Information, topic by topic, on prisons across the world

August 15, 2019

Canada: Ontario prison farms making a comeback

News

North America Canada

Two federal prison farms in the Kingston, Ont., area are getting up and running again after the former Conservative government shelved the program in 2010.

August 5, 2019

Canada: new music project allows women to tell their stories from prison

News

Culture North America Women Activities Canada

Singing My Way Home pilot project helps female inmates in Miramichi compose their own songs.

July 18, 2019

Canada: santé mentale en prison, « une fabrique d’itinérance »

News

North America Health Mental health Canada

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

June 9, 2019

Canada: un premier centre d'injection supervisée dans une prison canadienne

News

North America Drugs Canada

This article is not available in English. This article is available in the following versions: French

May 21, 2019

Canada: new course trains yoga instructors to teach in Canadian prisons

News

North America Canada

Hot yoga, prenatal yoga, yoga in the park: Since coming to the West, the increasingly popular practice of yoga has taken a kaleidoscopic number of forms. Now a new training course in Vancouver is helping it flourish in another arena: prisons.

February 28, 2019

Canadian prison ombudsman says end-of-life needs of older prisoners not being met

News

Canada

Older, long-serving inmates are being “warehoused” in Canadian prisons not equipped to handle end-of-life care, Canada’s prison watchdog says.

January 7, 2019

Canada: prison drug scans for visitors potentially unreliable and keeping families apart, researcher says

News

North America Drugs Social ties Canada

Ion scanners cause stress for families of prisoners, research shows.

December 11, 2018

Canada: au Nunavik, les prisonniers d’un système inadapté

News

North America Canada

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.

December 9, 2018

Canada: épiés 24/24, les détenus souffrent d’un manque d’intimité

News

North America Canada

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.

November 5, 2018

Canada: Length of solitary stays increasing in Ontario prisons

News

North America Discipline Canada

Five years after Ontario vowed to curtail its use of solitary confinement, average inmate stays in segregation cells have grown longer, with one prisoner in Ottawa remaining in isolation for at least 835 days, according to newly released provincial data.

October 30, 2018

Canada: drugs in jails, ministry says it doesn't keep track of overdoses and naloxone use

News

North America Drugs Canada

Ontario’s corrections ministry says it does not track the number of opioid overdoses in its jails, even though prisoners have died and staff are routinely treating inmates for overdoses.

October 16, 2018

Canada : feds aim to replace solitary confinement in prisons with ‘structured intervention units’

News

North America Discipline Canada

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has tabled a new bill in the House of Commons aimed at ridding Canadian prisons of solitary confinement. Bill C-83 suggests designating “a penitentiary or an area in a penitentiary as a structured intervention unit for the confinement of inmates who cannot be ma…

September 5, 2018

Canada: why prisoners are participating in the US Prison Strike

News

North America Protest Canada

Much of the US prison system’s distinguishing features — massive racial disparities, the exploitation of prisoners’ labor by private firms, overcrowding, brutality, and much more — are the same in Canada.

June 24, 2018

Canada: nearly half of youth incarcerated across the country are Indigenous

News

North America Canada

Nearly half of all youth who end up in custody across Canada are Indigenous, a statistic that a Manitoba activist says shows unacceptable and systemic racism.

September 13, 2017

Canada : les cellules d’isolement des détenus contestées devant la Cour

News

North America Discipline Canada

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.

August 22, 2017

Canada: former watchdog: Mental health needs of women in prison not being met

News

North America Women Health Mental health Canada

“I don’t agree that it’s society’s fault”. The Royal should never have accepted an acutely ill inmate like Marlene Carter at its Brockville Mental Health Centre as part of a contract it had with Correctional Service Canada, says retired Conservative Senator Bob Runciman

August 4, 2017

Canada's legally innocent prisoners are dying in jail

News

North America Canada

Nearly 270 people have died in Canadian provincial jails over the past five years. Two-thirds of them were legally innocent.

June 25, 2017

Canada: suicide attempts spike amid Ontario prison system overhaul

News

North America Suicide Canada

At a time when Ontario prison officials have vowed to take a more humane approach to inmate care, the province has recorded a significant rise in the number of suicide attempts in its correctional facilities. Over the past decade, provincial institutions have averaged 106 suicide attempts a calenda…

June 20, 2017

Canada: l’isolement dans les prisons canadiennes sera limité à 15 jours

News

North America Discipline Canada

This article is not available in English. If you wish, you can consult the French version.

June 19, 2017

Canada: liberal government to impose 15-day limits on solitary confinement

News

North America Discipline Canada

Nearly a decade after teenager Ashley Smith died by self-strangulation in a solitary confinement cell, the Liberal government has introduced a bill that would place new restrictions on indefinite solitary confinement in federal prisons but falls short of the expectations of some prison-rights advoc…

June 9, 2017

Canada: 13-man riot at Regina jail injures 2, causes more than $100K in damage

News

North America Canada

A riot involving 13 inmates erupted at Regina Provincial Correctional Centre on Thursday night, injuring two people and causing more than $100,000 in damage.

June 8, 2017

Canada: justice system re-victimises indigenous women

News

North America Women Canada

Another week. Another investigation into allegations that a sexual assault victim has been treated like a criminal. No doubt this one too will result in solemn mea culpas and a pledge to do better.

May 22, 2017

Canada: number of federal inmates who self-harm tripled in last decade

News

North America Health Suicide Canada

The number of inmates in federal prisons who intentionally harm themselves has more than tripled over the past decade, spiking again last year, prompting Canada’s correctional investigator to call for changes to ensure such prisoners are treated as patients who require medical care.

May 22, 2017

Canada’s prison agency closes in on new solitary confinement rules

News

North America Discipline Canada

Canada’s prison agency is close to establishing new rules that would prohibit the placement of vulnerable people in solitary confinement and increase the time segregated inmates can spend out of cells.