Newsroom
Visits and Drug Scanners:
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Prison visitors petition Ottawa to scrap sensitive drug scanners (2017)List Item 3
Every regular prison visitor has a cleansing ritual. For Eileen Pawliuk, it's all about the Lysol. "I Lysol everything," says the Saskatchewan registered nurse. "I Lysol my coins, my licence...
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Inmate families say prison drug-scanning tool finds false positives at 'alarming' rate (2016)List Item 1
Families of federal inmates are urging Canada's prison system to end the use of drug scanning devices they say are faulty and unreliable. Mothers Offering Mutual Support (MOMS), a group whose members have sons and daughters in prison...
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Address the alarming rate of "false positive" ion scanner results among visitors to Canadian prisons (2016)List Item 2
An e-petition has been posted on the Canadian government site by me and if we reach 500 signatures it will be read in te House of Commons. We are well on the way to reaching this goal, if you have not already signed the one on the govt. site please consider...
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Canada's prison visitation system 'high-tech, low-touch,' says correctional investigator (2016)
Every time her two-year-old son draws a picture for his dad, Nevadaa L'Hirondelle sends it to Bowden Institution in Innisfail where he is in prison.
Every time, she gets it back in the mail.
Prison staff told her the wax from the crayons can be used to get drugs past guards, so the envelopes are returned, she said.
Prisoner's Pay & work Opportunities:
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Ex-inmates want political help after prisoner pay cuts upheld in court (2018)List Item 3
Former prisoners who lost a court case that tried to overturn inmate wage cuts brought in by the previous federal government say they are turning to a political solution...
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Federal inmates lose court challenge of pay cuts introduced by Conservatives (2018)List Item 1
Federal prisoners have lost a court bid to overturn pay cuts ushered in by the former Conservative government. Several inmates complained that their wages...
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Federal inmates lose court challenge of pay cuts introduced by Conservatives (2018)List Item 2
OTTAWA -- Federal prisoners have lost a court bid to overturn pay cuts ushered in by the former Conservative government. Several inmates complained that their wages -- a maximum of $6.90 a day...
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Guérin v. Canada: "challenge the regime for payment of inmates in penitentiaries"
Guérin v. Canada: "challenge the regime for payment of inmates in penitentiaries"
File numbers T-144-16, T-1892-14, T-2101-14, T-2137-14, T-2222-14, T-756-14
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Prison work programs fail inmates and the public, documents show
Many of the job opportunities offered in federal prisons to boost inmates' chances of finding work after their release are a waste of government resources that do little to keep the public safe...
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Prisoners making $1.95 a day want a raise. Taxpayers want a break
Surrounded by hundreds of prisoners in the Collins Bay Penitentiary yard, Jarrod Shook listened while a fellow member of the inmate committee delivered news that wasn’t going to be well received....
Better Prisons:
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Norway Proves That Treating Prison Inmates As Human Beings Actually Works (2016)
“Prison?” I asked the two deckhands, after a train carried me to the ferry. “Yes,” said one of the men, rubbing his hands together for warmth. He looked me up and down with arrogant blue eyes. “But sorry, it is only for men.” He laughed. “Come, come, you’re in the right place.” I looked up at the masthead and noticed that it was crowned by a dead, stuffed swan.
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Maximum security Nordic 'open prisons' look more like college dorms than penitentiaries (2016)
In countries like Finland, Sweden, and Norway, maximum-security prisons look more like college dorms than stone-cold penitentiaries.
In these facilities, which are known as "open prisons," inmates aren't kept in tiny cells with near-zero daylight.
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Nordic prisons less crowded, less punitive, better staffed (2013)List Item 1
Prisons in Sweden, Norway and Finland have a smaller average inmate population, bigger cells and broader access to social services than jails in English-speaking countries, a 10-year study has found.
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Why Scandinavian Prisons Are Superior (2013)
It’s a postcard-perfect day on Suomenlinna Island, in Helsinki’s South Harbor. Warm for the first week of June, day trippers mix with Russian, Dutch, and Chinese tourists sporting sun shades and carrying cones of pink ice cream.
“Is this the prison?” asks a 40-something American woman wearing cargo pants and a floral sleeveless blouse.
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The Radical Humaneness of Norway's Halden Prison (2015)
Like everything else in Norway, the two-hour drive southeast from Oslo seemed impossibly civilized. The highways were perfectly maintained and painted, the signs clear and informative and the speed-monitoring cameras primly intolerant. My destination was the town of Halden, which is on the border with Sweden, straddling a narrow fjord guarded by 17th-century fortress.
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Finnish Criminal Policy: From Hard Time to Gentle Justice (2012)
It can be argued that Finland possesses one of the most advanced and·efficient systems of criminal justice policy ever implemented. As far as methods of punishment go, the Finns believe in fines, short sentences, open
prisons and heavy emphasis on gentle social rehabilitation, yet the rate of idivism is one of the lowest in the world. The question at hand is how did such a system emerge?
