Getting and sending letters was affected by the same arbitrariness that shaped everything in prison. There were rules and routines, but you could never count on them being followed. For example, in the Assessment Unit, we were supposed to get mail every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In my 11 weeks there, that happened three times; the other eight weeks it was different, for reasons that were never explained to us.
Both incoming and outgoing letters could be, and often were, opened by prison staff. Supposedly they were only supposed to be examined for contraband, but every prisoner accepted that all letters could be read by staff. This was also arbitrary. Some letters to me were sent back because of enclosures (for example, a crayon drawing made by a child — that is not allowed), whereas in other cases, letters with the same kinds of enclosures got through with no issue. You just never knew which rules would be enforced at which times.
My letters tried to convey a sense of my life “inside” for people for whom this was a completely foreign world. A few excerpts from a couple of letters written close together, about a month after I got to minimum security, might help readers of this column in the same way. I’ve added some (parenthetic comments) in some cases.
Item 1 — Medications
I had a minor victory this week — I’ve ordered glucosamine for my arthritis and should have it in a week or two. In the Assessment Unit, this was impossible to get (the nurse told me I could get it “sometime after you are released”). But here I discovered ordering anything nonprescription is easy. It took about five minutes through “inmate purchasing.” There are two ways for prisoners to buy things. For some things, such as non-prescription pharmacy items or computer games or radios, you go to a designated prisoner who is a purchasing agent. Other things that are deemed more sensitive (which for some reason includes bedside table lamps) must be purchased through the CSC (Correctional Service Canada) staff person purchasing agent, which is slower and harder. Books and magazines used to be done by inmate purchasing but were recently moved to the CSC purchasing officer and are now very hard to get.
Item 2 — Education
The prison is offering a “pre-employment carpentry” course, and I’m tutoring students in the maths component. It’s not clear this course will be of any real value to anyone in terms of jobs, but in here the unwritten rule is to enrol in as many things as you can and pile up as many certificates as you can, as all of these are good things to put in front of the parole board. There are about a dozen guys in this program and their maths skills are highly variable, ranging from pretty good to very weak. More than a few have forgotten — if they ever knew — how to add or multiply fractions, and working with some of them on various math problems shows that they just aren’t used to conceptualizing those problems, resulting in silly mistakes because they don’t do the right operations. So this is an area where I think I can be quite useful. (Note the absence of any instruction from teachers…)
Item 3 — The phone
Lately I’ve had lots of trouble with the phone system, especially phoning home. It disconnects my calls before anyone can answer and still charges me for them. I raised that problem with “the phone lady” (that’s what everyone, including staff, calls her), who is here briefly twice a week. She gave me a new phone card (each prisoner has a card to insert in the phone with a chip that has our ID and the phone numbers we’re allowed to call). However, the problem persists, and I’ve found that a few people have had similar problems. I’m still spending $5-10 per day for one or two calls and don’t want to run out of money before the end of the month. (You can only add money to your phone account once a month.) Also, I’m only allowed to use the phones next to my house, and they are often all busy in the evening, which is the best time to reach many people. Phoning, like everything else, is much harder than it needs to be.
Item 4 — Visits
Visitors can’t bring in anything (i.e., no phone, wallet, etc.) other than coins for the vending machines, which have coffee, pop, sandwiches. I can bring with me snacks like potato chips or pop from the prison canteen. Unfortunately I can’t bring other food such as fruit. As usual, no explanation as to why the first is OK, but the second is not. And anything I bring must be eaten or discarded by the end of the visit.
Item 5 — Food
Major changes are being made to the foods available through our grocery store. We got a memo listing more than 60 items that were being taken out of supply and about 30 new ones that were being added. Apparently this came from the head office of CSC and applies to all prisons. As usual, there was no explanation of why this was changing or how the changes had been determined. Among the items being dropped are butter, bacon, fresh broccoli and cauliflower (both being replaced by frozen) and some sauces. Among those being added are salad mix, chocolate chips, cookies, cake mixes and hummus. So the change does not seem to be motivated by providing healthier food. Things like that tend to get people here pretty excited because our lives are already so circumscribed that when we lose something we like — and almost everybody here likes to eat something that’s being removed — people tend to get upset.
None of these items is horrible or scandalous. Prisoners could, and do, live with such things all the time. Compared to endless hours locked in a cell topped by frequent lockdowns, strip searches, the denial of the right to a parole hearing, the automatic refusal of requests and grievances, mandatory drug tests, endlessly being counted and so on, these things are minor. Yet they are also a constant reminder that as a prisoner you just don’t matter, and what you might prefer is of no concern to anyone but you. It’s not a life that makes one want to be a better person.
David Dorson is the pen name of someone who went through arrest, case disposition, imprisonment and parole in Ontario a few years ago. Law360 Canada has granted him anonymity because he offers a unique perspective on a subject that matters deeply to many readers, and revealing the author’s identity would make re-establishment in the community after serving his sentence much more difficult than it already is.
The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author’s firm, its clients, Law360 Canada, LexisNexis Canada or any of its or their respective affiliates. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.
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