Ontario Feminist Blogs

Great post from Pandagon.

Click the link below.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson has written an intelligent piece on the Huffington Post about Black women in prison in the US.

I think that much of what is said in his article can be applied to Canada as well, with a particular emphasis on Aboriginal women instead.

Unfortunately, the tepid public debate over the consequence of locking up so many women is riddled with misconceptions. One is that women commit violent crimes for the same reasons that men do. They don't. Women are less likely than men to assault or murder strangers while committing crimes. Two-thirds of the women jailed assaulted or killed relatives or intimates. Their victims were often spouses, lovers, or boyfriends. In many cases they committed violence defending themselves against sexual or physical abuse.

I don't think that women are incapable of the same horrific acts of rape and murder that men are, but it's true that women are much less likely to do those things.

While in 2003‐2004, 41% of non‐Aboriginal prisoners are serving their sentences on conditional release in the community, only 31% of those on conditional release are Aboriginal.

Aboriginal women are over‐represented in the federal correctional system, representing only 2% of women in Canada and 29% of women in federal prisons in July, 2003. In July, 2003, 60% of Aboriginal women serving federal sentences were in prison.

Those facts from the Elizabeth Fry Society.