Canada's Prisons and Covid-19 response

[JohnnyCanuck]

So the cat is out of the bag on Covid-19 at Canada's prisons. Finally the mainstream press has taken notice. In this article the first 2 positive tests at Mission prison are admitted. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/correctional-service-of-canada-says-2-inmates-in-mission-have-covid-19-1.5522366   the total is now 11. Since the start of March PM Trudeau and Safety Minister bill Blair have been pressed to release prisoners to avoid overcrowding and take the inmates out of danger.  Many thousands could be out if the categories of non-violent offences,  and those within a few months of the end of their sentence were let go.  The answer from Trudeau in at least 4 press conferences since early March, when asked are prisoners to be released? has been to side step the question with "we are working with correction Canada to take all steps to stop the spread of covid-19"   as of now, no prisoners have been let out.  Even the gross human rights abuser Iran has let out 80,000+.  Investigative journalists have received phone calls from prisoners and find that there is no hand sanitizer issued, that prisoners are making their own masks from rags, and that anyone suspected of being infected is thrown into the solitary confinement cell for 24 hrs a day. 

The virus has now taken hold across the system . evidence from Corrections Canada https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/001/006/001006-1014-en.shtml  

As of 8th April  Blair has ordered that critical corrections staff and contractors wear masks at all time...( Note 'critical' not 'all').  Why has it taken so long and why not 'all' ?

What annoys me the most is Trudeau's 'don't worry be happy'  responses.  If he had just taken note of suggestions about the prisons at the start of March, many lives could have been saved. It is almost as if he has no comprehension of critical points like this and just spews out a 'we are working with' response as a knee-jerk reaction. Does he not care? Because he did nothing, now it is too late,  there are cases spread over dozens of prisons,  now they can't be let out because they will just spread it further.  Trudeau and Blair have a lot to answer for on this issue.

A very good podcast on the issue can be found on CANADALAND  https://www.canadalandshow.com/podcast/320-coronavirus-is-in-our-prisons-and-trudeau-is-doing-nothing/  

Actually I don't think it is lack of caring that is the problem with Trudeau and Blair,  I think it is a mixture of incompetence and passive negligence.

 

 

Edited April 11, 2020 by JohnnyCanuck
grammar and spelling

[cannuck]

This was a topic of constant discussion at least 6 weeks ago with prison workers.  Our #2 SIL is a max security worker and explained how their inmates behave very differently under confinement.  He/they are worried about full scale riots as the inmates can feel helpless and hopeless due to the psychology of confinement.   It is a whole notch higher up the concern scale than just infection from the Wuhan Virus.