Prison as Temporary Refuge

Post #252

~847 words; 5 minutes to read

Summary: Though commonly perceived as a space of pain and deprivation, prison can sometimes also serve as a place of safety and refuge. Research conducted at the University of Alberta reveals that for some women, prison provides access to support and resources unavailable in the community. Their findings highlight significant gaps in Canada’s welfare system.

Audio summary courtesy of volunteer Kimberly Duong.

La version française suit par la bénévole Rachel Cauver

By Emily Stewart, Associate Editor

“Yeah, it’s a safe spot for us […]. We feel safe when we come here. We’re not in survival mode. We get three meals a day […]. It’s almost kind of we’re living the dream, but we’re not, but we’re not you know, we’re not right […]. We laugh a lot here, you know what I mean. It’s honestly… I feel like, the last couple times I came into jail, I had a lot more fun here than I did out there [outside prison].”

As part of the larger University of Alberta Prison Project (UAPP) hosted at the Centre for Criminological Research, Dr. Sandra Bucerius and her colleagues interviewed 88 women incarcerated in remand facilities across Western Canada. The authors found that while the women acknowledged the punitive aspects of prisons, many also discussed what they considered to be ‘benefits’ to their short-term (typically less than 30 days) incarceration, describing prison as a refuge from the hardships they faced in their lives outside.

Life Outside Prison

As several of our posts have highlighted, many people who encounter the criminal justice system come from lives of poverty, drug addiction, homelessness, and physical and sexual violence. Many of the women discussed the limited access they had to housing, food, and medical care in the community, which contributed to their experiences of chaos and instability.

Prison as Temporary Refuge

Prison offered safety and basic services that many women struggled to find in the community. The researchers outlined six benefits that the women identified to being temporarily incarcerated, both for themselves and for others they knew:

1. Victimization: More than 75% of the women had experienced at least one incident of sexual or physical victimization, often in their childhood. Prison was the only place where they felt physically safe, with some going so far as to extend their time in prison.

2. Drug Use: Around 80-100% of the women had experiences with substance abuse. Although drugs were accessible in prison, many viewed their incarceration as a chance to get clean or take a break from their addiction. Some even credited prison as having “saved their lives” by removing them from environments where support was scarce, and the risks of overdose or violence were heightened.

To be clear, prison was not a place where women could draw on support and resources to kick their drug habit. Very short sentences made it hard to enroll in programs, if there were any. Many women discussed the insufficient support inside, with jail being merely a break in their regular drug consumption.

3. Housing: Homelessness was another common experience for these women. They had to couch surf, squat in garages or empty houses, and sleep on the streets or in shelters, despite viewing these as dangerous places. These experiences were much worse in Western Canada’s cold winter months.

For many women, having their own place to live was unaffordable, government assistance was inaccessible, and many community-based services were overwhelmed. Having a place to sleep, even if it was in a prison cell, was a relief.

4. Food: Jail guaranteed these women three meals a day, which was much better than their lives outside. Many described being underweight and malnourished due to lack of food or their drug use, which was often used to suppress their appetite. Their constant reference to the benefit of obtaining ‘three meals a day’ was no exaggeration but an indication of these women’s precarious existence in the community.

5. Healthcare: Access to healthcare in prison, while flawed, was often better than what many of the women had in the community. Although theoretically eligible to use Canada’s healthcare system, many are considered hard-to-service clients who struggle to schedule and keep appointments or maintain recommended treatment. Incarceration provided an opportunity to see doctors, dentists, and mental health professionals, becoming the only consistent source of healthcare for some.

6. A Break from Life’s Pressures: The women frequently mentioned that prison allowed them to rest, both physically and mentally. After being arrested, many women would sleep for days, recovering from the exhaustion caused by their drug use and the constant stress of survival on the streets. Prison also provided time for reflection, giving women space to think about their future and plan for life after release.

Distorted Picture of Canada’s Welfare System

Bucerius and her colleagues’ work paints a very different picture of Canada’s social safety net. For many marginalized people, community support and services are hard to access or not available at all, leaving prison as sometimes the only option for these women. Despite these perceived benefits, prison is not an ideal solution or a supportive environment for recovery or safety.

With minimal support outside of prison, and not nearly enough inside, these women often find themselves trapped in a cycle of incarceration, each time diminishing their chances for rehabilitation and a stable future.

The political implications of these findings are not encouraging. As many previous posts have shown, while there is an urgent need to reform and humanize the correctional system, a true ‘tough on crime’ policy would focus on political and social reform designed to empower disadvantaged populations.

For further insights into ‘Prison as a Temporary Refuge,’ you can read the research article here or watch Dr. Bucerius’ TED Talk.

This post is a condensed summary of a 2021 study called, “Prison as Temporary Refuge; Amplifying the Voices of Women Detained in Prison” by Dr. Sandra Bucerius, Dr. Kevin Haggerty, and David Dunford. To read more of the work by these authors and others at the Centre of Criminological Research, visit their website here.

La version française

Le Dr. Bucerius et son équipe de l’Université de l’Alberta ont interrogé 88 femmes en détention provisoire au Canada, offrant une perspective nuancée sur l’incarcération. Malgré son caractère punitif, la prison était fréquemment perçue comme un refuge temporaire face à la pauvreté, la dépendance aux drogues, le sans-abrisme et les violences quotidiennes.

La majorité des femmes ont affirmé se sentir physiquement en sécurité en prison, un contraste saisissant avec la victimisation récurrente qu’elles subissaient dans la société. Pour celles qui luttaient contre l’abus de substances, l’incarcération offrait un répit temporaire de la dépendance ; cependant, la brièveté des peines compromette souvent toute réhabilitation durable. L’instabilité résidentielle représentait un problème majeur, poussant de nombreuses femmes à percevoir la prison comme un refuge contre des conditions de vie précaires et dangereuses, notamment durant l’hiver. De plus, l’accès à trois repas par jour en prison constituait un soulagement crucial, atténuant l’insécurité alimentaire et la malnutrition.

Bien que limité, l’accès aux soins de santé en prison s’avérait souvent plus fiable que celui disponible à l’extérieur. Les consultations régulières auprès de médecins, dentistes et professionnels de la santé mentale représentaient des ressources vitales pour ces femmes.

L’étude met en lumière les défaillances systémiques du système de bien-être social pour les populations marginalisées au Canada. Bien que la prison offre des nécessités de base, elle ne constitue pas une solution aux luttes plus larges de ces femmes, perpétuant souvent un cycle d’incarcération et d’opportunités limitées pour la réhabilitation. Ces résultats appellent à des réformes sociales et politiques urgentes pour traiter les causes profondes de ces défis.

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