Federal Female Incarceration in Canada: What Happened to Empowerment?

Abstract

Feminist engagement with criminology began several decades ago when feminist academics, scholars and activists brought attention towards the failure of criminology to focus on women. As a result there have been several efforts by feminist criminologists to make sense of women and girls who come into contact with the criminal justice system. Literature and research conducted within this area — beginning nearly forty years ago — provides the framework and analysis for this current thesis. This particular research analyzes the experiences of female inmates and the conditions within prisons for women. In particular, this research will examine whether the promises set out within Creating Choices (1990) and the Arbour Report (1996) have been fulfilled and whether there is evidence that the Correctional Service of Canada has reformed its practices and policies in the recommended ways. Through examining specific case studies — deaths, suicides, major and minor disturbances — that have occurred within federal female prisons since the release of Creating Choices, it will be possible to determine whether the Correctional Service of Canada has followed the key recommendations advanced by both reports.