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on account of the pandemic.31 In fact, there has been only one sick
person released due to COVID-19 and that release was secured under
threat of legal action.32 Hundreds of people listed by CSC as having
a low risk of reoffending, who are weeks or months away from their
release date, who are old and sick, or who have already been granted
a form of release, are still in prison.33 At the same time, overcrowding
(known as double-bunking, or placing two people in a cell made for
one) remains prevalent in penitentiaries,34 in shocking disregard for
the most basic physical distancing rules.
The institutional preventive measures made public by CSC
include expanding urgent health care while suspending other kinds
of health care; providing relevant health information to medical per-
sonnel; implementing their “well-established” existing prevention
protocols; enhancing cleaning practices; securing more medication
and other health supplies; distributing additional soap and hand sani-
tizer; and prisoner testing.35 However, emerging evidence shows that
these have been poorly implemented.36
The Correctional Investigator noted that PPE and hand sanitizer
are only available to staff and not to incarcerated people.37 Physical dis-
tancing has generally not been possible. Communal eating, food serv-
ing, and group activities have not been suspended in all institutions.38
While CSC has worked towards hiring more health care personnel,
31. Kathleen Harris, “Prisons Watchdog in the Dark on Inmate Early Release Plan
to Limit Spread of COVID-19”, CBC News (22 April 2020), online: <perma.cc/
VN6W-UXFD>.
32. Samantha Beattie, “Inmate With Cancer Wins Prison Release During Pandemic.
This Is His Story”, HuffingtonÂ
Post (24 April 2020), online: <perma.cc/2J5W-BEND>.
33. Anthony Doob, Understanding Imprisonment in the Time of COVID-19, Report
[unpublished], (Toronto: University of Toronto, 11 May 2020) at 11–17; Justin
Ling, “The Government Said It’s Releasing Many Inmates to Combat COVID-19.
It’s Not”, Vice News (1 May 2020), online: <perma.cc/9GTC-A4J5>.
34. Correctional Service Canada, Double-Bunking in Canadian Federal Corrections,
Research in Brief, RIB-18-12 (Ottawa: Correctional Service Canada, October
2018), online: Correctional Service Canada <perma.cc/F6UN-KWYB>.
35. Correctional Service Canada, COVID-19 Preparedness and Plans, (Ottawa:
Correctional Service Canada, 30 March 2020), online: Correctional Service Canada
<perma.cc/2P82-2HQN>.
36. Canada, Office of the Correctional Investigator, COVID-19 Status Update,
(Ottawa: Office of the Correctional Investigator, 23 April 2020) at 3, online: OfficeÂ
of theÂ
Correctional Investigator <perma.cc/DT46-PADV>.
37. Ibid.
38. Snow v Canada, [2020] FC file number T-464-20 (Affidavit, Paul Robert Quick) at
23–37, online: <documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review/?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Asc
ds%3AUS%3Aa0dfe49f-3668-42bb-9e54-88efa9f1bdc1&pageNum=1>.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International