Why are people dying in jail while waiting for a trial?

In today’s Big Story Podcast, if you’re held “on remand” it means you haven’t been convicted of a crime yet, but also that you can’t secure bail or a judge’s release. Practically, it means you go to jail, and stay there while your case crawls through the courts.

Geena Mortfield, court and crime reporter for The Brandon Sun, wrote about remand for the Walrus.

“The population of individuals sitting in provincially run remand centers and jails, [who are] legally innocent, is more than double the number of people who have been found guilty and are serving time in those facilities,” says Mortfield.

The system, as it stands, is leading to overcrowding, illness and sometimes death. So how’d it get so bad? And how do we fix it?

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