Advocacy group criticizes COVID outbreak at Nova Institution
“A health and prison advocacy group calling for early release of people from women’s prisons believes the COVID outbreak at a Truro prison could have been prevented.
“It's not ethical to keep people in an environment where they are almost guaranteed to get a potentially lethal infectious disease,” said Martha Paynter, chair of Wellness Within.
The Nova Scotia advocacy group believes that pregnant people and primary caregivers of children should not be incarcerated and given early release. They are calling on federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino to address the outbreak at the Nova Institution for Women, though Paynter said that it is getting too late to prevent the spread.
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Of the country’s six women’s prisons, the Joliette Institution for Women in Quebec had the largest outbreak, with 56 positive cases from March to May 2021. Paynter, a registered nurse and researcher at Dalhousie University, said she would not be surprised to see Nova surpass that.
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There are underlying issues with high rates of complex health histories, chronic disease, mental illness, and substance use disorder for people who are incarcerated. People of colour are also disproportionately affected – over 50 per cent of women in federal prisons identify as Indigenous.
“Very dangerous, not only for the prisoners, but for staff and their families,” said Paynter. “There really isn't anything like the petri dish of a congregate living environment like prisons; there simply isn't enough space at Nova."
She also expressed concerns about how operations and staffing levels will be impacted if any test positive for COVID, which could impact assistance needed if someone needs medical assistance or hospitalization.
Over 80 per cent of women in prison have children. Some are in the mother-child program, where babies live with their mother until the age of five. Most children are outside of the prison. In-person visits have been temporarily suspended. Options are available for connections to family and support networks.
“Now their kids, having experienced two years of increasing fear and having their life constrained and defined by COVID, they're now worrying about their mom getting this big, bad disease while they're locked up,” said Paynter.
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