-1ohmck9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/barbed-wire-prison-fence-1089146540">Shutterstock/alexfan32</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prisons and contagious diseases are a deadly combination. Unhygienic and overcrowded, they easily become death traps. The 18th-century penal reformer, politician and philanthropist <a href="https://howardleague.org/john-howard/">John Howard</a> spent much of his life <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-State-of-the-Prisons-in-England-and-Wales">travelling to visit jails</a>. He found, in particular in the UK, many disease-ridden prisons. </p>
<p>The dreaded jail fever, <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/typhus/">typhus</a> (spread by lice, fleas and mites), was rampant and could decimate prison populations in a short space of time. In the end, it was Howard himself. He contracted typhus during a prison visit in present-day Ukraine and died there shortly after, in January 1790. </p>
<p>Fast forward to 2020. Prisons are perhaps becoming hotbeds of the pandemic, as closed environments with little privacy and usually very little chance of social distancing. In March there were reports of prison disturbances in <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/coronavirus-italy-prison-riots-death-toll-modena-foggia-alfonso-bonafede-a9396311.html">Italy</a> from inmates fearing they could be at increased risk of becoming infected. </p>
<p>There were also riots and mass escapes in other countries <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/17/come-back-monday-ok-hundreds-of-prisoners-escape-in-brazil-amid-covid-19-anger">including Brazil</a>, where coronavirus was referred to by Renato Lima, director-president of the Brazilian Public Security Forum, as a “time bomb”. Lima highlighted overcrowding, a lack of a health facilities and the large number of older prisoners as specific risk factors. This was in early March and by then it was becoming clear that prisons globally were going to face a huge infection and contagion risk.</p>
<p>Yet many other prison systems seemed to almost view the situation as business as usual. In the <a href="https://nieuws.nl/algemeen/20200313/geen-bezoek-en-verlof-meer-voor-gevangenen-om-coronavirus/">Netherlands</a>, measures were announced on March 13 which amounted to nothing more than a ban on visitors and on prisoners being granted day release. Other prisons systems undertook things even more gradually. For example, <a href="https://www.hln.be/nieuws/binnenland/eerste-coronabesmetting-vastgesteld-in-belgische-gevangenis%7Ea8b6bcea/?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F">in Belgium</a> visits were limited to one visitor per prisoner on March 12, with a complete ban on visitors being imposed the following week. The same lacklustre approach was also seen in the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/czechs-close-borders-march-16-coronavirus-spread-200313115117376.html">Czech Republic</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/26/coronavirus-is-a-ticking-time-bomb-for-the-australian-prison-system">Australia</a> and <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/jge4yy/canadas-prisons-are-a-coronavirus-time-bomb-say-guards-and-inmates">Canada</a>. </p>
<p>Such measures were never likely to keep the virus out for long. And once inside, more radical measures were going to be needed to avoid prison sentences becoming death sentences by stealth and exposing those who work in prisons to unacceptable risk. In contrast, something quite remarkable was starting to happen in countries that suffered a peak of the virus relatively early – and that are not exactly known for their luxurious prison conditions or their liberal approach to imprisonment.</p>
<h2>Iran and Turkey</h2>
<p>Iran has <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/iran/report-iran/">horrific</a> prison conditions. It has a huge system with around <a href="https://www.prisonstudies.org/country/iran">240,000 prisoners</a> held in jails designed for about 150,000. Overcrowding is the norm. On March 3 it was announced that Iran was set to temporarily release some <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-51723398">54,000 prisoners</a>, amounting to about 22% of the prison population.</p>
<p>This was a huge step in a country where imprisonment is <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2018.html">heavily used</a>. Subsequently the number of released prisoners was revised up to <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/hard-hit-iran-frees-prisoners-coronavirus-outbreak-200317110516495.html">85,000</a>, or 35% of the original total number of prisoners. This came to include British-Iranian charity worker <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51937629">Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe</a>. She received an ankle bracelet and was ordered to stay in the home of relatives. In all, it appears nearly 100,000 prisoners may have left Iranian prisons early. </p>
