A Legacy of Harm: Punitive Drug Policies and Women’s Carceral Experiences in Canada

Abstract

There is limited research on the gendered impacts of drug policies in Canada, despite the fact that women, Indigenous women in particular, are the country’s fastest growing prisoner population, with many incarcerated for drug-related crimes. This article highlights the results of a larger qualitative study with former prisoners in Ontario and community and medical experts from across the country. Focusing on the women research participants, we consider the lack of adequate and culturally-relevant substance use and harm reduction programming in federal prisons, and suggest a reformulation of Canada’s punitive drug policies toward a health and social welfare approach.

Keywords:

• Drug policy
• Canada
• prison
• qualitative research
• Indigenous women
• harm reduction

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to acknowledge the entire research team for their invaluable contributions to study development, data collection, and data analysis: Stéphanie Claivaz-Loranger, Seth Clarke, Annika Ollner, Tara Marie Watson, Krysta Williams, and our research assistants. Special thanks go to Tara Marie Watson for her feedback and support on this article. The study was made possible through the support of PASAN and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. We thank the community organizations and agencies that hosted focus group sessions, and the many others that helped with recruitment.

Notes

In Canada, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (S.C. 1996, c. 19) prohibits people from possessing, importing, exporting, trafficking in, or producing a controlled substance, which is defined to include, among other things, opioids, cocaine, cannabis, methamphetamine, and barbituates. Punishments for these offenses vary, ranging from a maximum $1,000 fine or 6-month term of imprisonment or both for a first offense of possession involving cannabis (s. 4(4)(b)(ii) of the Act), to a series of mandatory minimum sentences for trafficking that also render an accused liable to life imprisonment if trafficking is associated with violence, the use of a weapon, or a “criminal organization,” or if the accused had been previously convicted of or served a term of imprisonment for a substance offence (s. 3(a)(i) of the Act). Importing or exporting a controlled substance can subject a person to mandatory minimum sentences, up to life imprisonment depending on various factors including the type and amount of the substance at issue (s. 6(3) of the Act). For the purposes of this article, “drug offenses” and “drug-related offenses” do not include offenses that may be committed to support drug use or otherwise associated with drug use, although the authors contend that the inclusion of such offenses would substantially increase the numbers of people affected by punitive drug policies, and is correspondingly linked to the increasing number of women in prison.

In Canada, the administration of adult correctional services is a shared responsibility, with provincial/territorial governments having jurisdiction over people serving sentences of less than two years, and the federal government, represented by the Correctional Service of Canada, administering sentences of two years or more. There are approximately 22,000 people incarcerated in provincial/territorial institutions, and another roughly 15,000 people incarcerated in one of 48 federal prisons across the country, including nine “healing lodges” that offer Indigenous-specific services and programming (Statistics Canada, 2015). Four of the “healing lodges” are operated directly by CSC, the other five are funded by CSC but managed by partnering Indigenous organizations. In total, seven of the prisons are exclusively for women, two of which are “healing lodges”.

In the case of the former prisoner research participants, demographic surveys included questions about their age, gender identification, number of years in prison, institutions at which they had been incarcerated, whether they had injected drugs while in prison, whether they had been involuntarily transferred, and whether they had undergone urinalysis testing for drug detection. Demographic surveys for community and medical professionals included questions regarding their organizational affiliation, the type of prison support work they have done and for how long, and which prisoner populations they have experienced working with. Results from the surveys have been integrated into this article.

Of the four focus groups, the first was with five women participants, the second was with six men, third was with two men and one woman, and the last was with five men.

Three of the interview participants were women and eight were men.

Additional information

Funding

The research was generously supported by a grant from the Ontario HIV Treatment Network [RIR-C G928].