‘Nobody Wants to Die in Prison’: Limited Access to Healthcare and Obstacles to Early Release for Federally Incarcerated Persons in Canada

Abstract

The Canadian federal prison population is aging, with facilities operated by the Correctional Service of Canada struggling to adequately meet the healthcare needs of these incarcerated persons. The Correctional Investigator of Canada and the Canadian Human Rights Commission recommended that expanded access to early forms of release, including compassionate release, for aging incarcerated persons would address many of these deficiencies. This study recruited 13 current and former Correctional Service of Canada staff members across four professions (nurses, psychologists, physicians and correctional officers) for qualitative interviews to discuss access to healthcare and obstacles to compassionate and other forms of early release for aging incarcerated persons. Additional focus was placed on access and obstacles for aging incarcerated persons convicted of sexual offences, a large and growing proportion of the aging federal prison population in Canada. A poststructuralist theoretical framework guided the research question, methodology and analysis. A thematic analysis methodology permitted interrogation of the power relations of the correctional system and the production of incarcerated person subjectivities. Results indicated that the healthcare needs of aging incarcerated persons often go unmet, and that reliance of regional hospitals and psychiatric facilities is required to address these needs. Access to early release is complicated, lengthy, and often not approved. Power relations and subjectivities figured prominently in the prioritization of risk management above all other measures in the consideration of early release. As a result, many aging incarcerated persons die in prison. Improved access to healthcare and expediting and expanding access to early release offer opportunities to better meet the healthcare needs of aging incarcerated persons, and permit death with dignity outside of correctional institutions.