Article content In short, health care in Canadian jails is abysmal, even on the best days. With the pandemic, health-care problems have only gone from bad to worse. This is why the provincial government’s vaccine approach to jails can’t be taken seriously. “Contained” spaces does not mean that these spaces are clean or hygienic. It does not mean that inmates or prison staff can safely self-isolate. “Contained” spaces remain contagious spaces. This creates dangerous conditions for inmates, prison staff, their families and their communities, especially when inmates are released or staff are off shift. Upon release, many inmates (who are too often racialized, already marginalized individuals) return to their congregate spaces in the community, to multi-generational homes (where self-isolation and physical distancing is near impossible) and where the chances are great that those living in these home are low-paid, precarious workers deemed “essential.”