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Inmates who had been refusing prepared meals at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre in a protest over jail conditions have resumed eating.
The six-day “hunger strike” started last Wednesday when 47 inmates in the maximum security range began refusing meals. However, the inmates were still eating snack foods purchased at the canteen, according to a spokesman for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
The number of inmates participating in the protest gradually began dropping before they agreed to resume eating on Monday at supper.
Irene Mathias, the community representative of the inmate-support group Mothers Offering Mutual Support (MOMS), said inmates involved in the protest reported to her that the institution had reached compromises on a few minor issues, although many of their major complaints remain unresolved.
Mathias said the institution agreed to provide a chin-up bar and Nerf-type ball to inmates during yard time, will increase the temperature of the morning showers by 5 and 10 C and to change blankets that hadn’t been cleaned in several months. The institution also agreed to wash the blankets monthly.
The jail deputies also agreed to try to allowing inmates outside for yard time more often, when staffing permits.
The inmates were upset about having to eat meals in their cells, but the institution won’t make any changes to the routine because of a lack of staffing, according to Mathias.
The jail also told inmates there was little they could do about interruptions to professional visits by their lawyers because of the chronic lack of staffing. Inmate requests for digital TV channels and a better selection of items at the jail canteen were issues that needed to be decided by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, the inmates were told, according to Mathias.
“Although inmates are not entirely happy with outcome, especially the routine and eating on the floor in their cells next to the toilet, I think it is quite an achievement for inmates to have undertaken peaceful demonstration, and to have been able to negotiate with deputies and gain any promises at all,” said Mathias.
Maximum security inmates launched the protest in hopes of addressing issues ranging from overcrowding, a lack of yard time, reduced access to common areas and crummy food.
aseymour@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/andrew_seymour
查看原文...
The six-day “hunger strike” started last Wednesday when 47 inmates in the maximum security range began refusing meals. However, the inmates were still eating snack foods purchased at the canteen, according to a spokesman for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
The number of inmates participating in the protest gradually began dropping before they agreed to resume eating on Monday at supper.
Irene Mathias, the community representative of the inmate-support group Mothers Offering Mutual Support (MOMS), said inmates involved in the protest reported to her that the institution had reached compromises on a few minor issues, although many of their major complaints remain unresolved.
Mathias said the institution agreed to provide a chin-up bar and Nerf-type ball to inmates during yard time, will increase the temperature of the morning showers by 5 and 10 C and to change blankets that hadn’t been cleaned in several months. The institution also agreed to wash the blankets monthly.
The jail deputies also agreed to try to allowing inmates outside for yard time more often, when staffing permits.
The inmates were upset about having to eat meals in their cells, but the institution won’t make any changes to the routine because of a lack of staffing, according to Mathias.
The jail also told inmates there was little they could do about interruptions to professional visits by their lawyers because of the chronic lack of staffing. Inmate requests for digital TV channels and a better selection of items at the jail canteen were issues that needed to be decided by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, the inmates were told, according to Mathias.
“Although inmates are not entirely happy with outcome, especially the routine and eating on the floor in their cells next to the toilet, I think it is quite an achievement for inmates to have undertaken peaceful demonstration, and to have been able to negotiate with deputies and gain any promises at all,” said Mathias.
Maximum security inmates launched the protest in hopes of addressing issues ranging from overcrowding, a lack of yard time, reduced access to common areas and crummy food.
aseymour@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/andrew_seymour
查看原文...
