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371COVID-19
in Canadian Prisons: Policies, Practices and Concerns
the risks posed to health by prison environments, incarcerated indi-
viduals have higher rates than those in the community for most of
the illnesses identified by preliminary studies as COVID-19 risk fac-
tors.12 These include cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, asthma,
other respiratory diseases, HIV, hepatitis C, tuberculosis,13 and men-
tal illnesses.14 Substance use and addiction rates are also high, while
harm reduction measures remain limited in prisons.15 Moreover, the
prison demographic in Canada has been aging over the last decade.
Currently, in federal prisons, 25% of people are considered elderly,16
which has also been deemed a risk factor for COVID-19.17
In addition, there are barriers to accessing satisfactory health
care in custody. In federal prisons, for instance, these include a lack of
adequate training for first responders (generally correctional officers)
for identifying and managing health crisis, overcrowding, a lack of
escorting officers (resulting in difficulties taking people to community
Treated
as
a
Human
Being, (Ottawa: Senate Committee on Human Rights, February
2019) (Chair: The Honourable Wanda Elaine Thomas Bernard); Office of the
Correctional Investigator, News Release, “Indigenous People in Federal Custody
Surpasses 30%” (21 January 2020), online: Office of the Correctional Investigator
<perma.cc/48HK-TDP2>; Canada, Office of the Correctional Investigator, A Case
Study
of
Diversity
in
Corrections:
The
Black
Inmate
Experience
in
Federal
Penitentiaries,
(Ottawa: Office of the Correctional Investigator, 2013) at 22.
12. Nancy Chow et al, “Preliminary Estimates of the Prevalence of Selected
Underlying Health Conditions Among Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019”
(2020) 69:13 MMWR 382 at 382 [Chow et al]. For a list of peer-reviewed papers
that detail the interactions of these risk factors with COVID-19, see “COVID-19
Risk Factors” (last visited May 28 2020), online: Nature <perma.cc/B8AA-T6H2>.
13. See e.g. Fiona Kouyoumdjian et al, “Health Status of Prisoners” (2016) 62 Can
Family Physician 215 at 216 [Kouyoummjian]; Adelina Iftene, Punished
for
Aging:
Vulnerability, Rights and Access to Justice in Canadian Penitentiaries, (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 2019) at 34–77; Correctional Service Canada,
Summary
of
Emerging
Findings
from
the
2007
National
Inmate
Infectious
Diseases
and
Risk-Behaviours
Survey, by Dianne Zakaria et al, Research Report, R-211 (Ottawa:
Correctional Service Canada, March 2010) at iii.
14. Correctional Service Canada, National Prevalence of Mental Disorders among
Incoming Federally-Sentenced Men, by JN Beaudette et al, Research Report, R-357
(Ottawa: Correctional Service Canada, February 2015).
15. Senate Committee on Human Rights, supra note 11; Emily van der Meulen et al,
“On Point: Recommendations for Prison-Based Needle and Syringe Programs in
Canada” (January 2016), online: <perma.cc/YWT5-7P4N>.
16. Public Safety Canada, Corrections and Conditional Release Statistical Overview,
(2018 Annual Report), (Ottawa: Public Works and Government Services Canada,
August 2019) at 47.
17. Stephanie Bialek et al, “Severe Outcomes Among Patients with Coronavirus
Disease 2019 (COVID-19)” (2020) 69:12 MMWR 343 at 344 [Bialek et al].
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International