Kimberly Squirrel, a 34-year-old mother of six, was found frozen in Saskatoon late last month, just days after she was released from the Pine Grove Correctional Centre. Her death demonstrates significant issues in how people released on remand are treated, advocates say.
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Sask. John Howard CEO accuses province of playing politics on issue of releasing inmates on remand during COVID-19 pandemic
The head of Saskatchewan’s John Howard Society says he is disappointed Premier Scott Moe has chosen to play politics with the issue of releasing inmates on remand.
Prisoners on remand are those serving time in correctional facilities who are accused but not convicted of any crime.
The John Howard Society and other inmate advocate groups have been calling on the government to release inmates on remand as a way of bringing the high numbers of COVID-19 cases in provincial jails down.
SASKATOON Cultural lodges are set to be built at Saskatoon Correctional Centre, Prince Albert Correctional Centre, Regina Correctional Centre and Kilburn Youth Hall, a Saskatchewan government spokesperson told CTV News. “The services include lodge ceremonies, pipe ceremonies, one-on-one elder counselling, smudging, traditional feasts, tipi teachings, medicine wheel teachings, traditional parenting, sharing circles, drumming, singing, beading, drum making and, when possible, gathering traditional medicines,” said Ministry of Justice spokesperson Margherita Vittorelli. These services facilitate lifestyle choices that help reduce recidivism, she said. Each cultural lodge is anticipated to cost $230,000 and the province expects to break ground in early spring. People with Indigenous or Metis ancestry accounted for 75 per cent of the adult jail population during the 2019-20 fiscal year, according to the province. That figure was 85 per cent for youth in custody.