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A COVID-19 outbreak at Saskatchewan Penitentiary has grown to 138 cases among staff and inmates.
As of Tuesday, 123 inmates and 12 staff had tested positive at the penitentiary’s medium-security unit and there were three reported cases in the maximum-security unit, according to a statement from the Correctional Service of Canada.
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Nine of the inmates in medium security have recovered and the remainder are considered active.
The first case at the prison was identified on Dec. 12 in the medium-security unit. The Saskatchewan Health Authority subsequently declared an outbreak there and the Canadian Red Cross is now on site advising staff, according to the CSC.
Inmates housed in the medium-security unit of Saskatchewan Penitentiary are alleging a lack of access to cleaning supplies and growing frustration as a COVID-19 outbreak keeps them confined to their cells for 23 and a half hours per day. The federal institution announced an outbreak of COVID-19 back on December 15 when 24 inmates tested positive. Now, that number has grown to at least 64 inmates and five staff. Without enough room to isolate infected inmates, they remain housed on their medium security range. Inmates say they get just 20 minutes out of their cells each day, and only allowed access to the showers and the phones. The situation is leading some to growing despair, with one inmate telling a loved one that some sentenced to life in prison are considering suicide.
Posted: Dec 22, 2020 11:03 AM CT | Last Updated: December 23, 2020
Rapid COVID-19 testing has been used at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert (pictured). The union representing staff at the nearby Prince Albert Correctional Centre wants the same testing done there.(Guy Quenneville/CBC)
The number of known active COVID-19 cases at the Prince Albert Correctional Centre jumped from Dec. 18 to Dec. 21.
The total went from 14 offenders and three staff to 20 inmates and four staff. The increase has the union that speaks for staff calling on the government to bring rapid testing kits into the jail, similar to the testing done at the nearby Saskatchewan Penitentiary in the same city.
Employees at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary have received a huge lump of coal for Christmas in the form of news they will have to self-isolate away from families, including the people they live with until Dec. 27.
A letter dated Dec. 20, from the Saskatchewan Health Authority, explained all employees have been identified as having had a higher risk of exposure.
“Please note that isolation end dates can be fluid and may extend past this projected end date. All individuals under mandatory isolation orders will be instructed as to when that isolation can be ceased,” the letter from the health authority stated.
This comes as positive cases at the prison climbs to 64 inmates and five staff members.
SASKATOON A Saskatchewan Penitentiary prisoner says he and other inmates in his unit are afraid they’re not going to go home to their families. That’s what Bronson Gordon said on a recorded phone call with Beyond Prison Walls Canada advocate Sherri Maier. Maier shared the phone call with CTV News. The Saskatchewan prison is dealing with an outbreak of COVID-19, and Bronson said he only gets about 30 minutes out his cell every second day to update his loved ones over the phone. “What’s happening to us is inhumane,” he said, adding he feels like a caged animal. “All these people here are suffering; they’re suffering in their cells.”