A model of misinformation – The CSC Annual Report
Post # 160 About 900 words; 3-4 minutes to read. Transparency is an often used word but seldom observed practice in government. Nowhere is this contradiction between theory and practice more evident than in the annual report of the Correctional...
Read MorePrisoners’ stories – I.M Grenada returns
Post #159 This post is about 1800 words and can be read in about 7 minutes. The grating debate by I. M. Grenada (pen name of a lifer prisoner in Canada). Previous work by this author published in 2017 and...
Read MoreReport: Replacement for segregation in federal prisons does not meet legal standards
A new report on the response of Canadian prisons to court rulings on the illegality of segregation shows that these ‘special intervention units’ (SIU) do not appear to be meeting the minimum standards set by the government. The full report...
Read MoreWomen in remand
700 words, 3 minutes to read Post #147 The majority of people held in Canadian provincial jails are on remand – that is, they have not been found guilty of a crime but are being held anyway for a range...
Read More99% of Ontario community safety grants go to police
About 1000 words; 5 minutes to read By Claire Wilmot , adapted from The Conversation One of the major issues in the current debate over defunding the policing is whether police are being asked to do too many things that...
Read MoreInequality and racism as central themes
450 words; 2 minutes to read Issues of inequality and racism are at the very forefront of the news in Canada. The criminal justice system is often cited as a place where these problems are notable. These issues have been...
Read MoreThousands of Canadians affected by unnecessary arrests
Recently, TV Ontario aired a documentary called “The Arrest”, about several Canadian cases in which people sued the police for wrongful arrest. The film shows a lot of footage of the actual arrests but also shows the lasting damage to...
Read MoreThe poor state of criminal justice in Canada
800 words; 4 minutes to read Just a year ago, in May, 2019, federal Justice Minister David Lametti released a report called “State of the Criminal Justice System”. Issued in the last few months of the government’s first mandate, it...
Read MoreThe state of Canadian prisons – Correctional Investigator’s Report, 2018-19
900 words; 4 minutes to read The annual reports by Canada’s Correctional Investigator (CI) provide a unique lens into conditions in Canada’s federal prisons. Both the current Investigator, Ivan Zinger, and his predecessor, Howard Sapers, along with their staff, have...
Read MoreThe sorry state of provincial jails
630 words; 3 minutes to read The recent release of a new report from the federal Correctional investigator yet again shows the many serious deficiencies in Canada’s prisons, and the indifference of the government to fix these despite many protestations...
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