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Journal of Prisoners on Prisons 26(1-2)

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Journal of Prisoners on Prisons 26(1-2) Beaver Creek Institution Anonymous Prisoner 11 he reason I am contributing to this Dialogue on penal reform in Canada Tis because I am in my sixties and my crime was an isolated incident, resulting in a sentence for second degree murder in the 1990s. I did 15 years inside as a model prisoner and was paroled in 2008 to a halfway house. Once there, I spent two years in the community without incident and was subsequently given full parole. However, in 2013, I was revoked for a negative urine sample. I have been back inside since, incurring unnecessary costs to taxpayers as my breach did not constitute a danger or threat to the public. Prior to my incarceration, I was never a burden on society. With several skilled trades under my belt, I owned a home and business. Ever since Harper’s ‘tough on crime’ and ‘life means life’ approach to imprisonment, a lot of us Lifers were revoked with no new criminal charges and with no help from our parole offi cers. This leaves us with no light at the end of the tunnel. There should be a time limit that restricts revoking parolees who have committed no new crimes once they have completed a signifi cant portion of time under supervised release. 147 Beaver Creek Institution Anonymous Prisoners aving served more than a decade in federal penitentiaries, I have seen Hmany things change for the worse. Below, is a list of recommendations that a number of us at Beaver Creek Minimums who meet regularly to discuss how we can atone for our actions with our victims and communities compiled during one of our meetings. However, before getting to this list, we wish to emphasize that given the time we spend behind bars and our will to succeed, there is such a wasted opportunity for educational training, including post-secondary trades. If off ered in a more expansive way, it would make all the diff erence in the world. It is also important for us to have the chance to make money, to send funds home to help out and to have some resources upon release. The lack of incentive pay for working for CORCAN really hurts. I hope the Liberals make good on their promise to help make us better citizens. Here are our ideas for change: • Put in place opportunities to gain employable skills that refl ect today’s jobs • Off er more trades and work training • Streamline the grievance process • Ensure consistency with respect to how parole offi cers apply policies • Ensure that program assignments can be available and completed before major decisions like parole hearings (see the Auditor General’s recent report on not preparing male prisoners for reintegration) • Reintroduce accelerated parole review for fi rst-time, non-violent prisoners • Reinstate rules limiting double bunking and address crowding • Encourage family support by making it easier to visit prisoners • Lift the 2002 computer moratorium and allow personal computers as is being recommended by the Offi ce of the Correctional Investigator of Canada • Repeal the pardon legislation passed by the previous government • Review pay cuts related to prisoner accountability issues 148 Anonymous Prisoners 149 • Increase the possibility of release through Escorted Temporary Absences and Unescorted Temporary Absences • Make funds and courses available for post-secondary education • Reinstate incentive pay for CORCAN assignments • Increase the grocery allotment • Reinstate Old Age Security for prisoners to promote their safe reintegration • Abolish phone charges for people who do not use the phone Beaver Creek Institution Salomonie Jaw y name is Salomonie Jaw from Nunavut Territory and I have been a Mfederal prisoner for the past 16 years. I have served all of my time behind bars in Ontario. When an Inuk person from Nunavut is convicted and sentenced for a term longer than two years they are sent down to southern Canada to serve it. That is because there are no federal penitentiaries in Nunavut. As the Nunavut population is growing, I think it is time the federal government start considering to build a federal penitentiary there if it will not put in place viable alternatives to incarceration for Indigenous peoples as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mandated Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould to look into. The things that I would like to see done by the federal government, which in my view are very much possible to implement, are the following: 1. Assist our families and loved ones to visit us, providing an escort so that they will be safe and not get lost during travels. Presently, many Inuit prisoners do not get to see or spend time with their loved ones the whole time that they are incarcerated, which undermines their reintegration. 2. Allow Inuk prisoners to attend the funerals of their relatives. It is mentally straining both to the prisoners and survivors of death when the former is denied this opportunity. 3. Reinstate the two-year wait for a parole hearing after a prisoner has been denied parole. 