Project description: The Judicial Review is a federal program established in the 1970s in response to criticism of right-wing sentencing policies.  Fifteen years into a sentence, a prisoner may pass before the Judicial Review to earn a reduction in their minimum sentence – i.e. an earlier date for parole eligibility.  However, the Judicial Review program has undergone changes and is inconsistently applied across provinces. 

This project would address a critical lack of knowledge about the Judicial Review, by producing information valuable to prison justice organizers, to the public, and to incarcerated individuals and their families.   

Project description: The life sentence in Canada replaced the death penalty after its abolition in the 1970s.  Many Canadians still know little about what a “life sentence” really means and what it entails for the person sentenced.  A lack of accessible information makes it particularly difficult for life-sentenced prisoners (lifers) and their families to navigate the prison system.

This project would aim to “demystify” the life sentence by researching its history and how it functions.  The final product would provide practical information to families and/or to prisoners on what a prisoner goes through while incarcerated, a general look at how parole works, and relevant institutional policies.  Both policy research and subject research (interviews) may be appropriate.

Project description: Recently, federally life-sentenced prisoners (lifers) in Canada have been facing both longer sentences and tightening parole conditions.  Although the government frames these increasingly restrictive sentencing policies as being responses to high recidivism rates, the direction of causation between recidivism and policy remains unclear.  Some preliminary questions which need answering are:  1) What is recidivism? (how is it defined by the Correctional Services of Canada), 2) When does a lifer become a recidivist? It is another murder, another offence or a parole violation? How do recidivism rates compare between lifers and non-lifers?

Project description: Already there is substantial body of literature which addresses the impact of U.S. drug laws on incarceration.  Much less has been written on the issue in Canada.  As penal institutions, parole officers, and police “toughen up” their responses to drug infractions, it is crucial that Canadians know how drug laws affect incarceration practices and re-offending.

 Research would be both quantitative (statistical) and qualitative (literature and/or interviews), addressing the following questions:

The collective at frigo needs to know more about its suppliers and natural food distribution more generally. Unlike other retailers, the frigo does not purchase or sell based on price.