Week 10: Institutions for Women

• Canadian National Committee for Combating Venereal Disease

  • Established in 1919: became Canadian Social Hygiene Council in 1922 and Health League of Canada in 1935.
  • Believed that there was a connection between feeblemindedness and venereal disease: a metaphor for society's ill.
  • Hoped that by educating the public about venereal diseases, they could be eliminated.
• The Social Purity/Social Hygiene Movement

  
  

  A Purity Congress in 1895 met to discuss the following issues: prostitution, divorce, illegitimate children, "Indians and Chinese," obscene literature, fallen women, shelters for women and children.

  
  

  Social purity ideals connects to eugenics: wanted to promote the "right" kind of births; rejected the "wrong" kind of births; against miscegenation (procreation between people considered to be of different racial types).
• The Social Purity Movement

  • In a departure from Victorian Ideals, believed in "sex hygiene" (sex education).
  • Wrote popular sex education manuals: What A Boy Ought to Know
  • Attempted to popularise the single standard of sexual morality: in contrast to the sexist double-standard which accepted male sexual adventures.
• What did the Social/Purity/Social Hygiene movement believe?

  • Believed 'immorality' threatened individual virtue and health as well as the moral fiber and health of the nation.
  • Venereal diseases seen as a threat to both physical and mental health of individuals and the country.
  • Alcoholism seen as a threat to both physical and mental health of the individuals of the country.
• When did the social purity/social hygiene movement flourish and what did it aim to do?

  The social purity movement floruished between the 1880s and WWI. This was due to the development of the working poor and the emergence of the urban "bourgeois." They aimed to reform and regenerate Canadian society. This is because they saw physical and moral health as intertwined and sought to rid society of all forms of vice: drinking, smoking, lewd entertainment.
• What did the social purity/social hygiene movement and moral reform look like during 1885 to 1925?

  • A loose network of church people, educators, doctors, community organisers, and social workers.
  • Campaigned to "raise the moral tone" of urban working-class communities.
  • Reformers focused on victimless crimes such as prostitution, drugs, homosexual activity, and abortion.
  • Reform movement described as evangelical assimilation.
• What did prisons in Canada look like during the late 19th and early 20th century?

  • Most Canadian prisons initially modeled on the Auburn system.
  • Small individual windowless cells in tiers resembling stacked cages.
  • Prisons built to last but difficult to upgrade.
  • Open grills inside cells allowed for some crude communication among inmates.
  • Changes in the style of operations in Canadian prisons appeared around the 1950s: institutions in Canada often promote community living.
• What is The Auburn System in prison reform?

  • Replaced the Pennsylvania system in the US in the 19th centry: The 'silent system' emerged at Auburn prison in NY, USA.
  • Utilised enforced silence but allowed inmates to work together during the day.
  • Kept in solitary confinement at night.
  • Late innovations meant to facilitate silence among inmates: the lockstep (single file with hand on inmate's shoulder ahead of you), striped prison uniforms, extensions of the walls between cells, and designated seating for meals.
• What did the prison reform system look like in Pennsylvania? What was their system?

  • Advocated by Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons: memebrsjip included mostly Quakers.
  • Based on the principle that solitary confiement fosters penitence and encourages reformation.
  • Prisoners kept in solitary confinement in cells: an enclosed exercise yard was attached to each cell so inmates would not interact.
  • Solitary penitence included performance of work.
  • Critics argued that it was too expensive.
• Prison Reform

  • Until the late 18th century, prisons were used primarily for the confinement of debtors, persons awaiting trial, and convicts awaiting sentencing. Punishment was usually death or trasportation.
  • With the decline of the use of capital punishment prisons were increasingly used as punishment.
  • The concept of prison as a penitentiary: a palce of punishment and person reform.
  • Latin Paenitentia: Repentance.
• The Andrew Mercer Reformatory Riot (1948)

  • Began as a protest when a 17-year-old inmate was taken to solitary confinement in "the hole."
  • The riot drew attention to overcrowded, antiquated prison conditions, and the use of physical punishment: grand jury convened to investigate.
  • The riot caused Mercer's closure in February 1969 and its demolition later that year.
• Prison for Women Rot (1994)

  • Prison for Women was the first federal prison for women opened in 1934.
  • Mounting tension among inmates led to prison riot in April 1994.
  • 8 'instigators' placed in isolation cells afterwards.
  • All-male Institutional Emergency Response Team brought in to extract prisoners from their cells: videotaped and performed strip searches and body cavity searches; one woman put in solitary for 9 months; denied access to showers and exercise; and denied access to their lawyers.
• Commission of Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women in Kingston?

  • Illegal treatment led to inquiry under Justice Louis Arbour
  • The Arbour Report: cited ongoing infringement of prisoners' legal rights; treatments described as cruel, inhumane, and degrading; absence of the rule of law most noticeable; noted systemic shortcomings a part of Canadian prison culture; the day after release CSC Commissioner John Edwards resigned.
• What were some of the recommendations proposed by the Commission of Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women in Kingston?

  There were over 100 recommendations made to improve women's corrections. Some of these were:

  • Compensate the women involved.
  • Draft protocols for cross-gender staffing.
  • Improve investigations and oversight.
  • Restrict the use of segregation.
  • Implement guidelines around cavity searches. Medical environment with female physicians.
• The Magdalene Laundries

  • Named after New Testament prostitute Mary Magdalene
  • Institutions operated by the Catholic Church
  • Claimed to convert fallen women: women who have illegitimate children, Toronto Magdalene Laundries' goal to "rehabilitate prostitutes," and Youth wh owere consdiered unmanageable.
  • Most of these laundries were in Irelene, they did exist in Canada: St. John's, Vancouver, and Montreal
  • First appeared in Canada in Montreal (1848)
• What were Magdalene Laundries like?

