Hotel Serenity

Corrections Canada?!

Thanks to Barbara Anello for the heads up on this topic.

It seems that the Correctional Services of Canada are attempting to increase public awareness about inmates.

Recently they have aquired a cartoon aimed at children of inmates, it is intended to correct misunderstandings about the correctional system.

The cartoon is title "Paul and the Guardian Angel"; it depicts a young boy who is having nightmares about his father being in prison. The angel, Richard, talks to Paul and shows him his father's 'real' lving situation where he attends classes, meets with parole officers andlearns how to be a 'a law-abiding citizen.' Don't believe me? well have a look for yourself.
www.csc-scc.gc.ca/text/pubed/paul/index_e.shtml
Okay Canadians always have enjoyed a rose garden. Cartoon aside I wanted to point out that the Angel is male, the child is male, and the inmate is also male, and the friends are male. Does this mean we don't have Female inmates in Canada? Or does it mean that a little girl would never worry about her daddy in prison.

Historically in Canada women have been housed in men's prisons. For nearly a century, (1835-1934) women prisoners did their time 'temporarily' housed in men's prisons until the space was needed. In a system that was designed by men to meet the interests of men, the treatment of women in prison has been one of afterthought planning and temporary solutions. In 1934 Kingston Pententary for Women was built. After 50+ years of hell on earth for many women, it finally was closed. This prison was plauged with problems ranging from cruelity, high suicide rates, to expermentation on prisioners with LSD. You can read more here: www.elizabethfry.ca/eLSD.html

Correctional Services of Canada talks about the new prisions for women, as well as the new Healing Lodge for Aboriginal Women. They speak in glowing terms of these new federal prisions; however, a quick read of their own literature, talks about how the P4W was recommended to close only 4 years after its opening because of unfit conditions. It further talks about how the MacGuigan Report in 1977 describes it as being "unfit for bears, much less women", and it still took 20 years to close it. So as far as I am concerned the jury is still out on the new prisons, time will tell. In the meantime we can be entertained by the angel who depicts the reality of life in prison for 'fathers'. Only in Canada!

Posted by Dar... at May 7, 2003 04:37 PM | TrackBack