Prison for Women
Between 1934 and 1995, nearly all women sentenced to a federal prison term (sentences over two years) served their sentences at the Kingston Prison for Women (often colloquially called P4W). This institution accommodated women requiring minimum, medium, and maximum security classifications, encompassing individuals serving sentences ranging from two years to life in prison. With only one federal facility, women incarcerated at the P4W were often far from their families, children and communities.
The publication of the Kingston Prison for Women, Tightwire was in circulation from 1975 to 1993, when women began to be transferred away from the institution, which was eventually closed in 2000. The Criminology Library holds fifty-six issues of Tightwire, spanning an eighteen-year duration. Looking at the body of work as a whole, there is a discernible transformation towards a more activist orientation in its later years. In contrast to many other penal press publications, Tightwire survived into the 1990s, in part due to its relative immunity from the challenges that plagued other prison periodicals. While other titles were often upended by constant upheaval as editors and staff writers were transferred, often involuntarily, to other institutions or workcamps, Tightwire was able to maintain a core staff and maintain a consistency of layout, style, tone and approach as women only left upon parole.
While subject to censorship, Tightwire experienced comparatively less constraint than its counterparts in male prisons, publishing critical articles addressing both the prison itself and corrections in Canada at large. The periodical demonstrated resilience in conveying dissenting perspectives within the confines of the carceral experience. Tightwire served as a platform for the multifaceted issues and problems faced by women within the penal system, and offered a more personalized and emotionally charged perspective. The publication delved into the first-hand accounts of the women, shedding light on the circumstances leading to their incarceration, including factors such as domestic violence, poverty, and substance and alcohol abuse. Additionally, Tightwire addressed the persistent challenges encountered by incarcerated women and transmen, including but not limited to mental health issues, discrimination, transphobia, institutionalization, and the profound isolation from their families, children, and friends.
In March 1977, two years after its inaugural issue, Tightwire published an article summarizing an interview conducted with sixteen women, on the programs available at P4W (see images below).
The prevailing sentiment among the interviewees was that the programs offered were limited to "old-type of women's work," such as housewife duties and cleaning, rather than providing opportunities to acquire skills suitable for contemporary living. The women articulated a collective desire for educational courses, trade programs, and offerings in fields like cosmetology, dental assistance, and diploma courses.
Regarding potential improvements, the consensus highlighted the necessity for a wider range of activities during cell time. The prevailing sentiment was that the current options were insufficient, and the root cause was systemic understaffing, as the institution only had five correctional officers on shift to oversee 120 women of varying security levels. The interview further articulated the women's largest issues, “There should be prisons in their own provinces for the federal girls … no bars or cages. Drug laws changed, Segregation should be abolished.” Notably, these same themes would persist over the subsequent fifteen years as enduring challenges confronting female inmates within the penal system.
A persistent and constant complaint was that inmates were incarcerated far from their homes. An article dated December 1977, highlighted this issue. The article wrote that of an inmate population of 127 women, ten were from the Maritimes, twelve were from Quebec, seventeen were from the prairies, seventeen were from BC and fifty-five were from Ontario. Another article from March of 1978 stated, “Most of the women except Ontario are thousands of miles from their homes ... If and when all these women ever get a visit which is seldom, it costs their families a lot of money. The majority never see their families till they are finished their sentence.” This problem did not end when the women were released, because as the article noted, many women are forced to stay in Ontario as there are a lack of halfway houses for female parolees in other provinces, leading to further separation from their families, especially for women with children. A decade later this topic was still being discussed in an article titled “A long Distance Hug: Writing your Child.” This was an informative piece written by women with children who had already served several years of their sentence, and who drew from their own experiences.
Tightwire exhibited a notably progressive stance in its coverage of the Gay rights movement, offering a platform for the articulation of perspectives from lesbian and transgender inmates. In 1985, Jayson D. Demaeyer contributed the first of a series of articles, "In Brotherhood," detailing his encounters as a trans man incarcerated in a women's prison. His articles spoke of the challenges in navigating discrimination from fellow inmates, guards and the administration, as well as difficulty in obtaining gender-affirming treatment inside a correctional facility. “It is totally inconceivable to even contemplate the fact that someone could possibly stop being whom they are simply because the courts have sentenced them to a term of incarceration.” Regarding his own experience, he states, “prison physicians under the direction of unenlightened conservative prison administrators are hesitant to prescribe hormones or cosmetic surgery” before concluding, “people should learn to acknowledge and accept unconditionally the existence of transsexuals, their right to become whole individuals.”
In 1988, Fran Sugar, an Indigenous inmate, penned an article entitled "The Condemned Body." Sugar, two years later, would author alongside Lana Fox, the Survey of Federally Sentenced Aboriginal Women in the Community for the Native Women’s Association of Canada. This survey was subsequently submitted to the Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women, addressing issues pertaining to the treatment of incarcerated women, particularly emphasizing the overincarceration of Indigenous women. Sugar, who by 1988 had spent seven years at the P4W, wrote of her own experiences, “those who enter this house of terror have been condemned, taken and conveyed to a bullet-proof, steel-bolted door, iron cage, wearing nothing but an evil grim stamp on their file : Dispose of Identity 318677-B.”
By the 1990s, the imminent closure of the P4W and the ensuing transfer of women to five newly established regional centers, spanning locations in the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, and Alberta, became a widely discussed topic. Furthermore, Indigenous women became eligible for transfer to the inaugural healing lodge in Saskatchewan. The official announcement of this transformative development occurred on December 16, 1991, following years of circulating rumours and hearsay.
