Use the simple email tool every Friday to send a message to the Solicitor General & your MPP: http://cp-ep.org/prison-phones/. Every week the ZAP changes to highlight a different issue. This week the focus is decarceration & giving cell phones to prisoners
The Ministry of the Solicitor General announced earlier this week that they would begin collecting donated cell phones for prisoners to use on the inside. While we support this initiative, it raises questions about equity, access, and increased lockdowns and segregation - and fails to address existing health and safety concerns.
All evidence dictates that imprisonment undermines public health and community safety. Under current conditions and due to crowding, prisoners are unable to practice social distancing and sanitation, and are at grave risk for contacting COVID-19. While we continue to advocate for free and accessible telecommunication for prisoners, we maintain that access to cell phones is not the diversion and decarceration we urgently need.
Our demands for free communication before the COVID-19 crisis remain, and they are all the more relevant now that prisoner visits with their loved ones and other supports in the community have been cut off with frequent lockdowns. We demand:
- Free phone calls for prisoners;
- The ability for prisoners to call cell phones and switchboards directly; and
- No more time limits on jail phone calls.
Incarcerated people are at a disproportionate risk of contracting COVID-19. Unsanitary conditions, close quarters, frequent physical contact, and the underlying chronic health conditions of many detained people, contributes to the spread of the virus and threatens the well-being of prisoners and public health.
Solicitor General Sylvia Jones has the responsibility to order more depopulation of the province's jails and prisons through decarceration measures and to work with Attorney General Douglas Downey to expand diversion measures to promote public health and safety beyond what has been done to date.
At a minimum, the Solicitor General must provide free calling to Ontario’s prisoners and allow access to switchboards and cellphones immediately. The phone is a lifeline for incarcerated people. It is their connection to their loved ones, to mental health and health care providers, lawyers, and other community supports.
To add your voice to the call for prisoners' rights during COVID-19, please use this tool to send an email to the Solicitor General and your MPP: http://cp-ep.org/prison-phones/
Thank you for your continued support. We can get through this together