Women Volunteer to Go to Prison: A History of the Elizabeth Fry Society of BC, 1939-1989
Description
Contains Photos, Bibliography, Index
$16.95
ISBN 0-920501-93-1
DDC 364.3'74'060711
Author
Publisher
Year
Contributor
Terry A. Crowley is an associate professor of history at the University
of Guelph and author of Agnes Macphail and the Politics of Equality.
Review
That the notorious P4W Kingston Prison for Women is only now being
phased out—although a royal commission first recommended its closure
in 1938—serves to remind us of the degree to which society still
regards inmates as mere dregs of humanity, and the degree to which
bureaucracy is entrenched in the federal penitentiary service. By the
1970s, statistics showed that Canada had an exceptionally high
incarceration rate by world (though not by American) standards, and that
the number of aboriginal persons in prisons was especially
disproportionate. Women criminals have historically been fewer in number
and less prone to violence.
This book analyzes the factors that led to the creation in 1939 of the
first voluntary organization in Canada to assist women prisoners; the
attitudes of both service-givers and their clients; policies relating to
women’s criminality through half a century; the development of various
institutional provisions; and the creation of programs to facilitate the
Elizabeth Fry Society’s original goal of restoring prisoners to
society through rehabilitation and education. Lee Stewart has succeeded
admirably in charting the treatment of women criminals over the past
half-century (although more recent critical insight would have
strengthened her discussion of aboriginal inmates). Her work is so
beautifully conceived, well-written, and carefully executed that it
conveys much more than its relatively narrow subject would seem to
promise.
This is history of the first order, and should attract an audience
beyond historians and criminologists.