US layoffs remain elevated as 803,000 seek jobless aid


WASHINGTON — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell by 89,000 last week to a still-elevated 803,000, evidence that the job market remains under stress nine months after the coronavirus outbreak sent the U.S. economy into recession and caused millions of layoffs.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The latest figure, released Wednesday by the Labor Department, shows that many employers are still cutting jobs as the pandemic tightens business restrictions and leads many consumers to stay home. Before the virus struck, jobless claims typically numbered around 225,000 a week before shooting up to 6.9 million in early spring when the virus — and efforts to contain it — flattened the economy. The pace of layoffs has since declined but remains historically high in the face of the resurgence of COVID-19 cases.

“The fact that more than nine months into the crisis, initial claims are still running at such a high level is, in absolute terms, bad news,” Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at the economic consulting firm Maria Fiorini Ramirez Inc., wrote in a research note. “With the pandemic again worsening, it is likely that claims will remain quite elevated for some time.’’

The latest data on unemployment claims came on the same day that the government reported that consumer spending — the principal driver of the economy — fell in November for the first time since April. The 0.4% drop, coming in the midst of the crucial holiday shopping season, added to concerns that weak consumer spending will slow the economy in coming months. Economists suggested that the viral crisis, combined with diminished income and colder weather, likely led Americans to pull back in November.

Also on Wednesday, the government said that sales of new single-family homes sank 11% from October to November, though purchases remain up nearly 21% from a year ago. Boosted by rock-bottom mortgage rates, housing has proved resilient since the health crisis erupted last spring.

Another report Wednesday showed that orders to U.S. factories for high-cost manufactured goods rose a moderate 0.9% in November, with a key category that tracks business investment plans showing a gain. The rise in orders for durable goods, which are items that are expected to last at least three years, followed even stronger gains in recent months. The pace of orders has now nearly regained its pre-pandemic level.

In its report on applications for unemployment aid, the government said the total number of people who are receiving traditional state benefits fell to 5.3 million for the week that ended Dec. 12 from a week earlier. That figure had peaked in early May at nearly 23 million. The steady decline since then means that some unemployed Americans are finding work and no longer receiving aid. But it also indicates that many of the unemployed have used up their state benefits, which typically expire after six months.

Millions more jobless Americans are now collecting checks under two federal programs that were created in March to ease the economic pain inflicted by the pandemic. Those programs had been set to expire the day after Christmas. On Monday, Congress agreed to extend them as part of a $900 billion pandemic rescue package.

On Tuesday night, though, President Donald Trump suddenly raised doubts about that aid and other federal money by attacking Congress' rescue package as inadequate and suggesting that he might not sign it into law.

The supplemental federal jobless benefit in Congress’ new measure has been set at $300 a week — only half the amount provided in March — and will expire in 11 weeks. A separate benefits program for jobless people who have exhausted their regular state aid and another benefits program for self-employed and gig workers will also be extended only until early spring, well before the economy will likely have fully recovered.

A tentative economic recovery from the springtime collapse has been faltering in the face of a resurgence of COVID-19 cases: An average of more than 200,000 confirmed cases a day, up from fewer than 35,000 in early September. Hiring in November slowed for a fifth straight month, with employers adding the fewest jobs since April. Nearly 10 million of the 22 million people who lost jobs when the pandemic hit in the spring are still unemployed.

According to the data firm Womply, closings are rising in some hard-hit businesses. For example, 42% of bars were closed as of Dec. 16, up from 33% at the start of November. Over the same period, closures rose from 25% to 29% at restaurants and from 27% to 35% at salons and other health and beauty shops.

The number of jobless people who are collecting aid from one of the two federal extended-benefit programs — the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which offers coverage to gig workers and others who don’t qualify for traditional benefits — rose by nearly 27,000 to 9.3 million in the week that ended Dec. 5.

The number of people receiving aid under the second program — the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which provides federal jobless benefits to people who have exhausted their state aid — fell by nearly 8,200 to 4.8 million.

All told, 20.4 million people are now receiving some type of unemployment benefits. (Figures for the two pandemic-related programs aren’t adjusted for seasonal variations.)

States and cities have been increasingly issuing mask mandates, limiting the size of gatherings, restricting or banning restaurant dining, closing gyms or reducing the hours and capacity of bars, stores and other businesses, all of which has slowed economic activity. With vaccines now beginning to be gradually distributed, though, optimism is rising about 2021.

Months from now, economists say, the widespread distribution and use of the vaccines could potentially unleash a robust economic rebound as the virus is quashed, businesses reopen, hiring picks up and consumers spend freely again.

Until then, the limited aid Congress has agreed to won’t likely be sufficient to stave off hardships for many households and small companies, especially if lawmakers balk at enacting further aid early next year. And a widening financial gap between the affluent and disadvantaged households will likely worsen.

“Recession risks are very high,? said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “I do think the economy’s going to start losing some jobs here. Unemployment will probably go higher. The only thing that will save us from recession is that $900 billion fiscal rescue package.

____

AP journalist Julie Walker in New York contributed to this report.

Paul Wiseman, The Associated Press

Millions of U.S. vaccine doses sit on ice, 

putting 2020 goal in doubt


By Rebecca Spalding, Carl O’Donnell

(Reuters) -Millions of COVID-19 vaccines are sitting unused in U.S. hospitals and elsewhere a week into the massive inoculation campaign, putting the government’s target for 20 million vaccinations this month in doubt.

As of Wednesday morning, only 1 million shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine had been given, about one-third of the first shipment sent last week. Over 9.5 million doses of vaccines, including Moderna’s, have now been sent to states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While hospitals have started giving out Moderna’s vaccine, the CDC has not yet reported that data and there may be a lag in reporting shots given of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

The slow pace has barely picked up from the first week when 614,000 shots were given although nearly 2.9 million were shipped.

Hospitals said the first COVID-19 vaccinations started slowly last Monday as they navigated preparing the previously frozen shots for use, finding employees to run the vaccination clinics, and ensuring proper social distancing both before and after vaccination. Some said they did only about 100 shots the first day.

They were contending with a COVID-19 surge, as cases around the United States surpassed 18 million with 323,000 deaths. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi)

The Trump administration promised to vaccinate 20 million by the end of the year while providing little funding to achieve the goal.

That’s nine days to give out nearly 19 million shots or over 2 million people vaccinated a day including on Christmas Day.

Almost 5.9 million doses of Moderna Inc’s vaccine should go out this week and an additional 2 million doses from Pfizer and partner BioNTech.

“The commitment that we can make is to make vaccine doses available,” U.S. Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui said on a Wednesday press call. He noted the rate of people getting a shot in their arm is “slower than we thought it would be.”

Two more vaccines may be approved in February from Johnson & Johnson Inc and AstraZeneca Plc.

The government’s goal is 100 million Pfizer and Moderna shots in arms by March 1.

