Less supervision of released prisoners gives better results
This blog is about 600 words and will take 2-3 minutes to read. Here’s an irony: Extensive research shows that more intensive supervision of people released from prison actually yields worse results – more recidivism, higher costs, and less public...
Read MoreWalls to Bridges: The Positive Effect of Education in Prison
This post is about 900 words and will take 4-5 minutes to read. For many prisoners, education can be a key component of building a better life as well as making jail a less negative experience. Yet education opportunities have...
Read MoreSuicide in prisons: An international comparison
This post is 700 words and will take 3 minutes to read. Suicide rates among people in prison are dramatically higher than those in the general population, although this varies greatly among countries. This is the conclusion of a recent...
Read MoreThe Prison Book Club
Ann Walmsley’s book, The Prison Book Club, is about her experience with a book club that began at Collins Bay Institution and then extended to several other federal prisons Book clubs have become integral parts of many prisons in several...
Read MoreRehabilitation can work
Why do we send people to jail? Although jail is taken for granted as a punishment for many crimes, people often don’t think much beyond that. Someone does something wrong, the response is punishment, and the common punishment is time...
Read MoreThe Killing of Matthew Hines
By Catherine Latimer, Executive Director, John Howard Canada On April 25, 2018 two correctional officers pled not guilty to criminal charges relating to the tragic prison death of Matthew Hines at Dorchester Penitentiary. They are entitled to a fair trial...
Read MorePrisontalk.com: A great information source on all things having to do with imprisonment
Reliable information on Canadian prisons and jails is hard to come by. You would think that an institution that deals with many thousands of people each year plus their families and friends, almost always involving a high degree of anxiety,...
Read MoreReforming criminal sentencing
In 2016, as part of a general review of criminal justice for the new federal government, the Department of Justice commissioned a set of papers on possible reforms to criminal sentencing in Canada. Five papers were published on the Department’s...
Read MoreHuge problems with the bail system in Canada – Part 1
Most Canadians would be shocked to learn that more than half of the prisoners in provincial jails in Canada today have not been found guilty of a crime. Instead, they are being held on ‘remand’; being held because they have...
Read MorePrisoners’ Stories 3 – Here, Kitty, Kitty…
Note: Parts 1 and 2 of this story appeared last fall. By I.M. GRENADA “When?” For prisoners, that’s the cosmic question. On the civilized side of the fence, common folk regularly rate each other in cash (“So, what do you...
Read More