Still in a Prison Pandemic: The Need for Diversion, Decarceration and Vaccination of Prisoners Now

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/524530211923462/

Throughout the current global pandemic, the risks and impacts of COVID-19 have been felt most profoundly by people pushed to the margins, including those living and working in congregate settings in so-called Canada. Jails, prisons, and penitentiaries have not been immune to this trend with an infection rate amongst incarcerated people and institutional staff several times that of the general population.

As the pandemic continues with more transmissible and virulent variants spreading across the country, this webinar draws on the insights of currently and formerly incarcerated people, their loved ones, and abolitionist organizers engaged in prisoner solidarity and mutual aid work to explore multiple facets of the on-going prison pandemic.

Speakers will examine (a) the uneven use of diversion and decarceration measures that have unnecessarily exposed those behind bars to a greater risk of COVID-19 infections, (b) the suppression of rights, privileges and protections for prisoners alongside the ramping-up of torturous conditions of confinement in the name of public health, and (c) the often politicized, coercive and often ineffective roll-out of vaccinations in carceral settings. In assessing the violence of (pandemic) prisons, panellists will highlight the need to work towards their abolition in our lifetime where choosing real safety will translate into building communities, not cages.

Event Speakers: To be announced

Event Sponsors: Prison Pandemic Partnership, Prisons and Community Health Support Partnership, and the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons