It was a Friday morning when Nicole Tobin was pulled over by police while driving her daughter to preschool.
When they screened her name, an arrest warrant came up. She was arrested on the spot for missing court in relation to a motor vehicle incident. Tobin said she pleaded with police not to handcuff her in front of her daughter, but they still did.
“They held me in handcuffs with my three-year-old for 30 minutes before my stepmother could come pick her up,” she said Monday.
That was the beginning of Tobin’s plight with Nova Scotia’s justice system. She told her story as part of a panel held by Books Beyond Bars in front of the old public library on Spring Garden Road.
Cecilia Masimo, who works with Books Beyond Bars, organized the event to commemorate Prisoners Justice Day. Aug. 10 of every year marks the day when prisoners at Millhaven Institution, a maximum-security prison in Ontario, held a one-day hunger and work strike in 1975. They protested the negligent and inhumane prison system and the lack of an inquiry into inmate Edward Nalon, who bled to death in solitary confinement one year earlier.
Since then, prisoners in Nova Scotia and across Canada refuse to eat, work or practise any activity on this day to demand better treatment in prisons.
Masimo said prisoners who go on strike are thrown in solitary confinement, which has been rebranded to structured intervention units in 2019.
“This (event) is how we can stand in solidarity with the prisoners who are protesting against injustice.”
Masimo said she chose to hold the panel across from the provincial court because courts are part of the system that sends people to jail.
“In a way we’re holding them accountable,” said Masimo.
She added that the statue of Winston Churchill also stood as a reminder of the prison system’s roots in colonization.
People in attendance expressed their frustration with the injustices facing prisoners on post-it notes. The notes were stuck on wooden boards which they intended to leave in front of the courthouse.
Serving time doesn't help
After her arrest, Tobin was taken to the Burnside jail where she was left in a dark room. Tobin who was pregnant at the time, was segregated from the rest of the prisoners for hours with no food or medication.
“The justice system right now is traumatizing. ... It only gave me long-lasting detrimental effects to my mental health.”
She said she was also emotionally and physically abused before going to prison but couldn’t find any mental health support while serving her time.
“Serving time didn’t help us do anything. It’s the help we sought afterwards is what helped,” she said.
Patricia Whyte, who is Indigenous, said she faced a lot of racism in prison in addition to the lack of support services.
Sara Tessier, who is part of the LGBTQ community, said she was targeted for her identity and referred to as “a predator.”
Abolishing prisons and investing in communities
After serving her time, the stigma followed Tobin when she tried to find work. She was a student at Mount St. Vincent University and had a job before her imprisonment.
“It was humiliating going to interview after interview and … me telling them … I have a record and then the job is gone.”
Tobin is now working with Books Beyond Bars and will be starting a bachelor of education degree in the fall.
Corey Writes, who was previously incarcerated and sat on Monday’s panel, said the stigma is present within the prison system itself. When Writes wanted to give a speech to the youth at the Waterville Youth Centre, his case management team said, “it’s too late for them.”
“If a child does something bad and you tell them go to the corner and you don’t explain to them what they did wrong or how to change their mind ... they’re going to do the same exact thing,” he said.
According to data released by the federal government in 2018, the average annual cost of keeping an inmate incarcerated was about $117,000 in 2015-2016.
All panelists agreed this money should be going to eliminating poverty and offering services such as rehabilitation and mental health support.
“People wouldn’t need prisons if they had the supports in the first place,” said Tessier.
Nebal Snan is a local journalism initiative reporter, a position funded by the federal government.