<p>A similar situation emerged in Turkey in late March with a proposal to <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-turkey-prisoners/turkey-set-to-release-some-45000-inmates-in-coronavirus-response-idUKKBN21I2DS">free 45,000 prisoners</a> temporarily. The bill became law on April 13. A separate bill is set to pass to free another 45,000 prisoners permanently. Turkey’s prisoner population in 2019 was around <a href="https://www.prisonstudies.org/country/turkey">286,000</a>, many of whom were political prisoners. A reduction of 90,000 would mean a reduction of 31%. This is massive but at the same time it must be noted that political prisoners would not be eligible for release. It highlights the intense political nature of imprisonment in a country where conditions historically are <a href="https://ahvalnews.com/human-rights/torture-ill-treatment-has-become-norm-turkish-prisons">inhumane</a> and overcrowded.</p>
<p>On a smaller, but still significant scale, in Ethiopia <a href="http://africabuzzfeed.com/in-ethiopia-more-than-4000-prisoners-to-be-released-for-fear-of-coronavirus/">4,011 prisoners</a> were pardoned and released on March 13. Some 10,000 have been released from prisons <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-afghanistan-prison/afghanistan-to-release-10000-prisoners-to-slow-spread-of-coronavirus-idUSKBN21D334">in Afghanistan</a>, whereas prisoner releases, albeit on a much smaller scale, occurred across the United States, in states like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/06/california-prisons-older-inmates-coronavirus">California</a>. <a href="https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/257267-list-countries-release-prisoners-over-coronavirus-fears">Other countries</a> following this early release plan include India, Indonesia and Morroco.</p>
<h2>UK prisons</h2>
<p>The UK’s approach has been decidedly mixed. The Prison Inspectorate <a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/2020/03/covid-19-update/">announced</a> that it was ceasing inspections on March 17 and by the end of the month it was announced that pregnant women prisoners would be up for <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/03/31/70-pregnant-women-mothers-released-prison-early-combat-coronavirus/">early release</a>. There is news of prisoners <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52165919">self-isolating</a> and of increasing the number of prisoners in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/measures-announced-to-protect-nhs-from-coronavirus-risk-in-prisons">single cells</a>. At the same time, due to inactivity in criminal courts the flow of new prisoners has been reduced. The prison is also slowly going down through “normal” release processes. So, slowly but surely, almost by stealth, the prison rate is reducing in the UK.</p>
<p>Initially, the intention was to have some 4,000 prisoners leave prison early (which is <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-population-figures-2019">approaching</a> one in 20). Yet the reality is more messy than that, with issues over the availability of electronic tags, the need for risk assessments and community supervision arrangements. It was mentioned in the <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/102/justice-committee/news/145895/impact-of-covid19-coronavirus-on-the-probation-system-examined/">Commons Justice Committee</a> that no more than 18 prisoners had been released under these plans. That is a pitiful number that will do nothing to avert a major health emergency in UK prisons, which has already seen two prison officers die after getting <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/04/two-workers-at-londons-pentonville-prison-die-from-covid-19">COVID-19 symptoms</a>. This process now seems to have been halted and there is a lack of clarity around the whole issue.</p>
<p>The UK’s next move runs counter to global trends: rather than upscaling release, the system is in fact set to increase capacity. It has been reported that perhaps as many as <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/14/2000-extra-temporary-prison-cells-built-avert-early-release/">2,000 makeshift cells</a> are being created to facilitate social distancing in prisons. In doing so, the UK’s approach is to more doggedly resist mass release than some of the world’s most punitive states.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136563/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francis Pakes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Iran and Turkey have released large numbers of prisoners. Should other countries follow suit?Francis Pakes, Professor of Criminology, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1286012020-02-11T13:53:40Z2020-02-11T13:53:40ZHundreds of county jails detained immigrants for ICE<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309140/original/file-20200108-107204-t20a1k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Theo Lacy Facility in Orange, California. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Emily Ryo</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hundreds of county jails in the U.S. are <a href="https://perma.cc/5S8M-4E3A">paid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)</a> to detain immigrants facing removal proceedings. </p>
