Metamorphosis – The Yves Côté story
Post #206 1200 words; 5 minutes to read. Summary: Some highlights from Yves Côté’s book about his life, more than 30 years of which was spent in prison. Audio summary courtesy of volunteer Bella Kiss. Note: In reviewing this post,...
Read MoreInformed Opinion: the CCRA at 30- 2
Post #204 About 1130 words; 6 minutes to read. Audio summary by volunteer Bella Kiss. This post is a response to the CCRA by Iridian Grenada, who has spent many years in Canadian prisons. His work has appeared on...
Read MorePrison Experience. David Dorson – Meet the Lifers
Post #187 1200 words; 5 minutes to read This post is reprinted with permission from Lawyers’ Daily as one of a series on prisoner experience they are publishing. The original link is: Prison, a view from inside: Meet the lifers...
Read MoreRecent data shows areas for improvement in our prison and parole systems
Post # 180 960 words; 4 minutes to read Audio summary courtesy of volunteer Averi Brailey. Public Safety Canada annually produces The Corrections and Conditional Release Overview (CCRSO), one of the better regular sources of data about criminal justice in...
Read MoreParole denied due to claims of innocence
This post is about 1100 words and can be read in about 5 minutes. There are many problems with the way that Canada’s parole system functions. One problem is that being paroled requires a prisoner to admit guilt for the...
Read MoreGlobe and Mail coverage of prison reform
This post is about 1150 words and can be read in 5-6 minutes. On Nov 6, the Globe and Mail newspaper ran an editorial called “Fixing solitary isn’t enough. Canada’s prisons need to be reformed top to bottom”. The editorial...
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 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 More3% Doing Time for Murder Didn’t Do Crime: James Lockyer
Heidi Riedner At least 3 per cent of convicted murderers in prison are innocent, according to one of the country’s most prominent social justice activists. “That’s a lot of people in Canadian prisons for murders they didn’t commit,” lawyer James...
Read MorePrisoners’ Stories – 2: Nine lives, 6 months, and 21 days
I.M. GRENADA “Well?” My question pounces with all the subtlety of the Spanish Inquisition. Its target, my 62 year-old cell-dwelling neighbour, Gaton (name changed to protect identity), had just returned from 2 hours and 40 minutes of cerebral ping pong...
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