The more than 30 people who gathered for Prisoners' Justice day on Aug. 9 heard from Mary Jane Veinott, a mother who lost her 27-year-old son to suicide while he was incarcerated.
Prisoners' Justice day (Aug. 10), an annual event since 1974 is honoured by Prisoners' and community groups alike. In Sudbury, attendees gathered on the front lawn of the Sudbury District Jail, with speakers from The Canadian Mental Health Association, Elizabeth Fry Society of Northeastern Ontario, and the John Howard Society of Sudbury as well as opening and closing prayers from artist and knowledge carrier, Will Morin.
Veinott told the gatherers of her son, Brian, who had experienced mental health challenges since childhood and was diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety and depression.
“Unfortunately, he turned to street drugs in his early teens, and his addiction led to periods of incarceration in youth and adult correctional facilities as he struggled to finish high school and to achieve stability as a young adult,” said Veinott.
In May, 2011, Brian relocated to Barrie, found a job and hoped to turn things around, she said.
“However, the mental health and addiction demons were persistent.”
By June, Brian was in the remand section of the Central North Correctional Centre, as th Barrie Jail had recently closed.
She said just five days later her son was found dead in the segregation unit. An inquest into his death found that the jail had failed in their duty of care. A list of recommendations were created, but since then, not many have been applied.
“The mandatory inquests for deaths in custody have produced many recommendations aimed at prevention of future deaths,” she said. “But to this day, as the grim numbers show, they have never been implemented; they gather dust on shelves, their solutions not acted upon, while the death toll continues to rise.”
Vienott spoke of a recent study on deaths in custody, released in January 2023 from the Ontario Chief coroner's office.
The study found that in a seven year period from 2014 to 2021 there were 45 deaths by suicide in Ontario jails, which is 24 per cent of the 192 deaths in the jails for that period.
There are 12 deaths of unknown cause with inquests pending, some of which could be from self-harm.
In 2022, there were 37 deaths in Ontario jails, 25 of which are deaths of an unknown cause with inquest pending.
Cory Roslyn, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Centre offered an emotional message, both of activism, but also, hope.
First, she spoke of the number of women and gender diverse people who are incarcerated who have experienced violence prior to their incarceration, including sexual violence extensive histories of trauma.
Roslyn said that more than 80 per cent of those incarcerated in Ontario correctional facilities are on remand and not have not been convicted of a crime; that remand population, she said, is “highly over-represented by marginalized groups, including those who experience homelessness, poverty and those who have been criminalized for their mental health, substance use or their survival.”
She said that prisons, jails, and correctional centres are “inherently violent environments,” harmful for both those who work there and those who are incarcerated there and said Elizabeth Fry societies continue to call for a “divestment from incarceration and an investment in community resources as a more effective way of preventing and addressing harm.”
But this year, Roslyn told gatherers she wanted to send a different message.
“With the loss of community organizations this year, of programs and services that are imperative to the people in Sudbury who are only trying to survive, I have found it hard to remain hopeful, to keep moving towards our goals with the tragic losses of community members we have faced because of drug toxicity, it is hard to remain positive,” she said.
She said ultimately, what all the community groups hope to accomplish safe, well, resourced communities for everyone, because “if we accomplish that goal, then we don't need prisons.”
“We are all here because we care about what is happening behind those walls,” Roslyn said, pointing at the jail in the background. “Because we care about our community members whose basic needs are not being met”.
But rather than think of all that has been lost, she said, she encouraged the gatherers to continue to have important conversations about the value of incarceration in its current form. She also offered an invitation, of sorts.
“I invite you to leave here today thinking about the future,” she said. “I invite you to be hopeful, to keep pushing for change, keep challenging and to believe that we can and we must do things differently than we are now. Our responsibility is to help build strong, well-resourced communities for everyone. Incarceration only serves to deny people their humanity and exclude them from the community.”
Jenny Lamothe covers vulnerable and marginalized communities for Sudbury.com.