Operation Warp Speed’s General Gustave Perna, who is leading the vaccine distribution effort, on Monday said that the CDC data reflects a reporting lag and that the number of vaccinations will catch up as time goes on.

The CDC said its data may also reflect a lag between vaccine dosing and state reporting. Most nursing home vaccinations only began in mass this week, and the CDC data does not specify how many doses from the first shipment were being held by states for that group.

STAFF STRETCHED THIN

Margaret Mary Health, a 25-bed rural hospital in Indiana, built a drive-thru vaccination clinic at a local fire station and one at a local recreation center to vaccinate healthcare workers in the surrounding counties, according to Chief Executive Officer Tim Putnam.

Putnam, who has done traffic control at the clinic’s drive-thru, said they have used about 400 of 1,100 doses received.

“We’re asking for volunteers from our staff, volunteers from the local community college to step in and build this process from the ground up,” he said.

Some of the largest U.S. hospitals inoculated more than 1,000 people per day, having done dry runs of the vaccine delivery and rollout.

Vermont, Delaware and Idaho were among states that confirmed their states had given only thousands of doses - a fraction of those available to them - during the first week.

Jason Schwartz, assistant professor of health policy at Yale School of Public Health, described the initial tally as “discouraging” and said “the challenges of getting vaccines out as quickly as we’re able to manufacture them will only grow.”
Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine could speed deployment because it requires a conventional refrigerator and has no specialized procedures to thaw out and administer, said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association for Immunization Managers trade group. AstraZeneca’s two dose vaccine also can be stored in a refrigerator.

“When it’s refrigerator-stable and a one-dose regimen, it can’t get any easier than that,” Hannan said.

HOSPITALS START SLOWLY BUT SPEED UP

Dr. Saul Weingart, the chief medical officer of Tufts Medical Center in Boston, said the hospital had given about 750 doses of the around 3,000 available as of Friday. It started with 100 shots per day and worked up to about 450, he said.

He said experts at the hospital modeled that giving Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine would take 10 minutes, about two to three times as long as a flu shot, due to the procedures needed because the vaccine is stored in a deep freeze. Patients need to socially distance before and after being given the vaccine and be monitored for allergic reactions.

The United States gives 170 million flu vaccinations each year within a few months, but for the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States must give about three times that number of shots - the Pfizer and Moderna shots are two doses - to reach most Americans by July. At its current pace, the U.S. appears to have the capacity to administer less than a third of the shots that are shipped in a given week, underscoring the gap.

A spokesperson for Houston Methodist, a hospital in Houston, Texas, said it had given 8,300 employees the vaccine as of Monday with about 7,000 doses left from the first shipment.

The University of Southern California’s Keck Medicine medical school has vaccinated over 3,000 employees and said it will take six weeks for everyone, similar to its flu vaccination schedule.

States and health departments need federal money to hire staff, from data center workers to track inoculations to call center employees to field questions, said Adriane Casalotti, chief of government and public affairs of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

The U.S. Congress’s current coronavirus aid package sets aside more than $8 billion for vaccine distribution but is delayed.

“You can’t hire someone in December and train them up if you don’t know you can pay them in January,” Casalotti said.

Reporting by Rebecca Spalding and Carl O’Donnell; additional reporting by Deena Beasley in Los Angeles; Editing by Caroline Humer and Lisa Shumaker

USA

'Swept under the rug': Health care workers have died from Covid. How many is unclear.

Phil McCausland 

LONG READ 

Monica Leigh Newton said she turned on her car’s hazard lights and drove 100 miles an hour to get her mom, Elaine McRae, to the emergency room in Gulfport, Mississippi, where the older woman worked as a nurse on the Covid-19 floor.

© Provided by NBC News

McRae’s oxygen levels that August evening had dropped to a level that could incur brain damage. Newton’s mother never returned home after testing positive for Covid-19 at the hospital. Seventy-two days later in November, she died at the same hospital where she had treated coronavirus patients.

“I was literally watching her deteriorate slowly,” Newton said of her mom, whom she called her best friend and hero. “She was losing everything that I've ever seen in my mom. My mom is the strongest human being in the world and that was just slowly being sucked out of her by this virus.”

What bothers Newton is that no one knows exactly how many health care workers, like her mom, have died of the coronavirus — thus quantifying in some way the sacrifices they made and the suffering they experienced from a disease they worked so hard to defeat

As the U.S. Covid-19 death toll continues to mount, the deaths of front-line health care workers remain largely unaccounted for. Doctors, nurses, paramedics and support staff have courageously taken on enormous risk during the pandemic, the most consuming health crisis in more than 100 years, but there is no specific death count for them. These are the same people who have received rounds of applause at the end of their shifts and plaudits from the president and high-ranking members of government and industry.

That hits Newton particularly hard.

One of the last times she saw her mom, Newton shared the news that she had passed her board certifying test to become a registered nurse. Now working at a hospital in New Orleans, she is striving to follow in her mom’s footsteps and make sure her hero is remembered.

“We don’t even know what or who we’ve lost,” Newton said. “My mom served through this pandemic. She helped these people, and if my family hadn’t said anything, they would’ve just said she’s another number.”

Play Video
Coronavirus: hospitals struggle with surge amid holiday travel

Calculating the exact number of U.S. health care workers who have died of Covid-19 and related complications is not easy and is getting harder as time moves on. There is no accurate or central database with that information.

Dr. Claire Rezba, an anesthesiologist in Virginia, has kept a national tally that she has published on her Twitter account since March, when the pandemic began to sweep across the United States.

I don't think that the health care systems have done a service by not publicizing what's going on inside their walls.

She maintains her count using obituaries, media reports, social media, memorials and any other means she can find. Rezba tweets about the deaths of nurses, doctors, emergency medical technicians, specialists and members of staff every day.

Her count has reached nearly 1,700, a figure she’s certain is conservative.

“Every time I feel like it's time to stop — because it's hurting me, there's an aspect of this that hurts — I'll see another story or some posts,” Rezba said. “And I think, ‘Well, just this one more. I just have to make sure that people see this one more.’”

“It seems like there’s nobody else to really take the lead on it,” she added. “It shouldn’t be me. I mean, this is ridiculous. Really, it’s ridiculous.”

A September report by the National Nurses United, a nursing union, had an estimate that is slightly higher than Rezba’s at a little over 1,700 deaths among health care workers since the start of the pandemic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's latest tally, as of Dec. 22, is 955 deaths and more than 288,000 infections of health care personnel. Of those cases of Covid-19 among health care workers, the CDC has only confirmed 75.7 percent of the time whether or not that doctor, nurse, paramedic or member of support staff died.

A spokesperson for Health and Human Services said the numbers were not comprehensive and noted that state health departments may have more accurate data.

Critics of the federal coronavirus response say the national count may be hampered by White House meddling. The administration announced its decision very suddenly in July to have the Department of Health and Human Services take over hospital coronavirus data collection from the CDC, making it difficult to follow hospital trends and data reporting.

