Made in Canadian Prisons: An urgent discussion about prison labour in Canada

Prisons are many things. Among these, they are places of work for the tens of thousands of human beings imprisoned there. Like others, these people report for work in a variety of roles: kitchens, maintenance work, food processing, clerical jobs, and manufacturing. Unlike others, they do so without being recognized as employees and without the basic legal protections usually afforded to workers. Among other impacts, this can mean working in problematic conditions for meagre pay. For instance, in 2023 the Office of the Correctional Investigator estimated that, at the most common level of pay, federally-imprisoned workers earn a take-home pay of 46 cents an hour. These realities are likewise bound up with the complexity of choice inside prisons, the safety and dignity of people we put in these conditions, and individuals’ ability to meet their daily needs, support their families, and finance their transition upon release. 

In conversation with some of the leading figures in prison labour study and activism, this roundtable will explore the seemingly untenable state of prison labour in Canada, current efforts to address it, and the various legal and social paths forward.