Prisons are our homelessness initiative, activist says

Catholic New Times, Nov 2, 2003

CALGARY -- "Jails," says Kim Pate, "are Canada's most comprehensive homelessness initiative." The Executive-Director of the Elizabeth Fry Societies, an advocate activist and ally of women and girls in prison gave a speech last month in Calgary's Women Speak lecture series.

The following is a transcript of an address Pate gave last month as part of Calgary's WomenSpeak lecture series:

In Canada, in 1996, we decided to follow the U.S. lead when the federal government eliminated the Canada Assistance Plan and therefore the essential nature of Canadian standards of social, medical and educational resourcing. We have now experienced the same sorts of cuts and knee-jerk band aid responses--all of which presume criminality and perpetuate the problems of the past, be they crime prevention, homelessness, restorative justice or other responses.

Women are the fastest growing prison population worldwide and this is not accidental. In Canada, we recognize that the globalized destruction of social safety nets--from social and health services to economic and education standards and availability--are resulting in the increased criminalization of the most marginalized and vulnerable members of our communities. The result, as we have recognized very concretely in our organization, by the change of our mission to recognize the reality that laws and policies are increasingly in conflict with peoples' lives, resulting in the virtual inevitability of criminalization.

Increasingly, we are seeing a direct relationship between such policies and the increased criminalization of the most marginalized, especially young, racialized and poor women, and those with mental and cognitive disabilities.

Here in the Prairies, we have seen some of the worst examples of the increasing trends to criminalize women and girls; Aboriginal women continue to suffer the shameful and devastating impact of colonization. From residential school, to child welfare seizure, to juvenile and adult detention; Aboriginal women and girls are vastly over-represented in institutions under state control. Indeed, even as we work to deinstitutionalize and decarcerate, we are fearful that "treatment" will be the next colonial control of choice.

In the Prairie Region most of the women in prison are Aboriginal, contributing to a situation where they represent the majority of the women's jail population. We know the increasing numbers of women in prison is clearly linked to the evisceration of health, education and social services. We also know that the cycle intensifies in times of economic downturn. It is very clear where we are sending the people who are experiencing the worst in the downturn in the economy and social trends. Jails are our most comprehensive homelessness initiative.