SOC219H5 Lecture Notes - Bad Life, False Dilemma, Cosmetology
Reintegration & Addressing Gender Specific Needs!
Key Takeaways !
-Prison reforms were guided by wealthy white women looking to restore female offenders into
“daughterly subjects” !
#-the aim was to make sure they bided by victorian virtues, these women needed
motherly discipline, they were in crime because they lacked strong motherly figure !
-Maternal disciple and later “women centeredness” work to disguise the punitive nature of
women prisons and create a false dichotomy between mens and women’s incarceration !
-Indigenous women are vastly over represented in Canadian prisons both federal and provincial !
-Research continually shows that women have unique needs that must be addressed for prison
to be effective !
-Current issues = housing transgendered inmates, mental health crisis in women and mens
prisons, and the disproportionate amount of indigenous inmates !
Leaving the Mercer!
-based on maternal disciple !
-based on expectations that women be passive even after they left the prisons !
-women who failed to embodied this got time added to their prison time !
-if you are allowed to leave the prison staff would place women in domestics positions such as
servants and maids for upper class families !
-wealthy family would be able to police the women and take away the temptation of city life
from these women, these helped women get back onto their feet after prison but also allowed
the stand of the mercer to keep tabs of these women !
-Benevolent techniques were used to continue to police women even after they left the prisons,
in order to make sure that these women were following particular norms !
-letters were intended to make sure that women were biding by the rules and norms even after
they left these prisons !
What is Parole? !
-Parole is meant to be bridge between prison life (controlled life) to regular life(freedom), parole
has some rules that they have to follow, so there is control but not too much !
-Canada Parole if by Board of Canada!
#-has power to return a person to prison if they do not follow the rules, they can grant
earlier parole or even deny parole !
#—makes decisions for prisoners who are serving at the federal level and even provincial
level except for Ontario and Quebec !
-Types of parole !
#-Temporary - usually for community service or for family contact can be escorted or not !
#-Day - community based service, !
#-Full - under supervision, report to csc parole office, !
#-Statutory - not same as parole, its a mandatory release by law after an offender has
served 2/3 of their time !
-The goal is to follow the rules or you’re at risk of being brought back !
Understanding Risk!
-The risk principles an assessment of the future probability of offending !
#-offenders who have higher risks are targeted for therapeutic!
-Criminogenic needs are Things like employment, material status, personal and emotional
requirements and inmate attitude !
-Non criminogenic needs are important but not criminal behaviour, tend to be related to more
structural issues like poverty, change of actions through behavioural and lifestyle changes !
