Recreation yard at Stony Mountain Institution, Manitoba. Photo courtesy Senate of Canada.

Access to information is something most Canadians take for granted. While the majority of us rely on the internet, email and printed materials to learn and plan for the future, incarcerated people are cut off from these essential resources.

People in Canadian prisons are barred from using the internet or email, and printed materials are limited and hard to come by. Most prisons have a library, but hours of operation can be sporadic, the selection of material is often minimal, and access can be heavily restricted due to rolling lockdowns and bureaucratic obstacles. This lack of access to information creates significant barriers that extend far beyond an individual’s time in prison.

We have become deeply aware of this issue through our involvement in an all-volunteer group called Write On: Supporting Prisoners Through Correspondence. Our work involves responding to hundreds of letters from incarcerated people across Canada who write to us to ask us for information they cannot access inside. We have, since 2019, responded to more than 1,100 letters. Many people who write us tell us that they have no other means to access the information they are requesting.

At Write On, we try to help fill in this information gap. As one person who wrote to us stated: we are their Google. What has stood out for us is that those who write us often ask for information that could better their lives: legal information to help them work on their cases, reading materials to expand their minds, health and wellness information to improve their mental........

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