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Canadian prisoners' correspondence with Claire Culhane, activist and penal abolit PDF

215 Pages·2006·3.6 MB·English
by  RowleyAlison
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Preview Canadian prisoners' correspondence with Claire Culhane, activist and penal abolit

"BRINGING THE OUTSIDE WORLD IN": CANADIAN PRISONERS' CORRESPONDENCE WITH CLAIRE CULHANE, ACTIVIST AND PENAL ABOLITIONIST, 1976-1996 Alison Rowley Bachelor of Arts, 2002 Simon Fraser University THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS In the School of Criminology O Alison Rowley 2005 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2005 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name: Alison Rowley Degree: MASTER OF ARTS Title of Thesis: "Bringing the Outside World In": Canadian Prisoners' Correspondence with Claire Culhane, Activist and Penal Abolitionist, 1976 - 1996 Examining Committee: Chair: Prof. Neil Boyd Professor of Criminology Dr. Brian Burtch Senior Supervisor Professor of Criminology Dr. Elizabeth Elliott Supervisor Associate Professor of Criminology Dr. Stephen Duguid External Examiner Professor of Humanities Date Defended: SIMON FRASER ib rary U N I W R ~ I ~ DECLARATION OF PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital copy for use in its circulating collection, and, without changing the content, to translate the thesislproject or extended essays, if technically possible, to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation of the digital work. The author has further agreed that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by either the author or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without the author's written permission. Permission for public performance, or limited permission for private scholarly use, of any multimedia materials forming part of this work, may have been granted by the author. This information may be found on the separately catalogued multimedia material and in the signed Partial Copyright Licence. The original Partial Copyright Licence attesting to these terms, and signed by this author, may be found in the original bound copy of this work, retained in the Simon Fraser University Archive. Simon Fraser University Library Burnaby, BC, Canada STATEMENT OF ETHICS APPROVAL The author, whose name appears on the title page of this work, has obtained, for the research described in this work, either: (a) Human research ethics approval from the Simon Fraser University Office of Research Ethics, (b) Advance approval of the animal care protocol from the University Animal Care Committee of Simon Fraser University; or has conducted the research (c) as a co-investigator, in a research project approved in advance, (d) as a member of a course approved in advance for minimal risk human research, by the Office of Research Ethics. A copy of the approval letter has been filed at the Theses Office of the University Library at the time of submission of this thesis or project. The original application for approval and letter of approval are filed with the relevant offices. Inquiries may be directed to those authorities. Bennett Library Simon Fraser University Burnaby, BC, Canada ABSTRACT Claire Culhane was a leading Canadian prisoners' rights activist and penal abolitionist from 1976 until her death in 1996. Over these two decades, she corresponded with over 1,000 prisoners to assist them with grievances and problems. A purposive sample of the 100 most voluminous prisoner files was undertaken which yielded 9,235 items for this exploratory analysis. A dual-methodology was selected for study through combining a content analysis with short verbatim excerpts from the archive and interviews with faculty. The focus of the content analysis is on overt and covert violence in prisons and prisoner resistance strategies - violent and non-violent. Excerpts allow a venue for the prisoner correspondents to express the issues in their own words, to show the humanness of those incarcerated, and to exemplify the methods and advice that Culhane used in her social justice advocacy work. DEDICATION To the men and women who were courageous enough to ask for non-violent solutions in violent situations by writing to Claire Culhane. Thank you for sharing your hopes, dreams, and visions for a more inclusive future. To the memory of Claire Culhane who set an example for all of us who wonder what difference one person can make in this world. Claire said: Somewhere in the human organism there is an ear that will listen, a mind that will open, a heartbeat that will quicken, and a voice that will clamour for the conversation of the border which exalts 'business as usual' over one which honours concerns for others. And, when enough people realize this and organize themselves to act upon their convictions, it will change. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people who have helped me with this thesis and without their knowledge or support it would not have been possible to complete this task on my own. I am forever indebted to my committee - Brian Burtch and Liz Elliott - for encouraging me and for answering my many questions over the years. Dr. Burtch, I am grateful to you as you always made yourself available to me for consultations and constantly went beyond your job of "senior supervisor" by believing in my ability to complete this task and always pointing out my strengths when I could not see them myself. You are a great writer and a very resourceful researcher and most importantly you care about your students. Dr. Elliott, you are the perfect example of how to combine activism and academics. The example that you set in your career, in your volunteer work, and in your personal interaction with others inspires me. The knowledge that you have shared with me about prisons and penal abolition has affected me very deeply and I have loved all of our discussions. I appreciate you for sharing your many stories of Claire and your vision for a society that does not have to rely on revenge and punishment of the "criminalized. Thank you to my external examiner Dr. Stephen Duguid for being part of my committee and for all of your suggestions and comments. Your thoughtful questions gave me pause for thought and I really valued your input for improving my research. My most heartfelt gratitude must be given to Claire Culhane and her family for making these files available for research. It is my hope that through doing the type of v research I have done that we can keep Claire's work alive and that the example she set can continue to influence others to protest the injustices in our society. I want to acknowledge the profound contribution that Dr. Brian MacLean has made to