The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. A new phone line has been launched by East Coast Prison Justice Society (ECPJS) to monitor conditions in provincial jails during the COVID-19 epidemic. Sheila Wildeman, Chair of the ECPJS, says that the line grew out of a planned project to monitor provincial jails. When […]
Clearing out the jails
In an extraordinary effort to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak, many prisoners were released this weekend.
The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. This weekend, something extraordinary happened in a Dartmouth provincial courtroom. Since the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic, advocates have publicly called for the province to address the danger of the virus spreading in provincial jails. Over the weekend, Chief Judge Pamela Williams met that call, […]
Ramadan in jail: prisoners in Burnside are being denied the right to practice their religion
Malik is calling from the jail asking for the numbers of any Muslims he can contact just to talk to, maybe hear some Quran from. The last time he prayed with community was during Ramadan last year, and since then, his requests for spiritual services have been denied. Last year, Muslim prisoners at Burnside (Central […]
Hanna Garson: a young lawyer dedicated to the long, slow fight for prison justice
It’s a Tuesday morning, and I’m sitting in courtroom 302 of the Halifax Supreme Court watching two prisoners, Geevan Nagendran and Tyquan Downey, face the lawyer for the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility (Burnside). I text Hanna Garson, “I’m watching the most upsetting habeas in court right now.” She texts back, “what courtroom?” Two minutes […]
El Jones gets at the human core of the issues and people she writes about
Morning File, Tuesday, November 6, 2018
News 1. El Jones I first met El Jones when I worked at The Coast. Our meeting was not in person, but virtually — I remember that I asked her to write a guest commentary, and a couple of days later she came back with a poem, which she sent me via a Facebook message. […]
Habeas corpus hearing illuminates jail conditions
Highlights from this story: • a prison official agreed with the statement that “several” prisoners at the Burnside jail have died in the past week * (see note below) • the three-week lockdown at the jail started when an inmate allegedly said that “someone is going to die” after the peaceful protest was ended • […]
A prisoner on prisons: “Habeas Corpus in a Nutshell”
Dylan Gogan was incarcerated in terrible conditions, unable to access the most basic resources, but taught himself case law from scratch and changed how Nova Scotian prisons operate.
The Journal of Prisoners on Prisons released a special issue on October 19th. From the press release, This special issue, titled “Dialogue on Canada’s Federal Penitentiary System and the Need for Change,” features dozens of contributions written by criminalized women and men currently incarcerated in Correctional Service Canada (CSC) institutions. The writings document the counterproductive changes […]