<p>On a typical day in 2017, for instance, <a href="https://perma.cc/V7HL-UX89">Theo Lacy Facility</a> in Orange, California, operated by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, held about 500 individuals for ICE and received US$118 per person per day, bringing in a total of $59,000 a day. </p>
<p>More so than federally operated facilities, county jails, along with facilities operated by for-profit companies, have come to hold for ICE the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3216865">lion’s share of immigrant detainees facing removal proceedings</a>. </p>
<p>Removal proceedings are civil actions that federal immigration authorities bring against individuals alleged to have violated U.S. immigration laws. And U.S. law treats <a href="http://www.annualreviews.org/eprint/AAHPXJNV63MQBAP4JD4C/full/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-101518-042743">immigration detention</a> as civil, not criminal, confinement. </p>
<p>So why are these immigrants being held in county jails, the place where usually only those charged with criminal law violations are held by local, not federal, officials?</p>
<p>In <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lasr.12459">our study</a> published on January 29, we set out to investigate this widespread use of local penal institutions for civil confinement purposes. As <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=2114441">scholars who study immigration</a>, we wanted to understand which counties jail immigrant detainees and what those counties have in common.</p>
<h2>Agreements with ICE</h2>
<p>To hold immigrant detainees for ICE, state and local governments enter into agreements with ICE known as <a href="https://perma.cc/QB8C-95ES">Intergovernmental Service Agreements</a>. These agreements require ICE to pay the local government per diem for each bed that the local government rents out. Some local governments contract with private prison companies to operate their jails. </p>
<p>These agreements with ICE have come under increasing scrutiny and criticism by government watchdogs, media and activists, for allowing ICE to avoid the public bidding process and to operate without standard operating procedures required of other federal awards.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://perma.cc/CYJ9-8TA4">U.S. Office of Inspector General</a>, avoidance of the public bidding process has meant that “ICE may have overpaid for detention services,” and “ICE has no assurance that it executed detention center contracts in the best interest of the Federal Government, taxpayers or detainees.” </p>
<p>To better understand these agreements, we analyzed the <a href="https://www.vera.org/in-our-backyards#">In Our Backyards data</a> from Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit focused on reforming the U.S. criminal justice system. This data set contains county-level information on prison and jail populations over time across the United States. We also compiled various measurements that capture local conditions.</p>
<p>Our period of observation starts in 1983 – the year that the <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=254">Bureau of Justice Statistics</a> started tracking this issue – and ends in 2013, the most recent year for which census data on all county jails is available. </p>
<p>Our findings are critical for understanding the current moment. ICE continues to maintain <a href="https://perma.cc/5S8M-4E3A">hundreds of Intergovernmental Service Agreements</a>. In addition, the Trump administration has <a href="https://perma.cc/J885-STBH">revived</a> other local-federal arrangements that had been reduced in scope and scale <a href="https://perma.cc/M29A-TT7A">during the Obama administration</a>. Our study allows us to better understand where, how and under what circumstances such programs might attract local cooperation under the Trump administration. </p>
<h2>By the numbers</h2>
<p>Although immigration detention has drawn a great deal of public attention only recently due to Trump administration’s hardline policies, immigration detention – including detention in local jails – has a long history.</p>
<p>We found that the number of counties holding immigrant detainees grew over time, steadily rising from 128 counties in 1983 to 727 counties in 2013. That’s a nearly sixfold increase. </p>
<p><iframe id="8RpYg" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/8RpYg/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>This rise in county involvement was most heavily concentrated in the southern U.S. By 2013, over half of all participating counties were located in the South. </p>
<p><iframe id="YhWti" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/YhWti/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The largest growth was also concentrated in small to midsized counties outside of urban metropolitan areas. By 2013, four of every 10 counties holding immigrants for ICE were rural.</p>