my education. I started out a psychology student and after taking my first criminology course with him as an instructor, his lectures forever changed the way I look at the world around me and re-directed my academic and career pursuits. I appreciate his encouraging me to think abstractly, to not accept information at face-value, and to never shy away from "getting my hands dirty". Thank you to my family - especially my parents Howard and Terry Rowley for their endless support in all of my academic pursuits. Don't worry Dad - you can retire soon because I am almost finished. Mom, thanks for reading my papers and letting me bounce ideas off of you and especially for the many, many long-distance phone conversations. I am grateful to Piper Davis, Lydia Fisher, Jen Boundy, Fiona Gilmour and Jack Gaboury for all the love and support over the years, for reminding me to have balance in my life and for always making me laugh. Lindsay Broderick and Heather Glenn assisted me with the SPSS computer program and helped me to be friends with my computer rather than throw it out the window. Damian Brown I am very grateful for all the help you have given me with formatting my thesis and your technological support towards the end of the process. I would like to acknowledge my Alternatives to Violence (AVP) Community in ,Ferndale Institution for making me feel so welcome and accepted and for sharing your experiences and ideas. I have learned so much from all of you and I look forward to many more workshops. I must credit Dr. Margaret Jackson, Dr. Robert Menzies and Dr. Karlene Faith for making themselves available for consultation in my journey to understand Claire Culhane's work. Jen Kato, thank you for all of the hard work you put into helping to organize the prisoner correspondence; without you I would still be knee deep in papers. Your computer skills and assistance were invaluable to me. A special thank you to the staff at UBC Rare Books and Special Collections Library for granting me access to Claire's archive and providing space for me to work. This research would not have been possible without your expertise. Thank you to librarians Jack Corse and Nicole Gjertson at SFU for assisting me with research. I am grateful to Penny Simpson for taking the time to look over the formatting of my thesis. Your skills and suggestions for creating "new styles" were very helpful and improved my work. Thank you to the office staff in the School of Criminology, especially Rodrigo Raffi who really is the best, most organized, and efficient graduate advisor imaginable. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS .. ............................................................................................................................ Approval 11 ... ............................................................................................................................ Abstract 111 ......................................................................................................................... Dedication iv ............................................................................................................ Acknowledgements v ... ........................................................................................................... Table of Contents vm ................................................................................................................... List of Figures xi .................................................................................................................. List of Tables xi .. ......................................................................................................................... Acronyms XII Chapter 1: Canada's Prison System: Resiliency in the Face of Criticism .......................................................................................................................... and Failure 1 ...................................................................................................................... Introduction 1 Resistance & Social Change: The Fight for Prisoners' Rights .......................................4 Overview of Thesis Design .............................................................................................. 6 Convict Criminology: Prisoners Who Write ...................................................................9 Notorious Prison Writers: Political Prisoners and "Common Criminals" ..................... 12 Penal Abolitionism: A Socio-Political Movement ......................................................... 14 Peacemaking Criminology: Punishment Begets Violence ............................................ 16 A Brief History of Corrections in Canada and Prisoners' Rights .................................. 17 "For their Own Good": Treatment of the Criminalized ................................................2 1 Re-integration & Control ............................................................................................... 22 . . Alternative Visions .........................................................................................................2 7 . . Feminlsm and Women Prisoners ....................................................................................2 9 The Power to Name and Rename ................................................................................... 32 ........................................................................... Entrenched Professional Management 34 ............................................................................................................ Resisting Change 37 Violence: Space, Ideology & Practice ............................................................................3 9 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................- 41 ........................................ Chapter 2: Claire Culhane .Pr ofile of an Active Activist 43 Contextualizing Claire's Prisoner Advocacy Work ....................................................... 45 Correspondence & Voice: Help Prisoners to Help Themselves ....................................5 3 ................................................................................................................ Claire's Books 55 The Prisoners' Rights Group (PRG): "Stay with it Until Something Breaks" ...............5 7 ... Vlll

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Claire Culhane was a leading Canadian prisoners' rights activist and penal abolitionist from research I have done that we can keep Claire's work alive and that the example she set can continue cell furnished with an empty bookcase, the 'music room' was a cell with a shelf on which a single guitar
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