Prisoners’ Release Statement for Prisoners’ Justice Day, Express Opposition to Omnibus Crime Bill C-10
On August 10, Prisoners’ Justice Day, in every jail in Canada and in prisons around the world inmates will go on a 24-hour hunger strike. This is done to remember those who have died in prison, have been treated with inhumane conditions, and who still sit behind bars for reasons that governments tell us is for safety.
A statement for Prisoners' Justice Day written and signed by 56 prisoners - including Alex Hundert and Mandy Hiscocks sentenced in relation to the G20 protests - inside the Central North Correctional Complex in Penetanguishene Ontario and the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton Ontario is being released today.
The statement is available here:
https://alexhundert.wordpress.com/
http://boredbutnotbroken.tao.ca/
"If you want to genuinely make communities safer, the solution cannot be locking away more people for longer in jails where we only become more angry and disillusioned," the statement reads. "We need to change the conditions under which people are locked away and we need strategies to make sure fewer people from our communities are locked up at all."The Ontario government says that the average cost to keep someone in a provincial prison is $183/day in comparison to social housing which is $5-25/day – yet jails are being built in the place of housing. It is an outrage that the federal government is enacting the first measures of its Omnibus Crime Bill C-10, the so-called ‘Safe Streets and Communities Act’ on August 9th- this is one day before the annual Prisoners' Justice Day. The statement further reads "We want people to know how bad things already are before they get worse."
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TO ARRANGE MEDIA INTERVIEWS ON THE STATEMENT: To arrange media interviews you can emailvisitalexinjail@gmail.com and mandyvisits@gmail.com. Please pass on a landline number (cannot be a cellphone) that accepts collect calls that can be given to prisoners to return your call. This statement was written from within prison, which means that prisoners cannot be reached directly and media interviews may take a few days upto a week.