“There is widespread resistance on the part of the health care industry to transparently provide information on nurse and other health care worker fatalities due to Covid-19,” the National Nurses United said in its study. “At the same time, federal, state, and local governments have failed to compel health care facilities to provide this data.”

It’s difficult to know which count is correct. Only 15 states provide the infection number for health care workers on a weekly basis, according to the nursing union, and it wasn’t until May that nursing homes were required to provide its workers’ infection and mortality information to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

While the public can now access that information from nursing homes, hospitals are not required to share their data.

“I don't think that the health care systems have done a service by not publicizing what's going on inside their walls,” Rezba said. “A lot of the deaths that I find for health care workers are really kind of secretive. They're swept under the rug.”

© Go Nakamura Image: A staff member places her hand on a patient in the Covid-19 ICU at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston on Dec. 7, 2020. (Go Nakamura / Getty Images file)

Rezba emphasized that those deaths also include the loss of an immense amount of expertise and knowledge that these health care workers had.

Newton said that was true of her mother, a nurse with decades of experience, who taught her elements of nursing she said she could never have learned in school.

“My mom fought 100 percent tooth and nail for her patients,” she said. “And we’ve lost that, society has lost that — we’ve lost someone who would have fought for everyone and anyone she came in contact with.”

The last time Newton was able to see her mom, the latter couldn’t speak because of the tubes in her mouth, but McRae acknowledged the news that her daughter had passed the nursing board exam.

“She was responsive, but she lost it,” Newton said between sobs. “She just wasn’t there anymore.”

The federal government does not require hospitals to provide data on health care workers’ infection and mortality rates and there is no central reporting structure for it to be housed, said Katherine Hancock, the chief caregiver officer at the Cleveland Clinic, who oversees 70,000 health care workers.

The Cleveland Clinic tracks outbreaks within its medical facilities, she said. It reports those figures and supports its staff through hospitalizations and quarantines. So far, it has had one death, but the staff remains overwhelmed physically and emotionally by the pandemic.

“We track it and talk about this all day: Not only are we obviously looking out for our patients, but we're also looking at the number of caregivers who are out due to Covid-19, those who are positive, those who are in the hospital and those who've returned to work,” Hancock said. “So we have a very good handle to be honest with you, and I don't know why others have had such difficulty.”

The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment regarding the disparity among different counts or the lack of a singular, overarching tally of health care workers who have died during the pandemic.

Without anyone tracking these deaths, it is left to families, friends and communities who have lost loved ones who were health care workers to ensure that their sacrifices aren’t forgotten. All of this comes into sharper relief for many as the holidays and the desire to check in with family have arrived.

© Go Nakamura Image: Medical staff members dance to Christmas songs at Houston's United Memorial Medical Center on Dec., 10, 2020. (Go Nakamura / Getty Images file)

Shon Matthews, 48, a paramedic in Texarkana, Arkansas, found out he caught the virus at the end of September — after he volunteered to fill in for a colleague who had tested positive for Covid-19. When he developed a cough and struggled to breathe, he packed a bag and told his wife, Jennifer, that she needed to drive him to the hospital.

Twelve days later, he called Jennifer to tell her that he would need to be put on a ventilator because he couldn’t breathe by himself anymore.

On Nov. 2, Matthews died at a hospital in Temple, Texas.

“He was my everything,” Jennifer said between sobs. “We started dating when I was 16 and got married when I was 18. He’s been in my life for 30 years. He was my best friend. We tried to do everything together.”

Matthews’ father, Willie, moved back to Texarkana in hopes of spending more time with his son, whom he’d only been able to see once or twice a year because work had caused him to move away.

They were able to spend two weeks together before Matthews tested positive. The holidays without him — a prodigious cook, lover of family games and terrific jokester — have been and will be difficult, Willie Matthews said.

“We just try to keep going forward and try to make things as happy as possible,” he said, his voice trembling. “Sometimes people say things that are meant to comfort you and they really break your heart, but that’s because it’s about Shon.”

But the remembrances, the accolades, the acknowledgments of Matthews’ work, sacrifice and commitment to his job as a paramedic, have warmed his dad’s heart and made coping with that loss a little easier.

“They've had several fundraisers here, the community has really come out for Shon and his family,” Willie Matthews said. “And so, we're really appreciative of all the things that they've done in his honor because we’re really, very proud of our son.”

Doctors and nurses in California released a harrowing video begging people not to gather for the holidays, saying it will 'cripple our hospital system'

© Mario Tama/Getty Images A patient lies on a stretcher in the hallway of an overloaded ER in a hospital in Apple Valley, California, on December 23, 2020. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Frontline workers in California filmed a video urging people to stay home and not gather over the upcoming holidays.

In the video, doctors said that a lack of social distancing could "cripple" the hospital system and result in more deaths.

Nurses also discussed the devastating impact of the latest surge in the state's COVID-19 cases on their mental health.

Earlier this week health authorities reported that ICUs in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California were already at full capacity, meaning there is no space left for new patients.

As California struggles to deal with a spike in case numbers and an alarming number of COVID-19 deaths, frontline workers in the state are begging people to stay home and not gather for the holidays.

Doctors and nurses from three California health systems - Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, and Dignity Health - made the plea in a video posted on YouTube on Wednesday.

In the clip, several workers warned that choosing to celebrate the Christmas and New Year holidays indoors could overwhelm the state's healthcare system, and shared the devastating impact that the surge in cases was having on their mental health.

The video also included footage of patients lying on stretchers outside crowded hospitals.

"This surge is beyond what anyone could have imagined," Dr. Pravin Acharya, an emergency physician, said in the video. "If people continue to gather for the upcoming holiday, we are going to cripple our hospital system."

The hospital system Acharya works for - Kaiser Permanente - said on Tuesday that 100% of their ICU beds were being used. They are now preparing to double up rooms in their 36 hospitals to meet the 220% increase in COVID-19 patients in the last month alone.

An intensive-care specialist, Dr. Vanessa Walker, also said in the video: "If we continue to gather indoors at the rate that we are, many more of us will not see the holiday next year."

California has averaged 252 daily coronavirus deaths over the last week, an increase of 73% from two weeks prior to that, according to a tracker from the Los Angeles Times.

Last week, the state reported its highest daily death toll of the entire pandemic - 398 deaths in the space of 24 hours, The New York times reported.

The US remains the worst-hit country in the COVID-19 pandemic, having recorded nearly 18.5 million cases and more than 326,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

© Worldometer Graph showing active COVID-19 cases in California as of early December 24, 2020. 

In the Wednesday video, doctors also expressed their concern about how healthcare workers will be able to handle this alarming surge.

Acharya warned: "I worry about the stamina and mental health of us providers, our nursing staff. What happens if they get sick? Who is going to come to the hospital and work?"

