3.    Key Issues

Response:  To start with, the manner in which the discussion paper outlines the ideas about what programming is, seems quite ad hoc and site specific (i.e. geared to what is easy and already available in that location), with no general assessment of what is needed in terms of training programs and what would provide meaningful, effective and appropriate educational, training and/or employment options for women. As such, the analysis really seems to be a bit backwards, starting with what the Correctional Service of Canada is doing, says they are planning or can do easily, rather than with a training/education goal that directs the services, vocational, training, employment and programs strategy overall.

Although it is clear that the programs provided to federally sentenced women are not comparable in quantity, quality, or variety to those provided to federally sentenced men, CAEFS objects to the use of federally sentenced men as the primary comparator group for federally sentenced women. It is our view that the particular needs and interests of women prisoners must be examined in and of themselves in order to ensure that they are able to achieve substantive equality. As the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) have clearly articulated in submissions to the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), formal equality analysis of merely comparing women prisoners to men prisoners will not address the discriminatory aspects of the treatment of federally sentenced women. Nevertheless, in each of the women’s prisons, the numbers of services provided for women are inadequate to meet the needs of the women in those prisons.

With respect to job training opportunities, the usual programs available to the women in prison include cleaning and grounds keeping, while there are very few additional opportunities. In the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women (BCCW), some federally sentenced women have access to working in the tailor shop, while others have an opportunity to work with the dog program and in the horticultural program. Opportunities for working in these placements are quite limited however, and the women must share these limited spaces with provincially sentenced women, whose numbers vastly outstrip those of federally sentenced women.

In the past, at the BCCW, a number of lifers were able to work in the floral shop. Although this work resulted in few long-term employment options for the women who worked there, many of the lifers very much enjoyed this job/training opportunity. However, as a result of the move of this program to the open living unit area of BCCW, (i.e. out of the secure living area) few federally sentenced women, let alone lifers, have been able to access this job placement for several years.