What is happening in our prisons?

Samuel Miriello created the Sam Miriello Show (SMS) in early 2021 to fill the need for a gap in coverage towards community initiatives. In Sam’s coverage, he usually focuses on activism, issues facing our community, and organizations aiding different people and communities in the Montreal area. With experience as a student, having organized demonstrations, creating a media outlet and striving to make various changes in the community, Sam has good connections with various people in the greater Montreal area and aims to highlight underreported events and actions in the community.

On March 6th, The Syndicat Composé des Travailleuses et Travailleurs en Intervention Communautaire (STTIC-CSN) organized a demonstration in front of Bordeaux prison in Montreal to protest deteriorating conditions in detention facilities across Quebec which have occurred as a result of outbreaks of COVID-19 in these facilities.

Reports say that detainees have been denied basic rights such as taking showers, phone calls and visitation, and have been confined to their cells for 23 hours a day or more for months at a time. The organizers called for two conditions to be met: First, that detainees be prioritized for vaccination. Due to the enclosed spaces in which they are confined, they are more susceptible to Covid-19 infection. Second, that detainees be given shortened sentences due to the prolonged isolation they have already endured during these outbreaks and that their basic rights be respected.

Sam invites Ted Rutland from the Anti-Carceral Group to the SMS to provide an overview of how Quebec prisoners are doing during COVID-19 and what the importance was of this protest in order to demand various needs for these prisoners, including vaccination, and for some protesters, to demand for the release of all prisoners.

This interview was conducted on March 7, 2021.