Hans Vega, a registered nurse, also said in the video: "I'm doing all this work for your families, for your friends, for people that you may know, and some people don't take it seriously out there. Sometimes it feels like a slap in the face."

Healthcare workers in the US and around the world are facing a mental-health crisis in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, with psychologists telling Insider in April that the stress could flare into chronic psychological problems if it is not managed.

On Monday, the California Department of Public Health reported that ICUs in both the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California were at full capacity.

On Monday, California's director of Health and Human Services also warned that non-ICU units could also fill up shortly.

"It is true that some regions may begin to exceed their existing stated hospital capacity, not just ICU capacity, by the end of the month and early in January," Dr. Mark Ghaly told a press conference.

Some hospitals are already setting up tents and trailers as field hospitals to treat more patients.

Read the original article on Business Insider

THIRD WORLD USA

In pandemic America's tent cities, a grim future grows darker

By Michelle Conlin

LONG READ

PHOENIX, Ariz. (Reuters) - Nadeen Bender stood outside her home, a tattered two-man tent, surrounded by the re-purposed Amazon Prime boxes she uses to store her life’s belongings. One by one, she checked the cartons to make sure nothing had been stolen in the night.

Nadeen Bender stands outside her tent at a homeless encampment in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., December 18, 2020. REUTERS/Michelle Conlin

When asked about her Christmas plans, the rail-thin 43-year-old said through a face mask, “to try to avoid it.” Then she burst into tears.

The tent city that has served as Bender’s neighborhood for the past seven months is in the middle of downtown Phoenix, just down the road from luxury high-rise apartments and expensive restaurants.

To deal with an exploding homeless population and encourage social distancing during the pandemic, Marcipoa County officials turned this pair of asphalt-topped parking lots into the area’s newest homeless shelter. The county has more than 7,500 people on the streets, and nearly 5,000 dead from COVID-19.

Inside the crowded encampment, ringed by security fencing and barbed wire, each family has been allotted a 12-by-12-foot lot, marked by paint, to separate people as much as possible.

Phoenix is just one example of a slow-motion disaster unfolding in many large U.S. cities as homeless numbers, already growing in recent years, spike during the global pandemic.

The virus presents a compounding threat. Not only are these populations some of the most vulnerable to the coronavirus, but by destroying millions of jobs, the pandemic threatens a wave of evictions that experts warn could lead to a catastrophic housing displacement and even more people living on the streets.

With cities facing a steep hit to their tax bases due to lockdowns aimed at curbing the virus’s spread, homeless advocates say the federal government must step in, and estimate another $11.5 billion is needed immediately.

New funding for the homeless is not included in a $900-billion pandemic relief package passed by Congress on Monday. The fate of the bill was thrown up in the air the next day after outgoing President Donald Trump threatened not to sign it.

Meanwhile, the $4 billion provided earlier this year through the March CARES Act bailout and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is running out, advocates say.

“It’s not just the pandemic, it’s the financial fallout from the pandemic and the complete lack of a comprehensive response to the pandemic from the federal government,” said Diane Yentel, who advised the transition team of President-elect Joe Biden and is the president of the Washington-based National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Biden’s transition team did not respond to requests for comment. But fixing the affordable housing crisis was a pillar of his campaign platform, and included a pledge to spend $640 billion over 10 years to create affordable housing and “end” homelessness.

“Addressing homelessness remains the most pressing health equity challenge of our time. And it’s about to get worse,” said Dr. Howard K. Koh, a professor of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who chairs its new initiative on health and homelessness.

EVICTION SURGE

As the coronavirus began to ravage the United States in the spring of 2020, federal, state and local governments issued temporary bans on many evictions, with an eye on the economic and health consequences of increased homelessness.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in September followed up with a nationwide ban that the stimulus deal would extend to Jan. 31.

Still, since the pandemic began, more than 162,000 evictions have been filed in the 27 cities tracked by the Princeton University Eviction Lab.

So far, Congress has no clear plan to deal with the expiration of the CDC’s ban, when up to 40 million people will be at risk of eviction, according to the Aspen Institute. Overnight, more than $70 billion will be owed in back rent and utilities, said Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness estimated the U.S. homeless population at nearly 600,000 in 2019, before the pandemic hit. The potential health repercussions of a significant increase in that number due to evictions and joblessness are enormous, made exponentially worse by the pandemic, academics and health experts say.

Already, homeless families with babies in New York City shelters live amidst mold, mildew and vermin, according to an audit released on Monday by the city comptroller. Subway closures between 1 and 5 a.m. for COVID cleanings have forced many of the city’s homeless who go there for warmth to burrow deeper into the system’s tunnels or freeze in the tarp encampments and grocery-cart hovels that have become a feature of the city’s sidewalks.

New York City’s homeless die of COVID at a rate 78% higher than the general population, according to the Coalition for the Homeless.

In Los Angeles, several members of the city council want the city to use the convention center as a homeless shelter. San Diego already did that - and now its convention center is suffering a COVID-19 outbreak, with 190 residents and staff testing positive.




Another homeless shelter in Chicago is reeling from an outbreak just as freezing temperatures fuel demand.

Twenty-seven states that let local moratoriums on evictions expire over the summer, before the CDC ban, had a 5.4-times higher COVID mortality rate, according to a report released on Nov. 30 by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and other four other universities.

TRUMPVILLE

Phoenix’s unshaded tent city is called “The Zone” by its inhabitants. Some of them call it “Trumpville,” an echo of Depression-era shantytowns named “Hoovervilles” after President Herbert Hoover, who was accused of not doing enough to keep people sheltered.

The Zone’s hundreds of residents are packed together - often not wearing masks, with many living just in sleeping bags or on a tarp. Without running water or plumbing, simple pandemic health protocols, like handwashing, are difficult. Although the city has posted portable toilets and washing stations along the perimeter, feces and garbage litter the property. In some spots, the stench is overwhelming.

COVID is a constant worry. Those who test positive for the virus can check into a 136-bed hotel provided by a nonprofit — if they can get a spot. If they prefer to remain on the streets, there’s a “shelter-in-place duffle” that contains food, water, hygienic supplies, masks and a tent.

Bender, a former foster mom with the leathered tan of someone who lives outside, said the homeless population has become more varied since the pandemic hit - she’s met a former doctor, paralegal and even an opera singer.

“A lot of us want to work, we want to get off the streets,” she said.

But the pandemic has made that seem even more impossible, she said.

“I can’t even get online” to apply for jobs, she said, “because the libraries are closed.” Her congressional stimulus check? “How would I even sign up for that or get that without a computer, or an address?”

“I didn’t think my life could get any worse,” said Bender. “But it did.”

