Organizations

Disability Justice Network of Ontario’s Prison Project: Operates prisoner support phone lines in several Ontario communities and can send legal information or make referrals to legal services. 

Prisoner Legal Supports’ Phone Line: An Ottawa-based organization that operates a phone line Mondays 1-5pm for people who are incarcerated. Areas of practice include Human Rights, Charter Litigation, access to healthcare, internal complaints and grievances, and Ombudsman Complaints. They do not practice criminal law. 

Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC): Operates toll-free phone lines for people in correctional facilities who have experienced anti-Black racism in areas such as human rights, interactions with the police, housing, employment, income assistance, or education. Dial 1-877-279-0680 or 1-844-302-2694.      

Queen’s University Prison Law Clinic: Provides legal services in prison law to people in Kingston-area penitentiaries, including Warkworth Institution. Dial 613-546-1171.

Write On!: Answers letters from people in prison and responds to research requests, including requests for information on the law, resources, programs and services, prison rules and policies, or other kinds of information.

Criminalization and Punishment Education Project (CPEP): Carries out public education, activism, and research in the hopes of creating social change, including promoting policy alternatives that are appropriate, effective, just, humane, and non-violent.

Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project:  Engages in direct action, public education, and mutual aid to shed light on the harms caused by incarceration, and connects prisoners with social, financial, legal, and health supports.

PASAN: A community-based prisoner health and harm reduction organization that provides support, education, and advocacy to prisoners and ex-prisoners across Canada, particularly in the areas of HIV and hepatitis C. It also produces a free quarterly newsletter called Cell Count and has a toll-free hotline: 1-866-224-9978. 

Elizabeth Fry Society: Leads legal advocacy, projects and initiatives, as well as legislative change work to “address the persistent ways in which women and gender-diverse people impacted by criminalization are denied humanity and excluded from community.”

Walls to Bridges (W2B): Provides credit-based courses offered through post-secondary institutions taught within correctional settings. The classes include an equal number of incarcerated students and university/college-based students learning together as peers.

McMaster Indigenous Research Institute’s Prison Education Project: Through a three-tiered program, increases post-secondary education access for Indigenous peoples who are incarcerated. This includes the Walls to Bridges program mentioned above, post-incarceration support for students living in transition homes, as well as a mentorship program.

John Howard Society: Provides programs and services that help people affected by the justice system develop key life skills, navigate issues of criminal justice, and build productive futures after incarceration.

Literal Change: Operates one-on-one literacy programs for people incarcerated in the Toronto East Detention Centre and The Toronto South Detention Centre.