<p><iframe id="zcVZj" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/zcVZj/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>We also found that the growth of counties holding immigrant detainees was overwhelmingly concentrated in Republican Party strongholds. This result is not due to the Republican Party dominating southern counties. Our regression analysis – a statistical method that examines the relationship between multiple variables – shows that counties that were switching from voting for Democrat to Republican presidents became more likely to contract with ICE. </p>
<p><iframe id="gSNdm" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/gSNdm/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Counties were also more likely to participate in immigrant detention if they experienced worsening local labor market conditions, combined with increases in empty jail beds. It’s likely that both of these conditions heighten counties’ perception of economic benefits to entering into contracts with ICE. </p>
<p>Finally, we found that, up to a certain point, counties with a growing local Latino population were more likely to participate in immigration detention. </p>
<h2>Why this matters</h2>
<p>Our study raises important questions for the <a href="https://perma.cc/B235-8WXL">anti-detention movement</a> – a social movement seeking to end immigration detention in the United States.</p>
<p>Take Theo Lacy, for example. In March 2019, Theo Lacy announced that it will <a href="https://perma.cc/Y3WR-8TTF">end its contract</a> with ICE in 2020. This decision was due in part to a successful immigrant rights campaign to end detention in Orange County. </p>
<p>But local decisions to cease county jail contracts with ICE may result in ICE increasingly transferring detainees to local jurisdictions that are more remote or hostile to immigrant rights. <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3216868">Research shows</a> that such transfers can be extremely detrimental to detainees’ ability to access information and resources that enable them to enforce their legal rights. </p>
<p>For example, detainees who are transferred to remote parts of the country are often <a href="https://perma.cc/LP5F-XZUG">separated from family, friends and community volunteers</a> who can provide emotional support, help them in gathering evidence and preparing them for their court hearings. Accessing <a href="https://perma.cc/5CNH-N6VC">interpreters and lawyers</a> is much harder in remote areas of the country. </p>
<p>In addition, transfers can mean changes in the controlling law that governs the detainees’ immigration case, because the case will be governed by the <a href="https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/flr/vol66/iss3/5/">law of the federal circuit</a> in the jurisdiction in which the immigrant is detained.</p>
<p>In 2016, <a href="https://perma.cc/VF87-88PJ">the Homeland Security Advisory Council recommended</a> that ICE rely only minimally on county jails, because officials operating facilities that were serving both criminal inmate and immigrant detainee populations showed resistance to accepting the full range of <a href="https://perma.cc/L9FA-L3K2">civil detention standards applicable to immigrant detainees</a>. </p>
<p>While the civil detention standards roughly resemble guidelines for criminal incarceration in areas like medical care, hygiene and food, civil detention standards also provide greater opportunities for detainees to retain personal clothing, have greater freedom of movement inside facilities and enjoy an expanded set of recreational activities. </p>
<p>Holding immigrant detainees in jails may also strengthen the public’s <a href="https://perma.cc/8JQ8-AGMY">unfounded assumptions</a> about the criminality of immigrants, given that the public often assumes that jails are only for criminal defendants awaiting their trials or for those serving their criminal sentence. Immigrant detainees themselves <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3039603">fear such stigmatization</a>. </p>
<p>In recent years, public pressure and political will to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/7/13/8913297/mass-incarceration-maps-charts">reduce the criminally incarcerated population</a> in the United States have gained strength. Yet our findings suggest that criminal justice reforms that reduce the number of individuals in jails and prisons may generate new opportunities for struggling counties to fill their empty jail beds with a new supply of immigrant detainees. </p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128601/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research reported here was supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the California Wellness Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointments.</span></em></p>Between 1983 and 2013, the number of immigrants detained in rural county jails has increased.Emily Ryo, Professor of Law and Sociology, University of Southern CaliforniaIan Peacock, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1246792019-10-27T12:05:19Z2019-10-27T12:05:19ZThe end of solitary confinement in Canada? Not exactly<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298541/original/file-20191024-170484-149z5wg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C3799%2C2160&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The federal government says it's doing away with solitary confinement. But is it just an exercise in rebranding?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As of Dec. 1, inmates in Canada’s federal prisons can no longer be legally held in solitary confinement. Sort of.</p>
