‘They can’t self-isolate in there’: Inmates’ loved ones fear it may be too late to stop COVID-19 in Canadian prisons

As seven inmates at three federal prisons tested positive for COVID-19 this week, prisoners and their loved ones fear that action - if it comes - will be too late.

On Monday - the same day as the first two inmates tested positive at a Quebec maximum-security prison - a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said he had directed Correctional Services Canada and the Parole Board of Canada to look into "measures that could be taken to facilitate early release for certain offenders."

By Friday, no details of such a plan had been released. At a press conference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that action has been taken "at detention facilities of all types to reduce the spread of COVID-19" and that "other measures would be taken in due course."

For those terrified about the safety of their family members, this is not good enough. They are urging Ottawa to take steps to release offenders who are non-violent and are at a low-risk to reoffend.

The Star spoke to four women who have family members serving time in federal prisons. Three spoke on condition of anonymity because they are concerned about repercussions.

'Some of them are going to die'

Like many who have family in provincial jails and federal prisons across the country, Dinny Dickson worries what will happen to staff and inmates - many of whom are vulnerable to begin with - as COVID-19 spreads.

On Tuesday, she and her husband saw her son Brian Dickson's face for the first time in years in a two-hour video chat from the British Columbia federal prison where he's serving a long sentence.

Since the pandemic began, she had only spoken by phone with her son, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2014 for killing York University student Qian (Necole) Liu.

The video-chat "was wonderful," she said. "It's so good to be able to see him and for him to see the house."

Still, the pandemic was top of min. New inmates are being admitted, she said her son told her, saying he feels "it's only a matter of time before someone falls ill."

In a phone conversation about two weeks ago, Dickson said Brian, 38, "burst out laughing" when she asked what staff were doing to keep the prison clean, and if they were regularly disinfecting,

"It's going to be like a dirty seniors' home," she said.

"I'm sort of in an emotional panic here about everybody in my family and especially about Brian, because I know nobody cares about anybody in jail," said Dickson, in her 70s, with a husband who is at risk to the virus and another son living in a group home.

Because Brian is not from B.C., he is allowed family communal visits - one visitor at a time - in which they can live in a house for a week. Dickson said she had been looking forward to that.

"I've been sending him things about dance so that he and I can learn how to waltz together, and do fun things," she said. "I need a hug."

'It could get out of control real fast'

If they do release prisoners, K knows her husband won't be among them.

The 38-year-old, who is at Beaver Creek medium-security prison serving an indefinite sentence for aggravated assault, was declared a dangerous offender in September 2017.

"I know that my husband is not one of the ones they will look at releasing," K said. "I know that."

But, she said, releasing non-violent offenders will free up space and resources so that he too will be safer. She suggests releasing inmates from the minimum-security institution next door - people "who don't really need to be there" - and moving some medium-security inmates over.

About 10 men in her husband's unit share showers, bathroom and a kitchen, she said. "It's really scary," she said. "They can't self-isolate in there."

She has little faith that her husband will get adequate medical care if he needs it. And if he has to be isolated or quarantined she fears what that will look like in practice.

Her husband has spent at least 12 more or less consecutive years in jail and, as a result, his immune system is not as strong as it should be, she said. What's more, many of his friends in prison are older men who may be very vulnerable to COVID-19.

The Correctional Service of Canada needs to thinking of them as humans with rights, she said, adding that she's worried about what will happen as fear and tension ramp up among the inmates.

"It could just potentially be a big huge mess," K said. "It could get out of control real fast."

'We don't have the death sentence in Canada'

S knows how fast the flu can spread through a prison - it happens every winter.

Now she is bracing for the same with COVID-19.

"If it gets in there it will hit so many people," she said.

Her husband is also at Beaver Creek, serving a 10-year sentence for manslaughter, in self-defence, and discharging a firearm. The 28-year-old is eligible for day parole at the end of the year but S doesn't expect him to be released until the statutory release date that comes at the two-thirds mark of his sentence.

That's in part because he has not been able to participate in much prison programming due to long wait-lists, she said. Now those programs have been suspended over the pandemic.

Her main concern is whether her husband will get treatment if he needs it - along with other high-risk inmates. It took months for him to see a dentist and, in the meantime, he developed an abscess, she said. So, she is not optimistic.

If there is a COVID-19 outbreak, he expects the vulnerable and elderly inmates to "drop like flies," she said.

"You need to release inmates who have been incarcerated way past their parole dates and are eligible to come out," she said. "Then start moving inmates around. Even moving inmates from a medium to minimum facility in order to space them out."

This week an ambulance was called for someone having trouble breathing and the health-care workers were all wearing masks, she said. Meanwhile, inmates are not allowed to wear masks or cover their faces, she said.

"I keep getting more nervous, I think everyone is getting more nervous," she said after seeing that inmates in other prisons had tested positive for COVID-19.

Of course, she said, some prisoners should absolutely never be let out - but that's not everyone in the facility.

"You can't just think about, they've done something bad so they don't deserve to live," she said. "We don't have the death sentence in Canada."

'Just let them have a fighting chance to keep safe.'

T's common-law partner is in Joyceville Institution, serving a four-year sentence for selling heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl - he was dealing to support his addiction and got clean while on bail, she said.

Though they prepared for it, it has been a struggle since he went to prison. She is now a single mom to a young child. "But (COVID-19) has amplified everything because there is this fear now that he won't come home."

Her partner began serving his sentence in January, he is 32 and has severe asthma and has had clots in his lungs.

"He is the type of guy who isn't going to tell me if he's scared because he knows I stress enough for everybody," she said.

Meanwhile, he's in charge of his range and they have been sanitizing as best they can with bleach and water, she said.

It's not possible to understand how this feels "unless it's their family member or their loved one," she said. But how many people can never say they made a mistake, she said.

"Let guys who are non-violent offenders out," she said. "Let them have a chance at this ... This is not death row."

She takes a deep breath.

"It's a hard situation," she said.

"I pray very hard about it," she said, asked whether she thinks the correctional service will release non-violent inmates.

"Probably not," she said.

Alyshah Hasham is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and court. Follow her on Twitter: @alysanmati

Jim Rankin is a reporter based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @Jleerankin