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The Canadian Story of Women Offenders: Success, Lessons
Learned, Persistent Challenges Shelley Brown
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Carleton University,
Ottawa, Canada
Our time together today • The Canadian Context
• Young women, women and correctional statistics in Canada
• History of women’s corrections
• Current Gender-informed policy and legislation
• Measuring Success (and Failures)
• Lessons Learned
• Persistent challenges
10/8/2015 3 Source:
Maclean’s (2014)
Eh?
Young Women, Women and Correctional
Statistics in Canada
• 21,000 youth (12 to 17) admitted to correctional
services nationwide in 2013/2014 o 23% were young women (4,800/21,000)
• 342,000 adults admitted to correctional services
nationwide in 2013/2014 o 15% of all admissions to provincial or territorial system were women
• 13% of custody admissions
• 20% of community admissions
o 5% of all admissions to federal system were women
Source: Statistics Canada, 2015
Prison for Women
1934: Prison for Women (P4W) was opened in Kingston, Ontario.
1938: The Royal Commission on the Penal System (Archambault
Commission) was the first to call for its closure.
Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women
• 1989: CSC established the Task Force on Federally Sentenced
Women, co-chaired by CSC and the Canadian Association of
Elizabeth Fry Societies, and comprised of a diverse mix of
government representatives, correctional practitioners,
community advocates, Aboriginal organizations, and women
offenders.
• 1990: The Task Force released its groundbreaking report
entitled Creating Choices, which – among other
recommendations – advocated for the closure of P4W, the
establishment of a Healing Lodge, and the establishment of
regional facilities for women offenders.
Creating Choices: A new vision for federal women’s corrections
• Five overarching principles were identified in the report as the
foundation for a correctional strategy for women offenders:
o Empowerment,
o Meaningful and Responsible Choices,
o Respect and Dignity,
o Supportive Environment, and
o Shared Responsibility.
• These 5 principles remain relevant today and continue to
guide the development of policies, programs and
interventions for women offenders.
5 New Institutions...
Joliette Institution (Quebec)
Grand Valley Institution
for Women
(Ontario)
Edmonton Institution for Women
(Prairie)
Nova Institution for Women
(Atlantic)
Fraser Valley Institution
(Pacific)
and...
...an Aboriginal Healing Lodge
Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge (Prairie)
Federal women’s facilities
10
Infrastructure at Women Offender Facilities
• House style accommodation for women classified as minimum
and medium security
• Women responsible for their own budgets, groceries, cleaning,
cooking, laundry
• Mother-child house at each facility
• Traditional cell accommodation in separate Secure Units for
women classified as maximum security
• Structured Living Environments for minimum and medium
security women with cognitive and/or mental health issues (also house style accommodation) (Intensive Intervention
Strategy)
Gender-informed correctional policy Corrections and Conditional Release Act (2002)
Section 77-women specific programming is legislated
Commissioner’s Directives:
Institutional Mother Child
Program
Cross-gender staffing in
women offender institutions
Women-centered
programs:
Employability/Social:
Parenting
Correctional Programs:
DBT
Violence
Substance abuse
Women-centered strategies:
Program Strategy for Women Offenders
Intensive Intervention Strategy (SLE)
National Employment Strategy for Women
Offenders
Community Strategy for Women Offenders
Women Modular Intervention
Mental Health Strategy 10/8/2015 12
Correctional Programs • Research based (RNR model, gender-informed research)
• Address multiple factors contributing to women’s criminal
behaviour
• Reduce re-offending by helping women make positive changes and acquire skills
• Address emotional regulation needs, cognitive functioning
and problematic behaviours leading to crime
• Culturally informed
• Always evolving
Correctional Programs • Women Offender Substance Abuse
o 70% of women enrolled
• Anger and Emotions Management o 29% of women enrolled
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy o 28% of women enrolled
• Survivors of Abuse and Trauma o 23% of women enrolled
10/8/2015 14
Source: Barrett, Allenby & Taylor (2010). Twenty Years
Later: Revisiting the Task Force on Federally Sentenced
Women. CSC Research Report
Gender-informed
Evaluation & Research
External
•Auditor General
•Correctional Investigator
•Canadian Human Rights
Commission
•Cross-Gender Monitoring
Project
•Coroner’s Inquest o Ashley Smith
Internal
•women offender
research and evaluation
divisions o Profiles
o Process and outcome
evaluations
o Assessment—development,
validation and re-validation
• Custody Rating Scale
• Security Reclassification
• Computerized Substance
Abuse Measure
• Gender-informed dynamic
assessment
10/8/2015 15
Promoting Success • People
o Women themselves
o External advocacy – Elizabeth Fry Societies of Canada
o Internal advocacy – Correctional Ombudsman
o Devoted staff—grass root efforts
o Multi-level champions
• Systemic support
o Women-centered legislation and policy
o Centralized women offender sector (operations)
o Women-centered evaluation and research
o Formalized Partnerships (e.g., Exchange of Service
Agreements)
o Women-centered training for staff
o Feminist scholarship
Lessons Learned • Know your population
o Do you have maximum security women?
• Media – Friend and Foe
• Partnerships are critical to success
• Women-centered legislation and policy support is
needed to ensure long term success
• Not everyone believes in the cause
10/8/2015 17
Persistent Challenges
• Nurturing positive relationships
• Conducting evidenced-based evaluations of gender-
informed practices
o Methodological rigorous evaluation designs difficult to
achieve = easy targets for cynics
• Meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse and
complex population with shrinking resources
o Mental health
o Victimization histories
o Access to community resources
o Aboriginal women
10/8/2015 18
A final word
• “The chances of success for a progressive
correctional experiment are highest in women’s
corrections” (The Honourable Louise Arbour,
Preface to the Commission of Inquiry, 1996)