<p>Bill C-83, <a href="https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/AnnualStatutes/2014_36/">an amendment to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act</a>, received royal assent in June and will be fully enforced by Nov. 30. </p>
<p>The act eliminates administrative and disciplinary segregation, also known as solitary confinement. According to Ralph Goodale, the former minister of public safety who lost his seat in the recent election, this amounts to a “<a href="https://sencanada.ca/en/content/sen/Committee/421/soci/59ev-54763-e">fundamental</a>” change in the way prisons deal with inmates who are considered a risk to others or themselves. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298544/original/file-20191024-170493-cpls1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298544/original/file-20191024-170493-cpls1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298544/original/file-20191024-170493-cpls1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298544/original/file-20191024-170493-cpls1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298544/original/file-20191024-170493-cpls1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298544/original/file-20191024-170493-cpls1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298544/original/file-20191024-170493-cpls1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298544/original/file-20191024-170493-cpls1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pate is seen in October 2013, when she was executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colin Perkel</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to Independent Sen. Kim Pate, however, it’s simply an exercise in “<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-solitary-by-another-name-is-just-as-cruel/">rebranding</a>.”</p>
<h2>Why rebranding?</h2>
<p>Segregation units are being replaced by “structured intervention units” (SIUs) that even Goodale <a href="https://sencanada.ca/en/content/sen/Committee/421/soci/59ev-54763-e">admitted look essentially the same as segregation cells</a> (10-by-six-foot rooms with concrete walls and solid metal doors). </p>
<p>However, Goodale pointed out that SIUs will offer inmates four hours outside of their cells, opportunities for “meaningful human contact,” more programming and more health-care interventions</p>
<p>Critics question the value of the proposed changes, which the <a href="https://www.pbo-dpb.gc.ca/en/blog/news/Bill_C-83">Parliamentary Budget Office estimates will have an annual operating cost of $58 million</a>. Will the new SIU model go far enough to address the harms associated with solitary confinement? How different will it be if inmates are still isolated for 20 hours a day in much the same environment?</p>
<h2>‘Onerous and depriving’</h2>
<p>The practice of solitary confinement is described by <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2018/02/04/the-return-of-prison-farms-and-tattoos-why-this-new-watchdog-wont-slam-the-door-on-canadas-inmates.html">Ivan Zinger</a>, the Correctional Investigator of Canada, as “<a href="https://sencanada.ca/en/Content/Sen/Committee/421/RIDR/54518-e%5D">the most onerous and depriving experience that the state can legitimately administer in Canada</a>.” </p>
<p>Indeed, segregation has long been criticized by advocates of prisoners’ rights, who insist it causes severe <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/july-2018/time-end-solitary-confinement/">mental distress, including paranoia and psychosis</a>. It also increases risks of self-harm and suicide. </p>
<p>In 2010, 24-year-old Edward Snowshoe committed suicide after <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/edward-snowshoe-spent-162-days-in-segregation-before-suicide-1.2703542">spending 162 days in segregation</a>. </p>
<p>In 2007, 19-year-old Ashley Smith strangled herself in her segregation cell. <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2019/05/05/trudeau-pate-solitary-confinement-bill_a_23721926/">She had been held in segregation units for more than 1,000 days</a>. </p>
<p>An inquest into her death said prisoners should not be segregated, and those with mental health issues should be in community-based mental-health facilities, not prison. </p>
