Political Economy of Correctional Planning for Women - The Case of the Bankrupt Bureaucracy

• NCJ Number: 86008
• Journal: Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 24 Issue: 4 Dated: (October 1982) Pages: 399-416
• Author(s): L Berzins; S Cooper
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 18 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: Canada

Annotation

Women inmates cannot achieve the same correctional objectives as men in a manner that reflects their special needs and characteristics without developing new working tools and compensating for the resources and supports that are not already in place.

Abstract

On December 14, 1981, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, in a landmark decision, ruled that the Correctional Service of Canada discriminates against female prisoners. This decision was based on evidence of a wide discrepancy between the facilities and services available to women and those available to men sentenced to Federal penitentiaries. Discriminatory actions toward female inmates, however, cannot be remedied by simply fitting them into the model for dealing with male inmates. The corrections objective for female inmates should be to make available to them the resources required to prepare them for the demands of personal responsibility that they will face upon release in the context of the social and economic conditions, expectations, and pressures that confront women in Canada today. A strategy designed to make this objective attainable should include the development of security resources appropriate to the space and relational needs of women, and programs must be grounded in the demands of labor market conditions as they affect women across Canada. Further, it should be determined where a woman wants to spend her sentence, where she would like to be released, where her children and other community ties are, and what are her family responsibilities. Because of the small number of females in the Federal prison population, individualized programs for women have been deemed not to be cost-effective. Female inmates, however, can participate in existing community programs for female citizens in general according to the needs targeted by the programs. Efforts should be undertaken to phase out the sole central institution for women and develop local community alternatives for women. Eighteen references are listed.