Anti-Prison Toys Campaign
Dear Consumers,
Did you know?
85% of federally sentenced women have a history of physical abuse, while 68% have a history of sexual abuse. This rate increases to 90% for Indigenous women.
While our Indigenous communities account for less than 3% of the Canadian population, they account for 1 out of every 4 prison admissions.
Crime rates in Canada reached a 30-year low in 2013, yet the number of women being incarcerated in on the rise. Women — particularly those who are racialized, young, impoverished, and/or struggling with mental health issues — represent the fastest growing prison population.
Prison is not a game. Please keep the penal system OFF your holiday shopping list.
END REMAND OF PREGNANT PEOPLE. AMEND THE PROVISIONS OF THE CRIMINAL CODE REGARDING JUDICIAL INTERIM RELEASE.
Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice (WW) asks that the Members of Parliament in Nova Scotia put forward a private member's bill in the House of Commons to amend the provisions of the Criminal Code regarding Judicial Interim Release. The Code should provide that pregnant people and parents caring for young children, who would otherwise be remanded to prison pending trial, be placed under house arrest. While remanding pregnant people and parents caring for young children is an issue across Canada, it is especially dire in Nova Scotia, where the percentage of incarcerated people on remand is particularly high.[1]
Remand is harmful to the mental and physical health and social wellbeing of pregnant people, parents, and children. House arrest is preferable to remand with regard to health and social outcomes for parents and children. A U.S. study found that women aged 30 to 39 who have spent time in jail during their pregnancies were more likely to have a low birth weight infant and had a higher risk of preterm birth.[2]
House arrest, as opposed to pretrial detention, could improve birth outcomes by reducing the stress experienced by pregnant people. Other studies have found that the incarceration of pregnant people and parents with young children causes serious detrimental psychological, physical, and social impacts on them and their children.[3] Authors of such studies have proposed that, to improve outcomes for parents and children, pregnant people and parents caring for young children be kept out of prison whenever possible.[4]
Other countries recognize pregnant people and parents with young children should not be incarcerated. In several countries, legislation or rulings from the bench have restricted or precluded incarceration pending trial, and in some cases, incarceration following conviction of pregnant people and parents of young children.
In Italy, the Code of Criminal Procedure has been amended to provide alternatives to incarceration, including house arrest, for parents with young children. The Code has also been amended to provide that pregnant women and mothers of children six years old and younger, and fathers of children six years old and younger where the mother is deceased or unable to care for the children, may not be kept in pretrial detention unless “exceptional precautionary measures are needed.”[5]
Brazil's Supreme Court has ruled that pregnant women, mothers of children aged 12 and under, and mothers of people with disabilities, who are accused of non-violent crimes, are to be placed under house arrest pending trial rather than remanded to prison.[6]
In Russia, a bill was passed authorizing courts to set aside prison sentences for pregnant women and new parents.[7] In Algeria, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Norway, and Sweden, prison terms can be deferred for pregnant women and women with young children.[8] And in China, carceral sentences may be temporarily served outside of prison while a woman is pregnant or breastfeeding her baby.[9]
The UN General Assembly has stated that non-custodial pretrial measures for pregnant women or a child’s sole or primary caretaker should be preferred where possible and appropriate. The UN General Assembly adopted the “United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Noncustodial Measures for Women Offenders,” also know as the “Bangkok Rules,” in 2010. 193 UN Member States, including Canada, voted unanimously to adopt the Bangkok Rules.[10] The text of the Resolution adopting the Bangkok Rules includes the following:
The General Assembly ...
9. Emphasizes that, when sentencing or deciding on pretrial measures for a pregnant woman or a child’s sole or primary caretaker, non-custodial measures should be preferred where possible and appropriate, with custodial sentences being considered when the offence is serious or violent;
As a UN Member State, Canada should aspire to comply with the Bangkok Rules.
House arrest is more cost effective. In 2012, the Independent Parliamentary Budget Officer released a report that concluded the reduction in the use of house arrest and concomitant increase in incarceration due to changes made to sentencing laws by the Conservative government would cost $140 million nationally each year, borne by provincial and territorial governments. In Nova Scotia, this meant that the provincial government would be required to pay $4.98 million a year to keep people in prison whom it would otherwise have spent $276,000 to monitor under house arrest.[11] The huge discrepancy between the cost of house arrest and incarceration in prison is particularly relevant to the treatment of accused persons awaiting trial in Nova Scotia, as in 2014–2015, 68 percent of incarcerated people in Nova Scotia were on remand.[12]
In order to improve the mental and physical health and social wellbeing of pregnant people, parents of young children, and children themselves, and reduce the costs to Nova Scotian taxpayers for unnecessary and harmful incarceration, we ask that the Members use their voices in the House of Commons to propose an amendment to the provisions of the Criminal Code regarding Judicial Interim Release.
