Many women who are incarcerated were just trying to make ends meet for their families. Here an image from a rally to demand the release of people held in jails, outside the Riverside Correctional Facility in Philadelphia, May 2020.
Joe Piette/Flickr
For Mother’s Day, we look at the fastest growing prison population in Canada — racialized women, many of whom are mothers. Experts connect the trend to rising poverty and the attempts to cope with it.
Margaret Verna Umpherville, mother of Boden Umpherville, reacts during a news conference in Saskatoon in April 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Liam Richards
The artworks created by women in prison brought us greater understanding of their often complex and traumatic experiences
Eugene Debs, center, imprisoned at the Atlanta Federal Prison, was notified of his nomination for the presidency on the socialist ticket by a delegation of leading socialists who came from New York to Atlanta.
George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images
Can you run for president from a prison cell? One man did in the 1920 election and got almost a million votes.
Only 15% of adults in prison have earned a postsecondary degree or certificate – either before or while being incarcerated.
Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images
With the expansion of Second Chance Pell grants, more colleges and universities will soon offer degree programs to students in prison.
Antonio Magalhaes holds his wife Andrea Magalhaes as they walk towards Keele Station, where their 16-year-old son, Gabriel Magalhaes, was killed in a random attack in the Toronto subway system.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin
Andrea Magalhaes hasn’t demanded vengeance since her son was murdered — she’s called for expanding the social safety net to address the root causes of crime. Public officials should listen to her.
Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro speaks during a Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers’ meeting on bail reform in Ottawa in March 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
Those determining bail must reflect on their own beliefs and show restraint as they determine risk to avoid relying on false racist narratives. So should those calling for bail reform.
Former President Donald Trump waves as he arrives at the Manhattan Criminal Court on April 4, 2023.
Kena Betancur/Getty Images
The US has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. When it comes to violent offenders and the Black community, the system isn’t working, argue criminologists.
A man rushes past the Ontario courthouse in Toronto in May 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov
To protect communities, we must improve the likelihood that accused people can comply with their bail conditions by offering greater support on several fronts, from social services to law enforcement.
Two fatal shooting incidents at Toronto high schools, 15 years apart, show just how little has been done to address the root cause of violence in schools. Here people protest gun violence in Toronto in March 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ben Singer
To resolve growing violence in schools, policy conversations about gun violence need to include community programs that dismantle systemic barriers and inequities.
Every year, hundreds are held arbitrarily in provincial jails. The Canadian government must take action to end the jailing of migrants.
(Shutterstock)
Migrants and refugee claimants in immigration detention continue to face serious trauma and abuse. The federal government must take action to stop migrant detentions.
A view of the Collins Bay Institution in Kingston, Ont. Prisoner work is meant to aid in rehabilitation, not provide private businesses with cheap labour.
THE CANADIAN/Lars Hagberg
While we should be extremely thankful that some political prisoners are being released from Myanmar’s jails, we should also recognise they should never have been there in the first place.
An activist protests against the incarceration of hundreds of inmates imprisoned without trial in Nigeria.
Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images
People don’t give up their right to be mobile or their right to make decisions about their lives simply because they are forced to flee untenable circumstances.
Programs that offer college in prison are becoming more prevalent.
Scott Shymko via Getty Images
Every day, tens of thousands of American prisoners are locked up in solitary confinement. This is how that looks for those behind bars, and those guarding them.
Family of the victims of a series of stabbings on the James Smith Cree Nation reserve in Saskatchewan hug following a news conference in Saskatoon on Sept. 7.
(AP Photo/Robert Bumsted)
Myles Sanderson was given statutory release from prison prior to a stabbing rampage that left 10 people dead. But a legal expert says his case is unrepresentative of how people behave on this form of release.