It is sixty-six years since the first national report urged and four years since Madam Justice Arbour’s report heralded the closure of the Prison for Women. The first report referred to P4W as “unfit for bears”. Since then, although they have been also labelled “too few to count”, far too many women have called the Prison for Women home. It is CAEFS’ hope that with the closing of the doors of the Prison for Women, we will also see the end of one era and the beginning of a brighter future for women prisoners and women’s corrections in Canada.

Unfortunately, CAEFS remains apprehensive about the willingness and ability of the Correctional Service of Canada to institute the necessary reforms to address the needs and challenges of federally sentenced women released into the community. Four years after the release of Madam Justice Arbour’s recommendations and nearly ten years after the completion of the work of the Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women issued its report, Creating Choices, we still await CSC’s articulation and action plan for a national strategy for the provision of community release or supervision options for federally sentenced women. With the exception of a halfway house in the Greater Vancouver area, a few private home placements in Edmonton, and the purchase of two beds in E. Fry Saskatchewan’s provincially funded house there are still virtually no women-only day parole options for federally sentenced women west of central Ontario. Regrettably, there is also one less halfway house in Ontario, as the EFS of Ottawa was forced to close their house due to the insufficiency of funding to finance the beds for FSW. As such, there are now only three Elizabeth Fry and one Salvation Army halfway houses for women in Ontario. There is one in Quebec, but not one in Eastern Canada. CAEFS continues to urge CSC to develop a clear national community integration strategy and standards for federally sentenced women (FSW).