Family and friends of Manitoba inmates gathered with prison reform advocates outside the Winnipeg Remand Centre on Kennedy Street as part of Prisoners’ Justice Day on Saturday. They gathered to remember prisoners who have died while incarcerated.
Cheryl James said her sister died in prison. "She was calling for medical attention, they weren't listening to her calls, they turned off her call button,” she said.
“Some of her neighbours pushed their call buttons and they ignored those calls for an hour and when they finally checked on my sister they took her to the hospital and that's when she died of a heart attack."
Advocates for prisoners say more attention needs to be devoted to overcrowded and mental health issues.
“There's just this idea that those that are incarcerated are there because they deserve it,” said Kate Kehler of the John Howard Society of Manitoba. “Eighty per cent of the people grew up in poverty and lack a Grade 12 education, they were not given the same start as a lot of us have.”
Kehler said the human rights of prisoners must be respected. “When we sent people to prison, we don’t send them there for punishment, they’re sent there as punishment. The only right that you lose when you go to prison is mobility.”
Prisoners’ Justice Day started on August 10, 1975 to commemorate the death of inmate Eddie Nolan, who died from self-inflicted injuries while in solitary confinement at Millhaven Institution. The investigation revealed that the call button in his cell had been disconnected.