(This story corrects paragraph 11 to make clear Diane Yentel advised Biden’s transition team rather than Biden)

Reporting by Michelle Conlin; Editing by Tom Lasseter and Sonya Hepinstall

COVID IN PRISON

'Grave risk:' Advocates say inmates should get speedy access to COVID-19 vaccine

Advocates say inmates should have speedy access to the COVID-19 vaccine, given how susceptible prisons and jails have been to outbreaks and how prevalent chronic disease is in that population.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

"I don't think they should go to the front of the line, but I certainly don't think they should be denied their rightful place in the priority line simply because they're prisoners," said Catherine Latimer, executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada.


The Correctional Service of Canada said that, as of Tuesday, there were a total of 276 active COVID-19 cases in federal prisons. The bulk were at Joyceville Institution near Kingston, Ont., Stony Mountain Institution near Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan Penitentiary near Prince Albert, Sask.

There have also been several outbreaks in provincially run jails.

Martha Paynter, a registered nurse in Halifax who provides reproductive care to inmates, said hygiene and ventilation in correctional institutions are issues at the best of times.

There is also high turnover in remand centres and staff are constantly coming and going, she added.

Inmates are "living in this incredibly restrictive experience, but also facing very grave risk of illness transmission," said Paynter, a doctoral candidate at Dalhousie University.

Inmates 50 and older account for one-quarter of the federal prison population. Advocates note people age faster behind bars and are in poorer health than the general public.

"Of course this population should have very quick access to the vaccines," said Paynter, who added that some might not trust the shots due to bad experiences with health care behind bars.

She said the bigger issue is why there are so many people incarcerated in the first place.

"What are we choosing to police? What are we choosing to criminalize?"

Anita Ho, associate professor in bioethics and health services research at the University of British Columbia, noted Indigenous people are disproportionately represented in the corrections system.

"In general, health among Indigenous peoples in Canada, because of various social determinants of health, are poorer to start with," she said.

Video: Alberta health-care workers, paramedics concerned with COVID-19 vaccine prioritization (Global News)

The National Advisory Committee on Immunizations recommends adult Indigenous communities be included in Stage 1 of vaccine delivery. It recommends congregate settings, including correctional facilities, be included in Stage 2.

The Correctional Service of Canada, which is responsible for providing health services for inmates in its care, says in a statement it is aligning its strategy with the national guidelines.

"CSC has worked very closely with the Public Health Agency of Canada to respond to every aspect of the pandemic, including the provision of vaccines to inmates."

Priority groups such as long-term care residents and health-care workers began receiving doses earlier this month.

Dr. Joss Reimer, medical health officer for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, said criteria for who gets the vaccine in Manitoba in the new year will be expanded to include “correctional facilities," but did not specify whether that would be inmates, staff or both.

Other provinces have not detailed their plans.

Ontario's Ministry of the Solicitor General said it will be looking at the availability of doses and would carry out immunizations "based on the latest medical advice and scientific evidence."

Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman said: "We will consider based on what the needs are at that specific time and ... the amount of vaccines that we have flowing into the province."

In Alberta, chief medical health officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw said, "We'll have a clear ethical dimension that we need to make sure we're considering."

University of Toronto bioethicist Kerry Bowman said there was a consensus about who would receive the first batch of vaccines, but determining who should be next is trickier.

He said it's not clear whether the goal of the second phase will be to boost the economy or to reach more vulnerable people.

In the United States, there has been some pushback against inmates getting dibs earlier.

"There’s no way it’s going to go to prisoners before it goes to the people who haven’t committed any crime," Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said after the state's vaccination rollout plan was criticized.

Bowman said that kind of argument is neither scientifically nor ethically sound.

"It's a very dangerous precedent in any society when you start saying these lives are more valuable than those lives."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 24, 2020.

— With files from Fakiha Baig in Edmonton and Shawn Jeffords in Toronto

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press

COVID IN PRISON
Prisoner advocates call for intervention, CSC defends approach as Sask. Pen COVID-19 outbreak grows

By Michael Bramadat-Willcock, 

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The Northern Advocate
Thu., Dec. 24, 2020

LONG READ

Prisoner’s advocacy group Beyond Prison Walls Canada sent a letter to the Office of the Correctional Investigator on Wednesday saying that the rights of inmates at Saskatchewan Penitentiary are being violated as COVID-19 spreads in the facility.

The group also says inmates, having ended a hunger strike, have entered a “suicide pact” that has not been taken seriously by staff.

“As of last night when I received a call from a prisoner there were men who have prepared their rope to hang themselves. They have not indicated when but this suicide pact has been mentioned for two days now,” prisoner advocate Sherri Maier wrote.


She alleged that guards are being unprofessional towards the inmates. She also alleged that in one instance, a guard assaulted a prisoner with his food tray.

The allegations of guard misconduct are unproven. The union that represents penitentiary guards said in an interview Tuesday unrelated to Maier’s letter that correctional officers are doing everything they can to keep people safe and to minimize the spread of COVID-19. They said keeping inmates happy and active is in their best interest too, as it helps to reduce tension on the range and make their job safer.


Maier said prisoners on one unit have asked to be let out in groups of four or six for “a couple hours” rather than one at a time for 30 minutes. She said they would practice social distancing “but the guards refused and said they will not facilitate or babysit that.”

She said CSC has failed by not preparing for COVID-19 to enter the institution and because the inmates are contemplating suicide, but are allegedly not being taken seriously.


Maier said that on Tuesday she received a message from a mother whose son was transferred from the Regional Psychiatric Center in Saskatoon on Dec. 6 to Sask Pen. She said he now has COVID-19 and that the night prior he attempted to take his own life.

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“These men have rights and they can not continue to be locked up this long and have no access to mental health services. Clearly the staff there are unable to handle what is going on. Medical staff are doing COVID tests but do not inform prisoners of the results, this makes no sense,” she alleged.

She called the amount of time allotted to inmates outside of their cells “ridiculous“ and lambasted living conditions at the facility.

She said some units are “very dirty.”

“There are men who are bathing in their sinks, because they only get 30 minutes out and want to use that for the phone to update family as to what is going on. These men are unable to do their laundry so some are washing their clothes in the sinks in their cells,” Maier wrote.

“This is unhealthy for prisoners and staff.”

Maier said there is “no excuse” for the COVID-19 outbreak and “no excuse as to why there was no preparation for this other than pure negligence on Sask Pen and CSC.”


She said that the mental health of inmates is deteriorating as the lockdown continues, and asked the CSC to take action before Christmas to avoid prisoners taking “drastic measures.” She called the situation “inhumane.”

“This is not right. It’s close to Christmas and the grim reality is that these men are going to spend Christmas in their cells alone, unable to contact family. This is upsetting,” Maier wrote.

“These men’s rights are violated and there needs to be a better plan of action made, they can not continue to be locked up 23.5 hours a day with no contact with family.”

Congress of Aboriginal Peoples national vice-chief Kim Beaudin pointed to disproportionate numbers of Indigenous people incarcerated at Saskatchewan Penitentiary and likened the conditions to a “death sentence” for inmates.

