Issue 3 - Fall 2019

The Prisoner Issue

The view from Ontario’s prisons—where disease rates are high, lockdown is constant, mental illness is widespread, and the line between the health care system and the justice system seems to get blurrier every day.

In this issue

Editor's Letter by The Local

Health, Incarcerated

How the prison system became a ramshackle, underfunded wing of the health care system.

Feature by Alison Motluk

Elderly, Confused, and Under Arrest

As more and more seniors with dementia become entangled with the law, how can the justice system adapt?

Feature by Simon Lewsen

Not Criminally Responsible

Were last summer’s high-profile disappearances from CAMH signs of a broken program—or a complex system working as it should?

Feature by Hadiya Roderique

Why Are Most People in Prison Unconvicted?

Even as the rate of convicted offenders drops, the number of people in detention awaiting trial keeps growing. The uncertain, boring, brutal reality of life on remand.

Local voice by Mark Zammit

Letters from the Inside

For a time, I was the only openly gay man in my prison. Then I met a trans woman and we started our own LGBTQ2 support group.

Short film by Kalli Anderson and Eiril Linge & Beth Madeley

Visiting Day

An animated documentary about one teenager’s journey to visit her dad in prison.