Jordan J.

Stuffco March 23, 2020

CTLA President
Stuffco Law
9844 106 Street
Edmonton, AB T5K 1B8
Main: 780.761.1430
Fax: 780.761.1432
jordan@stuffcolaw.com
Deborah R . Hatch
CTLA Past President
1740 10123 99 St.
Edmonton, AB T5J 3H1
Main: 780.474.2888
dhatch@hatch.law
Ian Savage
CLDA President
Savage Oykhman Law
840 396 11 Ave SW
Calgary, AB T2R 0C5
Main: 403.560.2123
IanSavage@so-law.ca
VIA EMAIL ONLY:
Honourable Doug Schweitzer
Minister of Justice & Solicitor General
Ministryofjustice@gov.ab.ca
Dennis Cooley, Ph.D.
Associate Deputy Minister Justice and Solicitor General Government of Alberta
Dennis.Cooley@gov.ab.ca
Facilities Medical Director - Corrections Health Services
Alberta Health Services
10101 Southport Road SW
Calgary, AB T2W 3N2
Office: 403-390-6173 Fax: 403-917-0201
Email: keith.courtney@ahs.ca
Honourable Bill Blair
Minister, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Bill.Blair@parl.gc.ca
Commissioner Anne Kelly
Correctional service of Canada, National Headquarters
Anne.kelly@csc-scc.gc.ca

Honourable David Lametti

Minister of Justice & Attorney General of Canada
David.lametti@parl.gc.ca

Nicola J. Langille
Policy Advisor / Conseillère en politiques
Office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Cabinet du ministre de la Justice et procureur général du Canada
Nicola.Langille@justice.gc.ca

Dear Sirs et Mesdames:

Re: URGENT CALL: Reduce Incarceration and Imminent Risk to Detainees, Correctional Staff, and
Public During COVID-19 Pandemic

We write out of shared and urgent concern for the predicament of prisoners incarcerated in both Federal and
Provincial jails here in Alberta during the escalating COVID-19 Pandemic. The difficulty in maintaining the necessary
level of sanitation, the close quarters, regular physical contact, reduced access to showers and handwashing, and
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deficient hygiene endemic in jails, as well as the compromised health status of many inmates constitute an impending
emergency.

It is understood that the trajectory of diagnosed cases will continue to increase for some time and as you are aware,
Alberta has declared a State of Emergency. While Canadians are being directed to increase social distancing and
remove themselves from others, prisoners do not have the ability to make choices or implement measures which
would protect them and those around them, as well as prevent further spread to and within communities outside the
institutional environment.

We call upon those who are responsible for prisoners in Alberta to immediately implement creative solutions to
reduce the number of individuals who are serving jail sentences or are remanded while presumed innocent.

When COVID-19 enters the correctional system (not if, but when) it will be catastrophic for both prisoners and staff,
and ultimately also outside of the correctional system to the public at large. Solitary Confinement is no answer and
the spread of this illness within and beyond institutions will be devastating and difficult to contain. This disaster has
already befallen the correctional facilities in New York State. We must avoid this occurring in Alberta.

We therefore call for the release of those currently detained for non-violent offences, those with 90 days or less
remaining of their sentences, and those afflicted with medical conditions who are compromised or medically
vulnerable. We ask that staff be tasked with assessing the need to continue to incarcerate each prisoner, such that
the necessity of continuing to incarcerate each inmate is closely reviewed within the next week. This will allow for
close consideration of whether the foreseeable risk to each inmate and to the wider community is justified in the
current environment – one which was not foreseen when virtually all those now incarcerated were detained.

We recommend the following measures to be used to support the release of such prisoners:

• Conditional Pardon
Section 748 of the Criminal Code of Canada allows the Governor in Council to grant a conditional pardon to any
person who has been convicted of an offence and the Royal Prerogative of Mercy Ministerial Guidelines note that
such a pardon may only be made under exceptional circumstances where there has been undue hardship. The
guidelines note that undue hardship includes suffering of mental and physical nature and that the suffering being
experienced could not have been foreseen at the time the sentence was imposed. We believe these conditions are
met. If imposing conditions until the expiration of the sentence, we strongly discourage placing individuals in
community residential facilities due to the overcrowded nature of the facilities (often including shared bedrooms and
other amenities). Any unnecessary conditions may limit the ability of those subject to them to avoid infection.

• Early Release in Exceptional Cases:

We request that Correctional Service of Canada (“CSC”) and the Parole Board of Canada (“PBC”) expedite the process
for applying for parole by exception as per section 121 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (“CCRA”).
Continued confinement in a prison at this time, with the increased risk of contracting the virus once it enters the
institution, along with the mental and emotional hardship of that, would constitute an excessive hardship that was
not reasonably foreseeable at the time the prisoner was sentenced.

• Temporary Absences
We understand that CSC has made the decision to suspend all Escorted Temporary Absences and Unescorted
Temporary Absences (“UTA”) to contain the spread of COVID-19. We believe that rather than suspending UTAs, CSC
and Alberta Corrections should consider extending existing UTA passes, implementing approved UTAs early, and
approving new UTA applications for eligible prisoners on an expedited basis. This would help to decrease the
population density in prisons and enable prisoners to self-isolate in communities.

• Prisoners Serving Intermittent Sentences:

We understand Alberta Provincial Jails have released intermittent prisoners to serve the remainder of their sentences
under house arrest. This is commendable. Please consider taking urgent action to release youth offenders serving
YCJA sentences, as well as immigration detained prisoners who can be monitored on strict release conditions.
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Finally, we humbly request the following measures be put into place for prisoners who cannot be released:

• Prisoners in custody should have access to hand sanitizer, soap and cleaning supplies at no cost and be given the
time to clean their cells every day. Common areas and phones should be regularly cleaned and sanitized by the prison
staff.

• Prisoners who are quarantined or isolated due to the virus should be allowed free access to phones as well as
regular access to mental health counselling through phone or via glass interview rooms to ensure meaningful and
sustained human contact. We call on you to ensure that no prisoners are deprived of contact with the community,
including their community supports and legal counsel, due to the pandemic.

• Prisoners should have continued access to activities outside of their cell, including outdoor time. We express our
concern for limiting prisoners’ time outside of their cells, especially in already heavily restricted prisons, even prior to
the COVID-19 pandemic, prisoners without jobs, programs or schooling were allowed only three hours out of their
cell every weekday.

• Governments should impose strict protocols for staff entering prisons to limit transmission of COVID-19 to
vulnerable prisoners, and ensure that any prisoner or staff who were exposed to an infected individual, or are
showing symptoms of COVID-19, are promptly quarantined and tested in a safe and clean environment.

• Health Care should be provided on par with community standards for vulnerable populations. Prisoners are one of
the most vulnerable populations in Canada and, if action is not taken immediately, they are the most at risk during
this growing pandemic. To wait until the virus is detected in our prisons would have catastrophic consequences. We
urge you to take the necessary actions to dramatically reduce the prison population immediately for the health of
this vulnerable population and our collective health.

Prisoners in Alberta’s jails are perhaps the most vulnerable institutional population. When this pandemic infects the
jails there will be catastrophic consequences, both for inmates and for the wider community. We cannot wait for this
to occur and question then what more we could have done and why we allowed needless deaths to occur. We urge
you to take the necessary actions to dramatically reduce the prison population before it is too late.

Yours very truly,

CRIMINAL TRIAL LAWYERS’ ASSOCIATION

PER:

Jordan J. Stuffco, President and Deborah R. Hatch, Past President

CRIMINAL DEFENCE LAWYERS ASSOCIATION OF CALGARY

PER:

Ian Savage, President