<p>If solitary confinement is so bad for inmates, why is it used? Correctional Service Canada provides <a href="https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/acts-and-regulations/709-1-gl-eng.shtml">three reasons</a> for which inmates can be placed in segregation: if they jeopardize the security of the institution and/or safety of other individuals; if it’s necessary for an investigation that could lead to a criminal or serious disciplinary charge; or, if the inmate’s own safety is at risk. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298545/original/file-20191024-170467-hez661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298545/original/file-20191024-170467-hez661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298545/original/file-20191024-170467-hez661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298545/original/file-20191024-170467-hez661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298545/original/file-20191024-170467-hez661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298545/original/file-20191024-170467-hez661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298545/original/file-20191024-170467-hez661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A cell in the segregation unit at the Fraser Valley Institution for Women is seen during a media tour in Abbotsford, B.C., in October 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, given the serious harms associated with segregation, are these reasons sufficient? Are adequate safeguards in place to ensure that the application of rules relating to segregation complies with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms?</p>
<h2>Prisoners have some Charter rights</h2>
<p>Although prisoners lose certain rights when they receive criminal convictions, such as freedom of mobility, they do not lot lose all their rights. </p>
<p><a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-15.html">Section 7 of the Charter</a> requires that an individual is only deprived of their right to life, liberty and security of person according to principles of fundamental justice. In recent legal battles, the courts had to determine if solitary confinement restricts people’s freedoms in a way that complies with such principles. </p>
<p>In December 2017, the Ontario Superior Court <a href="http://ccla.org/cclanewsite/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/C64841.rere_.pdf">ruled that Canada’s segregation laws violate Section 7</a> rights due to the increased risk of self-harm and suicide, and to the associated psychological and physical harms.</p>
<p>In January 2018, the <a href="https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/sc/18/00/2018BCSC0062.htm">B.C. Supreme Court also ruled segregation is unconstitutional</a> because it discriminates against those who experience mental illness and disability and against Indigenous prisoners. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/broken-system-why-is-a-quarter-of-canadas-prison-population-indigenous-91562">Broken system: Why is a quarter of Canada's prison population Indigenous?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It’s important to recognize that in these decisions, the courts did not rule that holding individuals in isolation cells is unconstitutional, but they focused instead on certain aspects of solitary confinement, such as lack of oversight and the use of segregation with specific populations. </p>
<h2>One year to change laws</h2>
<p>Nonetheless, given that aspects of the legislation were deemed unconstitutional, the federal government had one year to change the laws in order to bring them into compliance. </p>
<p>So in June 2018, the Liberal government tabled Bill C-83. Because this legislation ostensibly eliminates segregation, Goodale claimed that the B.C. and Ontario court findings, which were ruling on the “old system” of segregation, are not “<a href="https://sencanada.ca/en/content/sen/Committee/421/soci/59ev-54763-e">equally applicable</a>” to the new SIU system. </p>
<p>In other words, the constitutionality of the SIU model will be the subject of future debates, and possibly future legal challenges. </p>
<p>Practices such as solitary confinement, or the use of “structured intervention units,” raise questions about how to respond to those who have committed criminal offences. </p>
<p>The vast majority of people who are held in prison will eventually be released back to the community. It is in the best interest of public safety to ensure that during their incarceration, they receive adequate and meaningful opportunities to address the factors that led to their offences, such as substance abuse or their own experiences of trauma and violence. </p>
<p>The newly developed SIUs are intended to provide increased intervention and programming in order to address the specific risks and needs of individuals. If Correctional Service Canada is able to deliver this, Bill C-83 could indeed signal a fundamental change in how the most challenging inmates are dealt with. </p>
<p>But if adequate, rehabilitative programming is not put in place to support the new units, this will indeed be nothing more than a multi-million dollar exercise in rebranding a harmful, unconstitutional practice.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124679/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anita Grace is a volunteer member with the Ottawa Parole Office Citizen Advisory Committee.</span></em></p>As of Dec. 1, inmates in Canada’s federal prisons can no longer be legally held in solitary confinement. But is it truly just an exercise in rebranding?Anita Grace, PhD Candidate, Department of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.