Open Letter to Solicitor General Sylvia Jones

Dear Solicitor General Sylvia Jones,

The overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples within the criminal justice system today reflects the continuation of the colonial violence that occurred across what is now known as Canada. In 2021, nearly 30% of all prisoners in Canada were Indigenous, even though Indigenous people make up less than 5% of Canada’s total population. The effects of this overrepresentation. are omnipresent in many Indigenous peoples' lives. As explained by one Indigenous prisoner: “The government plays a cruel and unfortunately usual game with the lives of those in criminalized communities. The system made me feel like I was doing something wrong before I did any wrong. Would I be in this predicament if I hadn’t lived in a marginalized community or if my friends and I weren’t constantly harassed by police? The government’s agenda is quite clear. They are trying to widen the gap between the rich and the poor and between white people and Black and Indigenous people.”

The blatant neglect of prisoners and their wellbeing before and during the COVID-19 pandemic by the Ontario government and the solicitor general, Sylvia Jones, is disheartening and a violation of the rights of some of Ontario’s most vulnerable communities, many of whom are Indigenous. As explained by an Indigenous person who has spent time inside a prison: “You can’t forget your time inside. I know what it feels like to be isolated from humanity, to not have the physical touch of another human…Refusing the basics of life [such as] a shower, good drinking water, good food. This has been going on for so long.”

The lack of access to necessities has been exacerbated during the pandemic by the utilization of 23-hour lockdowns; where prisoners must choose between having a shower or using the phone to stay connected to loved ones, lawyers, and other support people. In addition to these extreme measures inside, Indigenous people are consistently denied cultural practices while incarcerated, “They are being denied cultural services inside, we can smudge freely out here, that’s denied inside…they need access to culture.” As noted by an Indigenous prisoner at the Toronto South Detention Center, “Spiritual and religious supports at the South are scarce. The spiritual or religious support workers are almost never available to see us. Correctional officers are often ignorant and difficult when people ask for spiritual supports, especially when it comes to the needs of Indigenous people.” Access to cultural practices and medicines are life-saving interventions for our Indigenous kin inside jails and prison.

Not only is there a lack of cultural support but a lack of general support as well, according to another prisoner inside during COVID, “Programming essential to our mental health has been canceled indefinitely. Visits from family or friends are prohibited. There aren’t any education opportunities…There are few opportunities in prison to learn life skills, financial literacy, or anything that could help people upon their release.”

This lack of support continues after release; “Prisoners are discriminated against based on our prisoner status and are released back into the community without direction or resources. If the government intentionally criminalizes someone who is poor or racialized, stacking the odds against them to make sure they end up in prison, it’s not surprising that the government would also fail to assist them upon release – hence, the vicious cycle of people going into and out of jail. People feel like they are fighting an endless battle that will never be won.”

Prisons and jails ruin people’s lives. We hear first-hand from prisoner’s how defeated they feel: “All of this makes us feel like we are just a dollar sign and that our lives don’t matter, that we are not worthy of choice or expression.” People feel like they have no hope and are left feeling like the system has abandoned them, “We feel that we've been put into a corner waiting for random executions to occur. We feel that we have to fight for our lives against a system that doesn't care about us.”

While incarceration, and the lack of supports both before and during COVID, affects people of all races, ethnicities and identities, Indigenous people are disproportionately suffering under the carceral system in Ontario. As such, we demand that Sylvia Jones, and the government of Ontario, take immediate action to improve the access to supports and cultural services for all incarcerated Ontarians, with specific attention paid to incarcerated Indigenous people.

For media inquires please email:

torontoprisonersrights@gmail.com