  • Operated like penitentiaries. Girls usually sent by parents.
  • Hard labour under horrible conditions: unpaid, physical and mental abuse at the hands of the nuns, enforced silence and prayer, and isolation.
  • Mass graves have been uncovered on laundry grounds: babies died of disease, malnutrition, and neglect.
• Charity was what type of method?

  Charity the traditional means of alleviating poverty before the social purity movement: relieves the person in distress and benefits the giver by earning them virtue.
• What were charities like in the 1860s?

  Organised charities (philanthropy) developing in the 1860s had a different mindset:

  • Believed the poor were becoming pauperised by dependence on charity.
  • Pauperised: Not only poor, but without dignity and initiative – the Welfare Queen trope in contemporary context.
  • Focus was on laziness and bad behaviour (low wages and poor housing was ignored).
  • Did not want to provide material aide.
• When it came to charity, what type of "education" did organisations provide?

  The type of education organisations provided to those in need was not actual education:

  • Train poor to be thrifty, punctual, and hygienic (sexually and morally).
  • Wanted to create ideal citizens for capitalist society.
  • Emphasis on education children to ultimately improve society,
• Separate Institutions for Women

  • Until 1840s women housed in separate wings of male institutions.
  • Prison reform led by volunteer and religious groups.
  • Prison reformers had three goals: (1) reconstruct the tarnished image of women convicts, (2) promote the importance of proper maternal guidance, and (3)convince the authorities to build separate institutions for women.
  • Led to the establishment of the Andrew Mercer Reformatory in Ontario in 1874.
• What the women's penal system look like?

  The women's penal system looked like:

  • Welfare penalty and socialised justice: believed it was important to classify prisoners by age, sex, and offence.
  • A separate strategy to reform female prisoners. This meant: labour training, religious and moral training, domestic training. This goal was to create dutiful wives, mothers, and domestic servants.
  • Followed the principle of maternal logic and guidance – supervision was done by female staff.
• What was the two basic characteristics (in addition to all the others) that defined female penal systems?

  1. The importance of female guidance: wanted to hire virtuous female staff to play matriarchal (or sisterly) roles.
  2. Basic education: academic, religious, moral, and domestic. This taught obedience and servitude and instilled the belief of "knowing one's place in society."
• How did women's penal systems deal with problematic inmates?

  • Some women considered beyond reform.
  • The "criminally experienced" separated from other inmates in isolated punishment rooms. The hopes was to keep them from corrupting the impressionable inmates.
  • Corpora punishment: whipping, handcuffs, and spanking. Additionally, Mercer's doctor would put women in cold baths and strangle them until they complied.
• Female Refuges Act (FRA) (1/2)

  • Regulated the behaviours of women 16 - 35 that offended "community standards."
  • Violations included promiscuity, pregnancy out of wedlock, and public drunkenness.
  • Prosecuted and convicted based on social class, gender, and race: Indigenous women needed protection from white men and white women with non-white men.
  • Agents of surveillance: police, parents, social workers, etc.
  • Created to regualte Industrial Houses of Refuge where "incorrigible and unmanageable" women were reformed and trained.
• In 1919 what changes were made to the FRA?

  In 1919 there were several changes to the FRA:

  • Reduced max sentence to 2 years less. This came from a woman trying to escape and fell to her death from a window.
  • Broadened the powers of judges and magistrates. This meant that: (1) anyone could submit a sworn statement regarding women's behaviour, (2) no formal charges or trial needed, and (3) remained in effect until sections deleted in 1958.
• What did prosecutions look like with the FRA?

  Prosecutions peaked in the 1930s. Most of those who were prosecuted were Canadian-born white females of English or Irish descent. They were often working class, uneducated, under the age of 21, and most of them employed in restaurant servers, factor workers, servants (or were just unemployed).
• What did incarcerations look like under the FRA?

  Incarcerations under the FRA averaged 1 to 2 years – the entire sentence was usually served. There were three main reasons for incarceration: (1) non-conformity, (2) illegitimate pregnancies, (3) venereal diseases. During the sentence, many women were pregnant and had children while serving.
• How did Canadian law maintain it's racist ideologies?

  Canadian law maintained it's racist ideologies through:

  • Expression through public policy, statute law, and judicial decisions.
  • Sanctioned discrimination, exclusion, and segregation based on race. This included arenas of employment, immigration, and voting. So-called "common sense" notions of morality were based on assumptions of white superiority.
  • The role of the FRA was to systemically discriminate particular groups of women. In particualr, Indigenous women.
• Who is Velma Demerson?

  • In 1939 she was sentenced to Mercer for being "incorrigible" (pregnant with a mixed-race child).
  • Upon release, she married her Chinese partner. This resulted in loss of Canadian citizenship and was denied citizenship with the Chinese embassy. The CAS apprehended her child and was stateless until 2004.
• What did Velma Demerson recount from her experience in Andrew Mercer Reformatory?

  • Forced to work in the industrial laundry.
  • Underwent abusive medical treatments: reported medical testing done on her and unborn child and experimental drugs and medical procedures were common practise.