Women Offender Programs and Issues

Healing The Relationship Between Federally Sentenced Women And Communities

Introduction

This Summary should be read in conjunction with the full Discussion Paper prepared by the Church Council on Justice and Corrections (CCJC) (October 1995) which provides a comprehensive discussion of the theoretical and philosophical basis for the proposed Community Advocacy model. As well, it should be noted that the Community Advocacy model proposed in the CCJC’s Discussion Paper and this Summary was a draft working model which would now be amended based on the discussion of issues arising from CCJC’s consultation (see page 5).

In 1990, the Task Force on FSW proposed moving away from traditional "correctional" approaches for women and increase community involvement to address pertinent issues for "victim", "offender", and "community". In response to this proposal, the CCJC is promoting a federal strategy to implement a provincial community-based, pre-sentencing process to promote minimal incarceration for Federally Sentenced Women (FSW) through increased community participation.