More Stormy Weather or Sunny Ways? A Forecast for Change by Prisoners of the Canadian Carceral State
Abstract
Upon being elected, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (2015) mandated the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson Raybould to review criminal justice laws, policies and practices enacted during the 2006-2015 period where successive Conservative federal governments were in power. Recognizing that the knowledge produced by prisoners, particularly when brought together with academic arguments, can serve to enlighten public discourse about the current state of carceral institutions, the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons undertook a Canada-wide consultation with federal prisoners with regard to what changes have occurred in the institutions where they have served time in the last decade. This paper, which summarizes that consultation, begins with an overview of the Conservative punishment agenda, followed with a thematic review of how these changes have affected prisoners and what they would like to see moving forward in the context of the governments promised review of the Canadian criminal justice system. Representing the captive from every region of the country at all security levels and privileging the voices of Women, Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ, and Elderly prisoners, the ten most prevalent areas of concern and reform that emerged include: sentencing, mental health, health care, food, prisoner pay, old age security, education and vocational training, case management and staff culture, parole and conditional release conditions, and pardons.
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Decade of Tough on Crime Policies in Canada”, Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 58(4): 609-627.
Comack, Elizabeth, Cara Fabre, and Shanise Burgher (2015) The Impact of the Harper Government’s “Tough on Crime” Strategy: Hearing from Frontline Workers, Winnipeg: Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives.
Cook, Alana N. and Ronald Roesch (2012) “‘Tough on Crime’ Reforms: What Psychology Has to Say About the Recent and Proposed Justice Policy in Canada”, Canadian Psychology, 53(3): 217-219.
Correctional Service Canada (2016) Report on Plans and Priorities 2015-2016, Ottawa.
Correctional Service Canada (2015) Report on Plans and Priorities 2014-2015, Ottawa.
Correctional Service Canada (2014) Report on Plans and Priorities 2013-2014, Ottawa.
Correctional Service Canada (2013) Report on Plans and Priorities 2012-2013, Ottawa.
Correctional Service Canada (2012) Report on Plans and Priorities 2011-2012, Ottawa.
Chricton, Hayley and Rose Ricciardelli (2016) “Shifting Grounds: Experiences of Canadian Correctional Offi cers”, Criminal Justice Review, 4(1): 427-445.
Doob, Anthony N. and Cheryl M. Webster (2016) “Weathering the Storm? Testing Long-Standing Canadian Sentencing in the Twenty-First Century”, Crime and Justice, 45(1): 359-418.
Doob Anthony N. and Cheryl M. Webster (2006) “Countering Punitiveness: Understanding Stability in Canada’s Imprisonment Rate”, Law & Society Review, 40(2): 325-368.
Elliot, Kari G. and Kyle Coady (2016) Mandatory Minimum Penalties in Canada: Analysis and Annotated Bibliography, Ottawa: Department of Justice.
Fine, Sean (2015) “Prisoner Launches Class-Action Suit Over Use of Solitary Confi nement”, Globe and Mail – July 17.
Fournier-Ruggles, Lynn (2011) “The Cost of Getting Tough on Crime: Isn’t Prevention the Policy Answer?”, The Journal of Public Policy, Administration and Law, 2(1): 9-28.
Harris, Kathleen (2016) “Prison Watchdog Sees Sharp Decline in Use of Solitary Confinement”, CBC News – March 14.
Jackson, Michael. (2015) “Refl ections on 40 Years of Advocacy to End the Isolation of Canadian Prisoners”, Canadian Journal of Human Rights, 4(1): 57-87.
Jackson, Michael (1983) Prisoners of Isolation: Solitary Confi nement in Canada, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Jackson, Michael and Graham Stewart (2009) A Flawed Compass: A Human Rights Analysis of the Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety.
Kerr, Lisa C. (2015) “The Origins of Unlawful Prison Policies”, Canadian Journal of Human Rights, 4(1): 89-119.