4. Restore prisoner work pay to where it was before. We prisoners started paying more for our own food and accommodations some years ago and as a result our take home pay was considerably decreased. Thank you for this opportunity. I sincerely trust that you and others will seriously look into these very important points. 150 Beaver Creek Institution Anonymous Prisoner 12 PROGRESSION OR REGRESSION? I would like to off er my observations on some of the changes that have occurred within Correctional Service Canada (CSC) penitentiaries in the last ten years following the release of A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety (Sampson et al., 2007). I have been incarcerated for more than 20 years. I spent almost 5 years in pre-trial custody in solitary confi nement and over a decade and a half years in the federal penitentiary system. After several months in the Millhaven Assessment Unit I was moved to Kingston Penitentiary. After approximately 30 months, I cascaded to Warkworth Medium Security and within a short 18 months I was sent back to maximum-security where I spent an additional 4 years. I cascaded once again to medium-security at Fenbrook Institution, following almost 5 years. For the past few years, I have been in Beaver Creek Minimum. When I fi rst entered the federal system in 2001, CSC was espousing the mission statement set out by Ole Ingstrup. It appeared to me progressive, with a focus on rehabilitation as opposed to retribution. There were certain individual liberties that I felt were conducive to personal growth and responsibility. For example, you could own or purchase a personal computer, post-secondary studies were easily accessible if you could pay for it, you were allowed almost any type of personal item that fell under the institutions security guidelines and there was a general air of progression with attention to quickly cascade to lower security levels. Additionally, there was a focus on CSC “Core programming” (i.e. anger management, substance abuse, etc.). At that time, vocational training programs were non-existent, except for menial institutional jobs and limited CORCAN industries work assignments. In 2007, the report A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety was released and fi ve key areas were addressed: “off ender accountability, eliminating drugs from prison, employability, physical infrastructure, and eliminating statutory release”. With the implementation of the recommendations, “off ender accountability” resulted, in most cases, in a drop of our pay levels, usually from level A ($6.90 per day) to level C ($5.80 per day). The reduction in pay was to motivate prisoners to either actively pursue their correctional program or acknowledge their culpability (in cases that convicted prisoners maintained their innocence) or involvement 151 152 Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, Volume 26(1&2), 2017 in an organized crime group. Under the guise of “off ender accountability”, more stringent cascading parameters to lower security levels were enacted, creating bottle necks for prisoners following their correctional plans. This also resulted in the implementation of paying additional room and board, as well as a fl at rate for the telephone maintenance beyond the per minute cost paid by prisoners in full. “Off ender accountability” through the reduction of institutional pay has resulted in demotivation, rather than motivation for good conduct and responsibility. Eliminating drugs from prison has been fairly successful, however, at a great cost to personal dignity to our visitors and ourselves. The drug interdiction program still uses antiquated ion scanner technology that produces many false positives that are reported in the Off ender Management System (OMS), which casts a suspicious light on prisoners, which may aff ect future transfers, as well as access to escorted temporary absences (ETAs) or unescorted temporary absences (UTAs). Moreover, the visitors and prisoners are dog searched when an ion scanner hit is recorded and even when the dog search that follows is uneventful, the false positive is still recorded on OMS. Often there is a physical roadblock in place before visitors enter institutional property, and their vehicles and persons are searched. As you can imagine this is a high price to pay to maintain family and community contact. Eliminating illicit drugs from penitentiaries is important and helps with the overall rehabilitation of those who have drug use issues. However, it is important to uphold and maintain the dignity of visitors and prisoners, including those who are not part of this subculture. In the area of employability not much has changed. Meaningless jobs still prevail and there are few opportunities to gain consequential job experiences or developing marketable skills. The introduction of basic workshops at minimum-security such as Small Engine Repair, Horticulture, and Basic Carpentry are okay, providing a modest amount of information, but does not give enough accreditation for prisoners to apply to an apprenticeship program.
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