Over the last four decades, since 1981, The Canadian Friends Service Committee [CDSC] has attempted to abolish the prison system in Canada and replace it with what they call “restorative justice.” According to the committee’s webpage, the “prison system is both a cause and a result of violence and social justice,” and the “majority of prisoners [embedded in the system] have been powerless and oppressed” to the point of losing most, if not all, of their civil rights. Prisoners are slaves within this system and to cage them up is “inherently immoral.” So, instead of incarceration, the Canadian justice system should both recognize the perpetrator’s crime and then create programs and workshops devoted to focusing on the “healing and restoring community balance, including structural injustices that lead to crime and inequality.” Yes, a crime has been committed; however, the criminal, according to this Quaker-based committee, is the product of much larger and more rooted issues within the country: a lack of quality education; substance abuse; mental health challenges; poverty; racism, most especially against Indigenous peoples; and a lack of sufficient community buy-in all have contributed to the lack of care for said prisoners and the inhuman conditions where prisoners generally spend their days and nights.

Rest of Review on Cobleskill Commentaries...https://greatbutunknownperformances.wordpress.com/2024/09/25/prison-born-incarceration-and-motherhood-in-the-colonial-shadow-by-robin-f-hansen/

This was such a moving assessment of the prison system. I cannot imagine enduring what these women have and appreciate the author’s motivation to improve their lives and the system as a whole.