[1] Woodbury, R. (2017, January 12). Nova Scotia records 192% jump in inmates presumed innocent and awaiting trial. CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/nova-scotia-inmates-statistics-canada-report-remand-1.3931582
[2] Bell et al., “Jail Incarceration and Birth Outcomes” (Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine (2004), 81(4), 630-644.
[3] Mukherjee et al., “Mental Health Issues Among Pregnant Women in Correctional Facilities: A Systematic Review” (Women & Health (2014), 54(8), 816-842; Sharp and Marcus-Mendoza, “It’s a family affair: Incarcerated women and their families,” Women and Criminal Justice (2001), 12(4), 21-49.
[4] Shaw et al., “Systematic mixed-methods review of interventions, outcomes and experiences for imprisoned pregnant women” Journal of Advanced Nursing (2015), 71(7), 1451-1463, p. 1461.
[5] Laws on Children Residing with Parents in Prison. Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/law/help/children-residing-with-parents-in-prison/foreign.php#_ftnref411
[6] Carvalho, A. (2018, February 23). Pregnant Women Will No Longer Await Trial in Brazilian Jails. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/23/pregnant-women-will-no-longer-await-trial-brazilian-jails
[7] “Putin signs bill on deferral of sentence for pregnant women into law” (2017, March 7). Russian Legal Information Agency. Retrieved from http://www.rapsinews.com/legislation_news/20170307/277950505.html
[8] Laws on Children Residing with Parents in Prison. Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/law/help/children-residing-with-parents-in-prison/foreign.php#_ftnref411
[9] Ibid.
[10] Gender Responsive Corrections for Women in Canada: The Road to Successful Reintegration. Retrieved from http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/women/002002-0005-en.shtml
[11] “Budget officer limiting house arrest.” CBC News. Retrieved from http://thechronicleherald.ca/canada/68381-budget-officer-limiting-house-arrest-will-cost-more-convict-fewer
[12] Woodbury, R. (2017, January 12). Nova Scotia records 192% jump in inmates presumed innocent and awaiting trial. CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/nova-scotia-inmates-statistics-canada-report-remand-1.3931582
BELL CANADA SHOULD AMEND PRISON POLICIES AND PRACTICES
Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice (WW) challenges Bell Canada to align its messaging surrounding the company’s annual mental health campaign, “Let’s Talk,” with the restrictions put on federal prisoners’ phone transactions. The restrictions impact prisoners’ mental health by keeping them from being able to contact their support system.
Last fall, WW raised the alarm that federally incarcerated prisoners at the Nova Institution for Women in Nova Scotia are limited to a single day per month during which they can add credits to their phone cards. If someone arrives at the prison the day after this allotted time, they will not be able to load their card to call their support network (family, kids, boyfriend, mental health professional) for a full month.
Prisoners experiencing the stress of being newly incarcerated, depression, anxiety, or any number of mental health issues, are limited to the support they can access because of this arbitrary restriction. Female prisoners who are pregnant are at a high risk of experiencing depression, as it is the most common complication[1] of pregnancy.
Emotional support from friends and family is a key component to navigating anxiety and depression resulting from imprisonment and separation. Phone access is crucial for prisoners who are planning for their reintegration into the community and for maintaining familial and social bonds. Requiring payment and restricting phone access exacerbates the psychological and emotional harm facing prisoners who have already experienced mental health challenges and neglect.
The Office of the Correctional Investigator of Canada[2] has found that most incarcerated women start their imprisonment already experiencing mental illness, and almost half require prescriptions for psychotropic medications. Hundreds of incidents of self-harm are recorded each year. Most prisoners are coping with extraordinary isolation, loneliness, and stigma. For incarcerated women, most of whom are mothers, these forces are even greater.
Despite contacting Minister of Public Safety, Ralph Goodale, about the “one day” policy in the fall of 2016, it remains unclear who is responsible for preventing prisoners from communicating and bonding with their families in a meaningful way. Correctional Services of Canada (CSC) says it is Bell’s call[3].
Bell has a monopoly on prison telephone services and charges high fees of each call. Prisoners make $1.95 a day[4] in their CORCAN jobs. CSC bans most prisoners from Internet use and cell phones are considered contraband.