On Tuesday, Beaudin called on CSC to release all inmates held for non-violent offences, implement immediate testing for COVID-19 for all inmates and staff and to ensure any infected inmates are given separate living quarters from other inmates.

“I also urge that those kept caged in Canada’s colonial federal penitentiaries be given access to the programs, contact with loved ones and volunteers, and supplies required to come out of this crisis alive,” Beaudin said.

“Inaction will signal to Indigenous peoples that our lives do not matter and that the federal government remains unable to move past colonialist legacies.”

He pointed a finger at CSC commissioner Anne Kelly who he said should resign along with those deemed responsible for failing to contain the outbreak and called on the Government of Canada to take action.

“No segment of society has gone untouched by COVID-19. Our government is focused on protecting and supporting all Canadians, including inmates and correctional staff,” Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair’s Press Secretary Mary-Liz Power said in a written response.

“We know the unique vulnerabilities facing correctional institutions during this public health crisis. In response to COVID-19 cases in federal institutions, Correctional Services Canada (CSC) has put in place extensive infection prevention and control measures across all institutions, at all security levels.”

She said those measures include mandatory masks for inmates and staff, physical distancing measures, active health screening of anyone entering an institution, contact tracing and increased and enhanced cleaning and disinfection at sites. She said rapid testing is also in use for both staff and inmates.

Since the beginning of March, the overall federal custody population has declined by over 1,300 inmates. Those transferring into Saskatchewan Penitentiary are screened for COVID-19. Inmates transferring into the institution are medically isolated for 14 days after arrival, Power said.

“They have the support of medical staff as well as unit staff during their isolation. They are housed in a separate unit during their isolation. CSC works closely with local public health experts to guide their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They have already strengthened their infection prevention procedures to protect staff, offenders, and the community.”

Power said that additional personal protective equipment is also available for offenders and staff, as needed. “As this pandemic continues to evolve, we have been clear that our response will as well.”

Office of the Correctional Investigator Executive Director and General Counsel Monette Maillet said they have no comment on Wednesday.

CSC spokesperson Kelly Dae Dash said in a written response that as of Tuesday there are 123 inmates who have tested positive for COVID-19 at Saskatchewan Penitentiary, medium security unit. Of these, nine have recovered and 114 remain active.

In addition, there are three active inmate cases at the maximum-security unit. There are also 12 active cases of COVID-19 among employees.

COVID IN PRISON

Inmate families, CAP vice-chief call for inmates nearing end of sentence to be released as COVID-19 takes hold in Sask. Pen

LONG READ 

Inmates housed in the medium-security unit of Saskatchewan Penitentiary are alleging a lack of access to cleaning supplies and growing frustration as a COVID-19 outbreak keeps them confined to their cells for 23 and a half hours per day.

The federal institution announced an outbreak of COVID-19 back on December 15 when 24 inmates tested positive. Now, that number has grown to at least 64 inmates and five staff. Without enough room to isolate infected inmates, they remain housed on their medium security range.

Inmates say they get just 20 minutes out of their cells each day, and only allowed access to the showers and the phones. The situation is leading some to growing despair, with one inmate telling a loved one that some sentenced to life in prison are considering suicide.

“All of us guys think we’re gonna die in here,” he said.

“There are guys in here who are crying. They’re afraid they’re not going to go home to their families.”

He said spending hours a day without time to participate in any activities or recreation is leaving him feeling “empty,” “lost” and “angry.”

“I’m losing all my strength,” he said, adding that he believes inmates would be able to follow social distancing and wear masks if a handful are let out a time to spend time on the range and not confined to their cells, but that they aren’t being given the chance.

He also alleged that the inmates don’t receive fresh masks, and that he hasn’t been able to do his laundry in days.

Inmates can’t access the canteen, he said, meaning they don’t have access to cleaning supplies such as soap to keep their living quarters disinfected.

The lack of cleaning supplies is a concern that’s been raised by other inmates as well.

Tracy Lozinski spoke to the Herald after getting off the phone with her boyfriend, who’s due for statutory release on Jan. 5. He asked to be released early so that he could avoid being stuck in a situation with a growing number of COVID-19 cases. The request was denied.

“They are not allowed any supplies at all,” Lozinski (no relation) said.

“They are just sitting there. It’s really frustrating because he could be released and avoid the whole scare.”

The other frustration, Lozinski said, is a lack of communication, let alone the struggles of communicating for a maximum of 20 minutes per day over the phone. In-person visits were already cancelled and the inmates on the infected range also aren’t being allowed to access the parts of the prison where they would be able to connect with family over video.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s stressful,” she said. “What if he does get COVID? (If he comes here ) am I at risk? We don’t have any answers.”

Lozinski is one of many outside of the prison grappling with these questions as they prepare for loved ones to be released.

Kyle Banks said he’s heard from multiple family members of old friends locked inside Sask. Pen. At least three are preparing for release dates between now and mid-January.

Banks said he hears the same concerns: no access to the canteen, no personal cleaning products and limited time outside of cells.

That’s worse, he said, than the situation was earlier this year when Banks himself served a few months at the federal institution.

He described situations where sanitation guidelines weren’t followed. The inmate whose phone call audio was leaked to media also said that prior to last week, correctional officers weren’t always wearing their masks.

Banks said he’s “not at all” surprised that there’s an outbreak at Sask. Pen.

“I’m surprised there’s not more."

***

Lozinski isn’t the only one calling on CSC to release those who can go home.

Congress of Aboriginal Peoples National Vice Chief Kim Beaudin is calling for the CSC to release all inmates held for non-violent offences, implement immediate testing for COVID-19 for all inmates and staff and to ensure any infected inmates are given separate living quarters from other inmates.

He pointed to disproportionate numbers of Indigenous inmates at Saskatchewan Penitentiary and across Canada.

Beaudin told the Prince Albert Daily Herald that keeping Indigenous inmates under conditions where they are at risk of contracting the virus is essentially, “the death penalty.

“Our people are now facing a death sentence at Saskatchewan Penitentiary due to COVID-19,” he said. “These are lives being intentionally put at risk, and this is nothing short of genocidal.”

The federal inmate population increased 1.2 per cent since 2010, while the Indigenous inmate population increased by 52.1 per cent.

The rate of Indigenous incarceration within provincial correctional facilities in Saskatchewan is 76 per cent and is 65 per cent at Saskatchewan Penitentiary, which is the federally operated.

Beaudin said the justice system is stacked against Indigenous people and the pandemic has added another deadly element to the mix.

“It is well-known that Indigenous Peoples are mass-incarcerated in Canada. Promises to address this legacy of the intergenerational trauma Indigenous Peoples have endured as the result of genocidal policies and practices enacted by the federal government over several generations,” Beaudin said.

“Commitments to take the necessary measures to end this contemporary manifestation of colonialism have been made, but little has been done.”

Beaudin noted that “during the first wave” there were outbreaks at Mission Institution in British Columbia, several penitentiaries in Quebec, and Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener.

