Canada's rates of imprisonment are far higher than those of other countries in the Western world. The number of women in federal prison increased from 30% between 1995 and 2000. The practice of locking people up that are believed to be criminals is a long-standing tradition. But what really goes on on in jails?
Women in prison have far different needs from men in prison and these needs were supposed to be addressed with the building, in the late nineteenth century, of Kingston Ontario's Prison for Women (P4W). Due to gross abuses directed towards women inmates (mainly by guards), the prison closed its doors in 2000. The jail was replaced with five different, smaller correctional facilities across the country.
Those women that were serving longer, more serious sentences, or even life in prison, were temporarily held at a number of different men's jails throughout Canada, much to the concern of many who pay attention to the treatment of women behind bars.
Perhaps one of the most accurate form of journalism one can do on this topic would be to become prison pen pals with a woman on the inside to find out exactly what having a woman's body in a jail or correctional facility built by men is really like.