We believe Bell’s prison policies and practices are unjust and the time is now to make change. We are asking Bell to “Walk the Talk” by making all phone calls free for prisoners, if not everyday, at least on January 31. Second, we ask that Bell and CSC allow prisoners to load their phone cards any and every day of the month.
[1] Toohey, J. (2012). Depression during pregnancy and postpartum. Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology, 55(3), 788-97. doi: 10.1097/GRF.0b013e318253b2b4. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22828111)
[2] Sapers, H. (2016, June 30). Annual Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator 2015-2016. Retrieved from http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/annrpt/annrpt20152016-eng.aspx
[3] Devet, R. (2017, November 9). Let’s Talk – Bell Canada makes calling from prisons needlessly difficult for incarcerated women. The Nova Scotia Advocate. Retrieved from https://nsadvocate.org/2017/11/09/lets-talk-bell-canada-makes-calling-from-prisons-needlessly-difficult-for-incarcerated-women/
[4] Brownell, C. (2017, August 30). Prisoners making $1.95 a day want a raise. Taxpayers want a break. Financial Post. Retrieved from https://business.financialpost.com/news/court-challenge-to-inmate-pay-places-prison-labour-program-in-the-crosshairs
SUPPORT FOR ATTACHMENT PARENTING IN PRISON
Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice (WW) was formed in response to Julie Bilotta’s tragic birth story. On September 29, 2012, Julie Bilotta was forced to give birth to her first child alone, uncared for, in jail. She was eight months pregnant and on remand at the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre, charged with violating release conditions related to a nonviolent drug charge from years before. When Julie went into labour, she was sent to solitary confinement for crying out in pain. She pleaded for help for an entire day. Only when her son’s legs were visible through her vulva did a nurse attend to her and only later still were paramedics called. After the footling breech birth of Gionni Garlow, he was admitted to NICU, Julie had emergency surgery, and mother and child were separated for weeks. Gionni died when he was 13 months old.
WW believes in, advocates for, and supports mothers in Attachment Parenting. We know that babies do best when breastfed and when contact with their mother is constant. We recognize that sometimes this is not considered possible for safety reasons and in those situations we advocate that resources are used creatively to allow for as much contact as possible to facilitate attachment and breastfeeding.
We also know that breast milk is best and that direct baby-to-breast contact is ideal. We advocate for mothers to be provided with an electric breast pump and time and space to pump if they are separated from their baby by law. We advocate for proper supports to be in place to appropriately store and transport the pumped milk to the baby. We advocate for frequent access visits between mothers and babies when the law requires separation. We advocate for decarceration of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers as our long-term goal.
ELIMINATE CRIMINAL RECORDS
Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice (WW) asks for the elimination of criminal records in Canada.
The Conservative Government under Stephen Harper introduced the Tough on Crime Omnibus Bill C-10 in 2012, which made it more difficult for criminalized individuals to apply for and be granted a Pardon/Record Suspension. Bill C-10 increased the wait times to apply for a Record Suspension from 3–5 years to 5–10 years and increased the fee from $150 to $631. In addition, the applicant is responsible for covering the cost of fingerprinting and obtaining court and police records, which brings the actual cost closer to $1000.
Many employers, landlords, volunteer organizations, and Government social service agencies (for example, applying to foster or adopt children who may or may not be family members) require a Criminal Record Check.
Additionally, Stephen Harper gave the US government access to the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) and they do not recognize Record Suspensions, so even if granted a Record Suspension, criminalized individuals are not eligible to visit the US.
Criminalized people are vulnerable and marginalized people. Having a criminal record is stigmatizing. The principle behind the Canadian criminal justice system is to punish an individual for their behaviour and to correct that behaviour through rehabilitation once they have served their sentence and debt to society. However, in reality, having a criminal record under the current Record Suspension system becomes a life sentence of discrimination, restriction, and oppression due to the barriers of time and money.
The increased wait times to begin an application for a Record Suspension are too long. Waiting 5–10 years to begin the application process in effect adds this length of time to a sentence. The increase in cost is prohibitive. It is too high and thus discriminatory to marginalized and oppressed people. It is not reasonable to expect a criminalized person to produce an extra $1000 while at the same time restricting their ability to get a job.
The actual application process also presents a barrier due to its onerous list of steps and requirements. The individual must have access to a computer, and is required to navigate difficult bureaucratic government and law enforcement departments and processes. They must fill out complex forms in an exacting manner and rely on the very system that charged, convicted, and jailed them for support if needed to get through the process.
Further, allowing the US Government access to CPIC, knowing that they do not recognize Record Suspensions, is unacceptable. In fact, it hands our Canadian criminalized individuals a life sentence of restricting their movements and violates their earned right to freedom.
