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Advocates issue a call to action as part of Prisoner's Justice Day

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It was a moving moment outside the Sudbury Jail on Wednesday morning as advocates gathered to commemorate this year's Prisoner's Justice Day.

The day has been held on Aug. 10 every year since 1975, to remember Eddie Nalon, who bled to death in a cell at the Millhaven Penitentiary.

"Prisoners' Justice Day is a very important day for us to commemorate and remember those who have died unnatural deaths while in custody," said Sara Berghammer of the John Howard Society of Sudbury.

"It's important to remember them so that their memory lives on. It's also an opportunity for us to raise awareness about some of the issues people are facing."

Berghammer said post-pandemic, inmates are dealing with soaring rates of substance abuse, mental health challenges and lockdowns.

"If we're speaking specifically about the pandemic, we've had difficulties gaining access to the jail to offer programs and services like our library program or our jail visitation program, which further isolates the people inside," she said.

"It's one of the reasons why we push for alternative programming and that custody be a last resort."

One of the speakers was Cory Roslyn of the Elizabeth Fry Society. She mentioned Delilah Blair, a 30-year-old Indigenous woman who died while in custody in Windsor while waiting for supports.

Roslyn said what happened to Blair was unjust and unacceptable.

"I've been involved in the inquest into Delilah's death over the last five years," she said.

"Since she died, seeing what she went through, what she experienced, I think is pretty typical of how our system works and (how) our system treats people who have mental illness and addictions who are incarcerated."

The day is a way to "bring light to the issues," she said, as well as honour Blair.

"There's always a little bit of fear of the unknowns and I think it's easy for people to look at prisons and incarceration as a way of keeping their community safe and really what we're doing is creating harm to members of our community," Roslyn added.

Caitlin Germond, of the Canadian Mental Health Association, talked about the need to focus on mental health.

"It's an opportunity for us to pause and reflect and take that moment to remember individuals who have died of unnatural or violent deaths while in custody," Germond said.

"Individuals in custody, we see mental health issues are four to seven times more common for those in custody compared to everyone else."

Aurora Stone, Reseau Access Network's peer-engagement coordinator, can speak from both professional and personal experience.

She was incarcerated for a time at a Hamilton-area jail for a crime she said she did not commit.

"It's very important to me," Stone said.

"I didn't have anyone to post bail for me. I had no family that could help me get out of the situation, so I know what it's like to be stuck in this emotional, spiritual and mental torture."

Stone said many people need access to harm-reduction services, considering the hard lives most people living with addiction have had to deal with.

"Maybe the first time you use substances it's a choice, but after the first time it's no longer a choice," she said.

She described life in prison as a place where "you can hear the rats crawling in the ceiling and vents. There are cockroaches as big as your finger."

If you make someone angry, you're sleeping on a concrete slab in a paper dress," Stone said.

"When you go into jail, if you're not already in a treatment program, they're going to let you suffer for sure. So we need harm reduction services."

According to the John Howard Society of Sudbury, 53 prisoners died in federal institutions during the 2020/2021 fiscal year, and 30 per cent of those deaths were deemed unnatural.

About 50 per cent of all deaths in Ontario correctional facilities between 2000 and 2015 were of unnatural causes.

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