He said CSC “should have learned from the first wave” and implemented a strategy to mitigate the spread of the virus in federal penitentiaries, but has not.

Releasing inmates with sentences that were almost up would have lowered the risk of the virus spreading among prison populations, Beaudin said.

Outbreaks, he said, are now “running rampant” in correctional facilities around Canada and pointed to the situation at Saskatchewan Penitentiary, recent outbreaks at the Stony Mountain Institution north of Winnipeg and the Joyceville Institution in Kingston, Ontario.

“I’m absolutely stunned, but not surprised. Back in March we called for them to release prisoners when their time was almost up. They refused to do that... They had their chance and they blew it,” Beaudin said.

He said that the Correctional Service of Canada, the Parole Board of Canada and the federal cabinet had five months where there were no reported COVID-19 cases linked to penitentiaries to properly prepare for a second wave.

“They knew a second wave was coming and they were ill-prepared. After the first wave, they should have implemented a strategy.”

Beaudin previously worked as a justice of the peace for the Province of Saskatchewan for five years, and later as an advocate for incarcerated Indigenous youth. He maintains connections with inmates as part of his role within CAP.

He said inmates have reached out to him fearful for their lives as cases mount in Prince Albert.

One inmate asked Beaudin to tell his friends and family goodbye in case he should die.

“If something happens to him he said he just wants me to get hold of people to let them know what’s going on and that he might not ever see them again,” Beaudin said.

“There are other prisons that are going through the same thing. But there’s a common theme here and that is the government is not telling the truth. There’s no accountability.”

He said the Government of Canada is failing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 inside Canada’s federal penitentiaries across the board.

“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must take control of this crisis and preserve the health and safety of federal prisoners, prison staff, and our communities,” Beaudin said.

He said that “after many months of inaction” and a rise in cases across penitentiaries in several provinces, “it is unacceptable to allow the status quo to continue.”

“On behalf of my people, I am demanding the Government of Canada release as many nonviolent prisoners as possible through the many tools that exist to do so,” Beaudin said.

“I also urge that those kept caged in Canada’s colonial federal penitentiaries be given access to the programs, contact with loved ones and volunteers, and supplies required to come out of this crisis alive. Inaction will signal to Indigenous Peoples that our lives do not matter and that the federal government remains unable to move past colonialist legacies.”

Beaudin reiterated calls for those responsible for the lack of action to be held accountable and pointed a finger at CSC Commissioner Anne Kelly, who he has previously called on to resign.

Beaudin had also called for Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair to bring fresh blood to the CSC leadership. Ideally someone with a background other than corrections, he said.

Neither the CSC nor the office of minister Blair provided direct answers in regards to a COVID-19 strategy by press time.

Blair’s Press Secretary Mary-Liz Power said in a written statement in September that the government has made commitments to expand programs to keep at-risk youth out of the criminal justice system, make drug treatment courts the default option for first-time non-violent offenders, and introduce legislation to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Power said an investment of $448 million for new staff, infrastructure and mental healthcare that would “support enhanced assessment and early diagnosis of inmates at intake and throughout incarceration, enhanced mental health care, support for patient advocacy services and 24/7 health care at designated institutions.”

CSC spokesperson Marie Pier Lécuyer said in September that a critical component of addressing systemic racism at CSC lies in “our ability to listen, learn and take action by working in partnership.”

“We recognize that there is an overrepresentation of Indigenous offenders in our correctional institutions, which is a reflection of the disparities within our society that we must all work to fix — here at CSC as well as within our criminal justice system,” Lécuyer said.

“Addressing this systemic issue takes time and we know there is more work to do. We are committed to ensuring that Indigenous, Black and other racialized offenders are afforded the same protections, dignity and treatment as others, consistent with the Canadian Human Rights Act, and CSC’s policies,” Lécuyer said.

The CSC said Commissioner Anne Kelly personally met with the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and has had ongoing correspondence with them this Spring about ways to work together.

“We have a positive relationship,” Lécuyer said.

Beaudin, however, had something more to add.

He likened the conditions at Saskatchewan Penitentiary to the colonial practice of giving blankets laced with smallpox to Indigenous people so that they would die.

“It’s like they tore a piece of history from the colonial handbook… Instead of poisoning blankets with smallpox, they’re poisoning the prisons (with COVID-19),” Beaudin said.

“If they can’t step up to the plate, they should just resign.

“All of them.”

***

While Beaudin had strong words for senior leadership, the union representing correctional officers said spread to the penitentiary was “inevitable” given the consistent transfers of inmates in and out of the facility.

Union of Canadian Correctional Officers regional president James Bloomfield said the focus now is ensuring the rest of the facility can remain free from the virus.

“It’s a reality of how this system works with the amount of movement from provincial to federal (facilities) and the number of people involved,” he said.

“We know where this came in as far as common sense. What really matters is what happens when it gets in. We have taken every precaution you can imagine coming in that door.”

Sask. Pen houses about 800 inmates, Bloomfield said, and at any given time has about 360 correctional officers. That’s a lot of people all in one, confined space.

One staff member who spoke to the Herald on the condition of anonymity said the facility has strong sanitation requirements in place, but that all it would take is one mistake for a virus like this to spread.

The staff member said they are concerned for the health and wellbeing of the inmates as the virus spreads. Inmates have shared similar concerns about shared spaces such as recreation areas, showers and phones.

While some inmates believe staff don’t care and would rather the institution lockdown, Bloomfield says that’s not the case.

“Everybody is doing their best and I don’t believe there is malice,” Bloomfield said.

“No matter how many bad mistakes have been made along the way. In this situation, we, fortunately, haven’t had any big mistakes. We’ve got everything under control the best we can right now. We don’t have other options here.”

The situation has been hard on guards as well.

Saskatchewan Penitentiary staff won’t be able to spend Christmas with their families but will still be required to go to work after a self-isolation order was sent to all of the facility’s employees Monday.

The order is in place until after Christmas, though one staff member who spoke to the Herald on condition of anonymity indicated it was until Dec. 27.

“We’re on a cruise ship on land. That’s a way to look at an environment like that,” Bloomfield said.

“You’ve got a building that is very old,” he said.

“It has … all open bars and no doors, which makes it very difficult to isolate. The air currents are designed to go through the cells.” All of that makes containing the spread that much more difficult.

While CSC has faced outbreaks before, the public health order to self-isolate is a first.

“All correctional officers that work there have been asked to self-isolate … from their families, from everything,” Bloomfield said.

“This came from absolutely nowhere. Nobody’s happy about this. It’s the first time it’s ever happened to us … across the country, this kind of order. We don’t really have much clarity as to why.”

Employees are also expected to keep working through the isolation order. They suit up in complete PPE.

Bloomfield said that the only relief staff members have had since COVID hit Canada in March has been to go home and spend time with their families.