Decades of research has shown that a key factor to reducing crime and recidivism is to make a positive and healthy integration back into the community as easy as possible. Eliminate the need for Record Suspensions. Once someone has served their sentence, they should be free and treated as any other citizen in Canada.
In lieu of eliminating Record Suspensions, we ask the government to rescind the changes to the process created by Bill C-10:
Eliminate waiting periods and application fees, which perpetuate the criminalization, stigmatization, and victimization of our most vulnerable and marginalized members of society.
Rescind permission and access of CPIC to the US Government. They are using the information in a way that further criminalizes and stigmatizes Canadian citizens in a way that violates their human rights.
Being criminalized and stigmatized does not just effect the individual — it affects their families, their children, and their communities. The research backs this up. Criminalized individuals need support and compassion to integrate into society in a positive and pro-social way.
Canada needs to be and can be a model for treating all citizens with compassion and fairness.
FUND HEPATITIS C TREATMENT FOR ALL INFECTED PRISONERS IN NOVA SCOTIA
Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice (WW) calls for the provincial government to fund Hepatitis C treatment for all infected prisoners in Nova Scotia provincial carceral facilities immediately.
The Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver issued new national guidelines that recommend all Canadians born between 1945 and 1975 be screened for Hep C. The authors explained change in the guidelines was based on the easy availability of effective curative treatment for Hep C.
Hep C is a progressive, life-limiting, infectious, curable disease. Incarcerated individuals experience extraordinarily high rates of Hep C; research has found between 15–30% of prisoners are infected. The rate among women is higher. Women are the fastest growing population in our prisons. Trauma, poverty, homelessness, mental illness, and addiction put women at increased risk of survival crime and at increased risk of disease transmission.
The right to this therapy among those incarcerated is clearly protected by existing law. Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, “the right to life, liberty, and security of the person,” asserts the right to seek health care. Section 12, “protection from cruel and unusual punishment,” protects inmates from state withholding of life-saving therapy. Section 28 of the Nova Scotia Corrections Act requires accommodation of prisoners due to illness, disability, or injury.
The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the “Nelson Mandela Rules”), stipulate state responsibility for prisoner health, and that incarcerated individuals have the right to the same standards of health care as are available in the community. Not offering Hep C treatment violates provincial, federal, and international law.
It is a moral imperative that prisoners be offered Hep C therapy. It is also sound Public Health practice; as with all infectious disease, reducing disease burden in the population reduces the risk of infection for us all. WW urges the government to immediately take the necessary steps to make this therapy available to all Nova Scotians, especially those most in need.
GRANT CITIZENSHIP FOR CHILDREN, AND FORMER CHILDREN, IN STATE AND FOSTER CARE IN CANADA
-
Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice (WW) believes that all children in state and foster care in Canada who are eligible for citizenship must be granted citizenship immediately. Adults who should have been granted citizenship as children in state or foster care, such as Abdoul Abdi, must also be granted citizenship immediately.
Refugees who, as children, were not cared for as intended by the government are being punished with deportation. This is a shameful way of dealing with the results of a system that failed the child. It fails all Canadians to treat those in our care in such a way.
Abdi served his sentence in the Canadian criminal justice system. If he were a citizen, as he should have been, he would have returned home to his daughter at the end of his sentence. Instead, he was detained and nearly sent to a country from which he fled as a child, where he has no family, no way to survive, and would be in great danger.
The deportations of Abdoul Abdi, Fliss Cramman, and Debra Spencer, were rightfully stayed, but only with pressure from advocacy groups such as WW. The practice of ordering deportations of people who have experienced criminalization after coming to Canada who should have been granted Canadian citizenship as children is inhumane. As described by Abdoul Abdi’s lawyer, Benjamin Perryman, these children were “denied the right to even have rights.”
Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice (WW) believes that all children in state and foster care in Canada who are eligible for citizenship must be granted citizenship immediately. Adults who should have been granted citizenship as children in state or foster care, such as Abdoul Abdi, must also be granted citizenship immediately.
Refugees who, as children, were not cared for as intended by the government are being punished with deportation. This is a shameful way of dealing with the results of a system that failed the child. It fails all Canadians to treat those in our care in such a way.
Abdi served his sentence in the Canadian criminal justice system. If he were a citizen, as he should have been, he would have returned home to his daughter at the end of his sentence. Instead, he was detained and nearly sent to a country from which he fled as a child, where he has no family, no way to survive, and would be in great danger.
