Inmates in Her Majesty's Penitentiary say they feel hopeless, alone and increasingly unwell

Inmates inside Newfoundland's notorious,Victorian-era jail say their mental health is deteriorating as theyare allegedly locked in their cellblocks for days and denied visitswith their families.

Jonathan Payne was distraught as he described feeling rodentscrawl over his body while he tried to seek relief from thesweltering heat inside Her Majesty's Penitentiary by sleeping on theconcrete floor.

He said in a recent phone call from the St. John's jail that hehad only been outside a few times all summer, and that staffingshortages had led to cancelled visits with his family even thosescheduled for video.

Inmate Kevin Reid says men inside the St. John's jail feel theycan't show any vulnerability or emotion, and that as their distressgrows, they have nobody to turn to about their deteriorating mentalstate.

He said in a phone call that recreation, including time in thegym, has been cut back drastically due to staffing shortages,eliminating a crucial outlet for inmates to work off increasingtension.

The province's Justice Department was not immediately availablefor comment.

Officials confirmed last week that an inmate died at the164-year-old jail, and Payne and Reid say they have been offered nocounselling to deal with the death, adding that they rarely haveaccess to counsellors or psychologists at all.

"To be honest, there are guys here whose mental illnesses aredeteriorating by the day," Reid said. "Guys here are feeling likethey're lost, like there's no hope. I mean, we're not having contactwith family, we're not being able to see our friends."

Payne says there is little hope for recovery or rehabilitation inthe jail, and people leave in much worse shape than when theyarrived.

"We're like cows going to the slaughter," Payne said.

"We have rights that are not being met. And we're not as bad aspeople make us out to be. A lot of us actually want help, and wecan't get it."

Newfoundland and Labrador's Justice Department has provided nodetails about the identity of the inmate who died last week or howthey died.

The province has the highest rate of inmate suicide in AtlanticCanada by jail capacity, according to figures from all fourprovincial governments. Five inmates in provincial facilities diedby suicide between 2010 and 2020 in Newfoundland and Labrador, wherethere are 281 beds across the province's jails. By comparison, fivepeople died by suicide in Nova Scotia jails in that same decade.

Nova Scotia has a provincial inmate capacity of about 700.

New Brunswick reported one inmate death by suicide in that time.Prince Edward Island reported none.

Sheila Wildeman, a law professor at Dalhousie University who ispart of Nova Scotia's East Coast Prison Justice group, condemned theconditions inside Her Majesty's Penitentiary. Across the country,staffing shortages are leading to unacceptable lockdowns and otherharsh conditions for inmates in provincial facilities, she said inan emailed statement earlier this week.

The group is calling for more transparency about deaths andconditions in jails from provincial governments.

"However, the most obvious and constructive thing we can do toprevent further deaths and other grievous harms to the health andhuman rights of the nation's most vulnerable is invest in the socialdeterminants of health, and moreover, to do so in a way that puts apriority on those experiencing intersecting forms of oppression andvulnerability," Wildeman wrote.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government has promised to build anew jail to replace the crumbling penitentiary. A contract wasawarded last year to begin clearing land for the new building.

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