“That’s now been taken away from them,” he said.

“They’ve been going at this since March with no break. Their stress levels are right through the roof. It’s the most stressful time of the year … and you can’t hug anybody else for the next number of days. The timing could not be any worse.”

With inmates cooped up for longer periods of time, their stress levels are rising, too. That makes what can already be a tense environment more volatile.

“There are two groups this affects the most,” Bloomfield said, “the correctional officers and the inmates. As officers, we know exactly what happens when we keep people closed up for longer periods of time. The reality is everybody is stressed right out. It is extremely volatile. You add this kind of stress on both sides of those bars and you end up with a lot of situations that are stress-related. We’re doing the best we can to get through this while trying to make sure we don’t lose any lives."

If you are or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, help is available at all hours. Support can be found at the Canada Suicide Prevention Service website. If you are in immediate danger, you can call 911. You can learn more about suicide prevention in the province at Saskatchewan.ca

Michael Bramadat-Willcock, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter and Peter Lozinski, Prince Albert Daily Herald, The Northern Advocate

COVID IN PRISON

138 Sask. Pen inmates, staff positive for COVID-19, CSC says

\

© Don Healy The Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert

A COVID-19 outbreak at Saskatchewan Penitentiary has grown to 138 cases among staff and inmates.

As of Tuesday, 123 inmates and 12 staff had tested positive at the penitentiary’s medium-security unit and there were three reported cases in the maximum-security unit, according to a statement from the Correctional Service of Canada.

Nine of the inmates in medium security have recovered and the remainder are considered active.

The first case at the prison was identified on Dec. 12 in the medium-security unit. The Saskatchewan Health Authority subsequently declared an outbreak there and the Canadian Red Cross is now on site advising staff, according to the CSC.

The SHA issued a public health order to all staff at the institution on Dec. 20, asking staff to avoid mixing with others — including people in their own homes — and advising them not to stop anywhere on their way to and from work. The letter stated the order was to continue until at least Dec. 27.

“Obviously when you get an order like that a few days before Christmas, everybody gets extremely upset and tries to figure out what the hell happened,” said James Bloomfield, the Prairie regional president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, which represents officers at federal institutions.

Bloomfield said similar letters have not been sent to staff at other federal institutions, including Stony Mountain in Manitoba, where more than 250 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 and nearly 80 cases are active. He said the union wants to know what aspect of the outbreak at Saskatchewan Penitentiary triggered the letter.

Correctional staff also want clarity on whether the letter is an order or a recommendation, since the wording of different parts of the letter implies both, Bloomfield said.

“At this point, it’s being viewed and assessed as an order.”

The CSC says mass testing is being offered to all staff and all inmates in the maximum-, medium- and minimum-security units, including asymptomatic people. Contact tracing is underway for those who have tested positive.

How the virus got into the institution has not been determined. Transfers between provincial and federal institutions continue despite the pandemic; Bloomfield said he wonders if the provincial transfers in particular could be a contributing factor.

The SHA has declared COVID-19 outbreaks at the jails in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert .

In an effort to curtail the spread of the virus, only one inmate at a time is allowed out on each range; inmates can’t borrow books from the prison library, and in-person personal visits are suspended.

Advocates such as Sherri Maier with Beyond Prison Walls Canada are expressing concern about the extended period of time inmates are confined to their cells.

In a letter to the Office of the Correctional Investigator, she described the situation as “inhumane and deteriorating their mental health.”

She said inmates are asking to be let out of their cells four to six at a time, instead of one at a time.

Maier has written to the ombudsman for federal inmates, asking for an investigation.

“Sask Pen should have been proactive, they saw places like Mission (Institution in British Columbia) get hit with covid and that should been their wake up call to do something and be proactive,” she wrote.

Maier suggests the CSC request help from the local fire department, paramedics and the military and is calling for the federal investigator to look into sanitation measures in the units. She said she’s been told by inmates in one unit of Saskatchewan Penitentiary that garbage is piling up outside their cells because there’s no cleaner to take it out.

According to the CSC, with only one inmate allowed out on a range at a time, cleaners are working in the morning, which means garbage is accumulated on ranges in order for large batches to go directly to a garbage truck, based on a Canadian Red Cross recommendation. The goal is to prevent a clean area from being “contaminated” by range garbage, the CSC says.

Contractors have been hired for “enhanced” cleaning, and cleaning supplies and products are “readily available” for inmates in each unit, including sanitizing wipes for high-touch surfaces such as shower handles and telephones, the CSC said.

About 705 employees work at the penitentiary, which has close to 750 inmates. As of Dec. 23, there were 473 inmates in medium security, 139 in maximum security and 109 in

COVID IN PRISON
Some Sask. Pen prisoners have entered into suicide pact, advocate says

Saskatchewan Penitentiary is pictured in this file photo.

Jayda Taylor Video Journalist 

VIDEO AT THE END

Published Thursday, December 24, 2020 

PRINCE ALBERT -- A group of prisoners serving life sentences at Saskatchewan Penitentiary have entered into a suicide pact because of a COVID-19 lockdown, according to an inmates advocate.

Sherri Maier of Beyond Prison Walls Canada has been speaking over the phone with Sask. Pen inmate Bronson Gordon whenever she can. Maier said the pact is among about eight inmates on his unit.

"I know you think I'm super strong, but I'm losing all of my strength,” Gordon told Maier in a recorded phone call she shared with CTV News.

Gordon was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years after being convicted of first degree murder in 2018.

Maier said it’s unlike Gordon to feel like there’s no way out. She said the pact shows a sense of hopelessness and a means of resisting how the outbreak is being handled at the federal prison.

"Bronson's a very strong man. He prays quite a bit and now he's 'I just gave up on that. What's the point?' I know that's not like him to talk like that, that's definitely not the kind of person he is."

She said a group of inmates also went on a hunger strike.

“Following a meeting with institutional managers to discuss their concerns, several of the inmates ate lunch. We are working in close collaboration with these offenders to resolve their concerns,” said Correctional Service Canada (CSC) in an emailed statement.

Maier said inmates are being held in their cells except for about half an hour every second day.

"He's in his cell, and it's been over a week already,” Maier said about Gordon. “He reaches his arms out on both sides, he can touch both sides of the wall.”

She said inmates have asked to be let out for at least a few hours daily while wearing masks and physical distancing.

Sask. Pen deputy warden Lee Anne Skene said she’s not aware of any hunger strikes or suicide pacts among inmates.

“Offenders’ mental health and those threats are reviewed and taken very seriously,” she said, adding that staff follow a commissioner’s directive when an inmate is considering suicide.

“They would be assessed by a mental health clinician to determine what their level of need would be required or intervention need would be and then a plan would be put in place to safely address and meet their needs.”

Skene said staff conduct wellness checks twice a day. Psychiatric appointments have continued throughout the pandemic.

She said a chaplain and elders are also available to speak over the phone with offenders.