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)

Thank You/Merci

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Contact info:

Shelley Brown

Shelley.brown@carleton.ca