deborah hatch, an edmonton lawyer with clients in the jail, said news of the outbreak is worrying for both inmates and the wider community. since the beginning of the pandemic, prisoner advocates have warned that outbreaks in correctional facilities could overwhelm community hospitals , which in alberta are nearing the breaking point.
alberta’s prisoner population dropped about 35 per cent
at the start of the pandemic, amid concerns about potentially disastrous outbreaks in jails and remand centres. alberta corrections was largely unscathed during the first wave. prisons and jails in the united states, on the other hand, were home to some of the worst outbreaks of the early pandemic.
advertisement
the alberta system made it until september 2020 without an outbreak. by the end of the year, a total of 830 inmates and staff had tested positive, with outbreaks at six of alberta’s eight jails. a correctional officer in fort saskatchewan died of the illness.
as of sept. 2, 2021, the system had seen 1,372 cases of in-facility transmission (as opposed to community-acquired cases identified during the admissions process).
amanda hart-dowhun, president of the alberta prison justice society, has heard the same concerns from her clients. she said it appears the only solution government has taken to curbing covid in corrections is to lock inmates in their cells all but a few minutes a day, without any additional opportunities for enrichment, such as tvs or internet access.
advertisement
“the government as a whole appears to not have any qualms about putting my clients into circumstances that are widely considered to constitute torture , and they’re not doing anything about it, and it’s been a year and a half.”
hatch said the latest outbreak is particularly worrying given the state of alberta’s hospital system, should covid patients in the remand centre require outside medical care. the canadian armed forces are readying to deploy medical staff and air transports to the province, while the head of emergency medicine for the alberta medical association says parts of alberta’s triage protocol are already being implemented.
advertisement
because the population changes frequently, ahs does not track covid vaccination rates in the corrections system. as of sept. 2, health-care staff in provincial jails had administered 2,441 first doses of the vaccine and 764 followup shots.