Martel, Joane, Renée Brassard and Mylène Jacoud (2011) “When Two Worlds Collide: Aboriginal Risk Management in Canadian Corrections”, British Journal of Criminology, 51(2): 235-255.
McElligott, Greg (2009) “The Political Economy of Corrections: Is Canada Ready for Penal Mass Production?”, 81st Annual Conference of the Canadian Political Science Association, May.
Monchalin, Lisa (2016) The Colonial Problem: An Indigenous Perspective on Crime and Injustice in Canada, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Monaghan, Jeffrey (2014) “Security Traps and Discourses of Radicalization: Mapping the Surveillance of Muslims in Canada”, Surveillance and Society, 12(4): 485-501.
O’Connor, Joe (2015) “‘Sunny ways my friends, sunny ways’: Lessons of Wilfrid Laurier Not Lost on Trudeau, 120 years later”, National Post – October 20.
Office of the Correctional Investigator (2015) Administrative Segregation in Federal Corrections: 10 year trends, Ottawa.
Office of the Correctional Investigator (2016) Annual Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator 2015-2016, Ottawa.
Office of the Correctional Investigator (2015) Annual Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator 2014-2015, Ottawa.
Office of the Correctional Investigator (2014) Annual Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator 2013-2014, Ottawa.
Office of the Correctional Investigator. (2013) Annual Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator 2012-2013, Ottawa.
Office of the Correctional Investigator. (2012) Annual Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator 2011-2012, Ottawa.
Paquin-Marseille, Lysiane, Brian A. Grant and Steven Michel (2012) Review of the Prison Crowding and Double-Bunking Literature, Ottawa: Correctional Service
Canada.
Parkes, Debra (2015) “Ending the Isolation: An Introduction to the Special Volume on Human Rights and Solitary Confi nement”, Canadian Journal of Human Rights, 4(1): vii-xiii.
Parkes, Debra (2014) “The Punishment Agenda in the Courts”, Supreme Court Review, 67(2d): 589-615.
Piché, Justin (2015) “Playing the “Treasury Card” to Contest Prison Expansion: Lessons from a Public Criminology Campaign”, Social Justice, 41(3): 145-167.
Piché, Justin and Karine Major (2015) “Prisoner Writing in/on Solitary Confi nement: Contributions from the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, 1988-2013”, Canadian Journal of Human Rights, 4(1): 1-33.
Reitano, Julie (2016) Admissions to Adult Correctional Services in Canada, 2015-2016, Ottawa: Statistics Canada.
Ricciardelli, Rose, Hayley Chricton and Lisa Adams (2014) “Stuck: Conditions of Canadian Confinement”, Punishment and Incarceration: A Global Perspective, 19: 95-120.
Sampson, Robert, Serge Glascon, Ian Glen, Clarence Louis, and Sharon Rosenfeldt (2007) A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety, Ottawa: Minister of Public Works and Government
Services.
Shook, Jarrod (2015) “Incentive to Scrutinise”, Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, 24(1): 52-54.
Shook, Jarrod (2013) “Debunking Double Bunking in the Correctional Service of Canada: A Critical Qualitative Account”, Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, 22(1): 64-67.
Sykes, Gresham M. (2007[1958]) The Society of Captives: A Study of a Maximum Security Prison, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Tonry, Michael (2013) ““Nothing” Works: Sentencing “Reform” in Canada and the United States”, Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 55(4): 465-479.
Trudeau, Justin (2015) Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Mandate Letter, Ottawa: Off ce of the Prime Minister of Canada.
Union of Canadian Correctional Offi cers (2011) A Critical Review of the Practice of Double Bunking Within Corrections: The Implications on Staff , Inmates, Correctional Facilities and the Public.
Webster, Cheryl M. and Anthony N. Doob (2015) “US Punitiveness ‘Canadian Style’? Cultural Values and Canadian Punishment Policy”, Punishment & Society, 17(3):299-321.
Zinger, Ivan (2016) “Human Rights and Federal Corrections: A Commentary on a
Decade of Tough on Crime Policies in Canada”, Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 58(4): 609-627.
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Published
2017-10-13