The deportations of Abdoul Abdi, Fliss Cramman, and Debra Spencer, were rightfully stayed, but only with pressure from advocacy groups such as WW. The practice of ordering deportations of people who have experienced criminalization after coming to Canada who should have been granted Canadian citizenship as children is inhumane. As described by Abdoul Abdi’s lawyer, Benjamin Perryman, these children were “denied the right to even have rights.”
-
Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice (WW) believes that all children in state and foster care in Canada who are eligible for citizenship must be granted citizenship immediately. Adults who should have been granted citizenship as children in state or foster care, such as Abdoul Abdi, must also be granted citizenship immediately.
Refugees who, as children, were not cared for as intended by the government are being punished with deportation. This is a shameful way of dealing with the results of a system that failed the child. It fails all Canadians to treat those in our care in such a way.
Abdi served his sentence in the Canadian criminal justice system. If he were a citizen, as he should have been, he would have returned home to his daughter at the end of his sentence. Instead, he was detained and nearly sent to a country from which he fled as a child, where he has no family, no way to survive, and would be in great danger.
The deportations of Abdoul Abdi, Fliss Cramman, and Debra Spencer, were rightfully stayed, but only with pressure from advocacy groups such as WW. The practice of ordering deportations of people who have experienced criminalization after coming to Canada who should have been granted Canadian citizenship as children is inhumane. As described by Abdoul Abdi’s lawyer, Benjamin Perryman, these children were “denied the right to even have rights.”
-
Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice (WW) calls for the abolishment of administrative segregation (solitary confinement) for all criminalized women, and especially pregnant women in Canadian correctional facilities. We believe that administrative segregation violates sections of the Charters of Rights and Freedoms.
Administrative segregation violates Section 7, which guarantees all Canadians to the right to life, liberty, and security. In prolonged administrative segregation, prisoners lack access to independent review of segregation and lack counsel for segregation review hearings.
Further, we believe administrative segregation is in violation of Section 15, which prevents discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age, and mental or physical disability. Due to the increasing numbers of incarcerated women, and the over-representation of indigenous people, mental illness, and youth in Canadian correctional facilities, we believe administrative segregation is excessively discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional to a large percentage of incarcerated individuals.
There is significant evidence of the adverse effects of administrative segregation, including an increased risk of self-harm and suicide, psychological stress, and serious mental health effects. Most criminalized women have histories of sexual and physical abuse, traumas that put them at risk of self-harm, and issues with addiction and mental illness. Administrative segregation of this population only perpetuates and exacerbates the pre-existing discrimination and disadvantages these individuals experience.
Additionally, an estimated six to 10 percent of incarcerated women are pregnant. Given that pregnancy and postpartum are periods of elevated risk for developing new mental illness, it is extremely pertinent that no pregnant woman is subjected to the torture of administrative segregation.
We ask for amendments to the federal Corrections and Conditional Release Act to ensure that there are fairer and less harmful conditions for imprisoned individuals. We ask for the immediate abolishment of administrative segregation now, for all, and especially for pregnant women, children, transgender, and binary individuals.
Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice (WW) calls for the abolishment of administrative segregation (solitary confinement) for all criminalized women, and especially pregnant women in Canadian correctional facilities. We believe that administrative segregation violates sections of the Charters of Rights and Freedoms.
Administrative segregation violates Section 7, which guarantees all Canadians to the right to life, liberty, and security. In prolonged administrative segregation, prisoners lack access to independent review of segregation and lack counsel for segregation review hearings.
Further, we believe administrative segregation is in violation of Section 15, which prevents discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age, and mental or physical disability. Due to the increasing numbers of incarcerated women, and the over-representation of indigenous people, mental illness, and youth in Canadian correctional facilities, we believe administrative segregation is excessively discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional to a large percentage of incarcerated individuals.
There is significant evidence of the adverse effects of administrative segregation, including an increased risk of self-harm and suicide, psychological stress, and serious mental health effects. Most criminalized women have histories of sexual and physical abuse, traumas that put them at risk of self-harm, and issues with addiction and mental illness. Administrative segregation of this population only perpetuates and exacerbates the pre-existing discrimination and disadvantages these individuals experience.
Additionally, an estimated six to 10 percent of incarcerated women are pregnant. Given that pregnancy and postpartum are periods of elevated risk for developing new mental illness, it is extremely pertinent that no pregnant woman is subjected to the torture of administrative segregation.
We ask for amendments to the federal Corrections and Conditional Release Act to ensure that there are fairer and less harmful conditions for imprisoned individuals. We ask for the immediate abolishment of administrative segregation now, for all, and especially for pregnant women, children, transgender, and binary individuals.