Post #278
1000 words; 4 minutes to read
By: Post by volunteer Jada Lam
Summary: Beyond the headlines and statistics of Canadian prisons are human stories of struggle, neglect, and resilience. This post explores four podcasts that amplify the voices from inside the system, revealing the realities of life behind bars and the challenging journey back to society.
Headlines tell us who went to prison and for how long. They report numbers, like the 13, 463 individuals currently in federal custody. But these snapshots rarely capture the reality: the deafening bang of a cell door closing, the struggle to find housing with a record, or the profound challenge of rebuilding a life after serving time.
While our first post of the series explored podcasts that dissect the administration of justice, this installment amplifies voices from within the system. These four Canadian podcasts pull back the curtain on incarceration, offering everything from an official audio tour to firsthand accounts that reveal the profound human impact of prison life.
Prison Inside/Out
If you have ever wondered what a Correctional Officer actually does or how food services operate inside a penitentiary, this is your audio guide. Launched by Correctional Service Canada (CSC) in 2023 and hosted by Kirsten Gagnon, Prison Inside/Out is an active podcast that provides a professional look at the duties and services within the federal system.
Episodes feature parole officers, primary workers, and experts explaining their roles in Indigenous cultural reconnection, penitentiary museum, healthcare, and rehabilitation. Ranging from 10 to 30 minutes, episodes look at the system’s stated goals and operations. For a critical analysis, look elsewhere. But for understanding the intended machinery of corrections from the perspective of those running it, this is your point of entry.
But what is the reality for those living within this system? The following podcasts offer a starkly different perspective.
Canada’s Prison Podcast
Produced by Prison Audio in collaboration with CSC’s media department, this seven-episode series (2023-2025) delivers exactly what its name promises: stories from behind the wire. Founded by Mike Tweedy, the podcast frequently features guests who are currently in prison, offering a present-tense narrative. Other episodes are hosted by formerly incarcerated people, sharing their journeys. With the compelling intimacy of a friend telling their darkest over coffee, it pulls no punches. The goal here is truth-telling. It is about life behind the bars, shared to educate, inspire, and foster genuine empathy. The conversations are direct and personal, moving beyond abstract policy debates to convey the daily realities and fear of incarceration. It is a vital counter-narrative that adds crucial depth to our understanding of what those federal population numbers truly mean.
Do Your Own Time
Similar in its mission to ground truth in lived experience, Do Your Own Time offers a complementary deeply personal perspective. While Canada’s Prison Podcast presents a chorus of voices from inside, this podcast, launched in 2024, zooms in further on one man’s complete journey. Hosted by a recently released former prisoner, it provides a sequential, raw account from arrest and court proceedings to the realities of federal prison and the complex path toward parole. By chronicling his story with such immediately, the podcast demystifies the carceral system in a different way, giving listeners an intimate, ground-level view of the bureaucratic and personal adjustments that define a prison sentence.
Life Jolts
Launched in 2021, the CBC’s Life Jolt focuses exclusively on women’s incarceration. Hosted by former inmate Rosemary Green, the podcast gained unprecedented access to Kitchener’s Grand Valley Institution for Women for a full year, following everyone from terrified newcomers to women who have served life sentences for decades. The eight-episode series examines the unique difficulties faced by women in prison, but its true power lies in the details that expose a system often devoid of basic humanity.
The podcast confronts the listener with realities, such as the story of one woman who, during a lengthy transfer while on her period, was left in a jumpsuit soaked with her own blood. Though allowed to clean herself, she was not provided a change of clothes, then forced to walk past a cabin full of men in her soiled uniform. This single account captures the profound indignity and systemic neglect that are too often part of the carceral experience for women. The podcast’s central thesis, stated by the host, rings long after the podcast ends: “Every prison sentence is a life sentence. It doesn’t really end when you get out.”
Voices Inside & Out
Finally, we turn to what happens after incarceration with Voices Inside & Out. This powerful, albeit now inactive, podcast from The John Howard Society of Canada is essential listening for inmates’ post-release stories. It is hosted by Catherine Latimer, the Society’s Executive Director, and Lawrence Da Silva, who served 19 years in the system. Together, they bridged the gap between policy and experience. By sharing the post-release stories of former inmates, this podcast provides practical guidance and hope, directing listeners to essential resources for overcoming challenges like finding employment, securing housing, and building a stable, prosocial life.
The conversations cut to the heart of reintegration failures. It uncovers bureaucratic failures, like a “one-size-fits-all” policy for obtaining an ID post-release, which can turn into a crisis, threatening a person’s fundamental right to survival. Lawrence speaks from experience, detailing how a serious medical condition was jeopardized by the inability to get a health card. Other episodes dissect the reintegration hurdles, including unemployment, the housing crisis, and a lack of community support. Lawrence’s powerful insight, “The preparation for release is everything,” resonates throughout every episode: it is the authorities’ lack of understanding and realization of the true needs of individuals that undermine successful reintegration post-release.
From Soundbites to Systemic Change
Canada’s incarceration rate remains one of the highest in the developed world. Beyond the headlines and performance reports are thousands of individual journeys through a system that is often difficult to understand from the outside. Survivors’ experience is evidence of a system where well-intentioned services operate alongside bureaucratic failures, and where the goal of rehabilitation is often undermined by reality.
The journey through the justice system does not end at the prison gate, and our examination of it will not end here. A future post will look at podcasts related to the first point of contact for many: law enforcement.
Direct links to the podcasts
Prison Inside/Out: Audible, Apple Podcast, Spotify
Voices Inside & Out: Simplecast
Canada’s Prison Podcast: Spotify, Spreaker
Do Your Own Time: Spotify,
Life Jolt: Apple Podcast, Spotify
About this blog: The John Howard Canada blog is intended to support greater public understanding of criminal justice issues. Blog content does not necessarily represent the views of the John Howard Society of Canada. All blog material may be reproduced freely for any non-profit purpose as long as the source is acknowledged. We welcome comments (moderated). Contact: blogeditor@johnhoward.ca.
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