Advocates concerned as Saskatoon, Prince Albert correctional centres see large spike in COVID-19

More than 190 inmates have contracted COVID-19 since the beginning of the year at Saskatoon and Regina's provincially-run jails, raising safety concerns among inmate advocates.

On Monday, Saskatchewan's Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety reported 85 active cases among the 490 inmates at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre and 107 active cases among the 439 inmates at the Prince Albert Correctional Centre. 

Sherri Maier, founder of advocacy group Beyond Prison Walls Canada, is alarmed by the jump in cases and believes the government needs to do something.

"They should really consider letting some people out," Maier said.

Both institutions started seeing a spike in cases at the beginning of January, fuelled by the easily-transmissible Omicron variant. And the ministry said there were 41 active cases in staff at Saskatoon Correctional and 33 cases in staff in Prince Albert.

In Regina, nine of 645 inmates and nine staff have been reported as testing positive so far this year.

Overall, Saskatchewan has 1,842 inmates and 968 people on remand currently in provincial correction centres.

Maier is concerned about the situation.

"I got a phone call about two weeks ago from a guy out of Saskatoon Correctional and he said it was horrible," Maier said.

"Pretty much all his unit had gotten COVID and it was a remand unit. A lot of people in these jails are not sentenced."  

Maier is asking the province to consider releasing more of the people serving time into other arrangements, such as house arrest. 

She notes that provincial correctional centres deal with inmates serving sentences of less than two years, as well as people who have been remanded until their trial date, which means they have not been convicted.

"If they only have two or three months left on their sentence, if they're a role-model inmate, get them out," Maier said.

While the Ministry of Corrections said it is not considering letting inmates out early, there has been some movement by prosecutors to consider remanding fewer people during the current wave of the pandemic.