Just days after Saskatchewan’s ombudsman put out a call for complaints about Pine Grove Correctional Centre in Prince Albert, several women began a hunger strike in protest of the conditions at the facility.
According to Sherri Gordon, a prisoner advocate and the founder of Beyond Prison Walls Canada, the women in Unit 4 of the facility began refusing their trays at the beginning of August.
“Water is an essential and these women should have access to clean water, but they do not,” she said in a release. “Women are still getting sick from it, getting flakes on the scalp and boils on their skin.”
Former inmate Faith Eagle said not much has improved since her hunger strikes in 2022 and 2023.
“What I’m hearing in there is that they haven’t been able to go see their elders; that’s infringement on their cultural rights,” Eagle said. “They keep complaining about the water. They just want clean water. If the staff can get Nimbus water, why can’t the inmates?”
At the end of July, ombudsman Sharon Pratchler said she wanted to hear from people who have been negatively impacted by experiences or conditions at Pine Grove.
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“We are aware of significant concerns through complaints made to our office, and decided it is in the public interest to investigate,” she said in a release.
Eagle, who is also involved in Beyond Prison Walls, said she was contacted by the ombudsman’s office to share her experience at the centre.
“I’m not holding anything back because as an Indigenous (person) I want everybody to be treated equally,” she said. “Even though you’re in jail, it does not say that you lose your rights as a human being.”
In an emailed response, SaskBuilds and Procurement said the City of Prince Albert supplies potable water to the Pine Grove Correctional Centre, and the ministry isn’t aware of any issues with the water quality. They said water testing that was conducted at the end of February came back within the Saskatchewan Drinking Water Guidelines.
According to the Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety, five inmates refused their lunch and supper trays on Aug. 2, one refused her tray on Aug. 5, and all inmates have been accepting their trays as of Aug. 6.
“They did take their trays but they handed them to the other women that were hungry,” Eagle said. “A lot of people cannot afford canteen, they can’t afford to get their extras during canteen time.”
Eagle and Gordon plan to be at the Saskatchewan Legislative Building at 10 a.m. on Saturday for Prisoner Justice Day, honouring the lives lost behind bars.
“We want to make sure that everybody’s heard, everybody’s remembered, nobody’s forgotten, their voices are still here,” Eagle said. “We will be their voices and we will keep on going forward.”
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