…..not hard to explain.

Editor’s note: A broken leg and rehabilitation challenges led to six weeks in hospital, with follow-up therapies at home. At last, we are at work again.

Earlier this month, Correctional Investigator Ivan Zinger released “Aging and Dying in Prison: An Investigation into the Experiences of Older Individuals in Federal Custody.” From the introduction, “In so far as older individuals in federal custody are concerned, this joint investigation by the Office of the Correctional Investigator and the Canadian Human Rights Commission finds a general failure on the part of the Correctional Service of Canada to meet the fundamental purposes of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act:  safe and humane custody and assisting in the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders into the community.”

On CBC Radio One’s “The Sunday Edition” this morning, host Michael Enright took up the question of why there is so much difficulty in releasing older and chronically ill inmates to the community. After all, as Mr. Zinger also wrote in his report, “Prisons were never intended to be nursing homes, hospices, or long-term care facilities.” Mr. Enright couldn’t answer the question, but we offered one explanation in a letter today.

Michael Enright,
The Sunday Edition, c/o CBC Radio One,
Toronto, ON M5W 1E6

Re: Aging prison inmates

Dear Mr. Enright:

A portion of today’s Sunday Edition focused on Ivan Zinger’s “Aging & Dying in Prison” report released this month, and the challenges aging prisoners have in securing compassionate release.

Take it from this long, long, long-time prison activist and prisoners’ advocate that Canada does not have a correctional system. It has a prison industry.

From that perspective, the status quo is easily explained.

Yours truly,

Charles H. Klassen

It’s good to be back!