Seismic Twitch

There’s been both nothing to write and so much change in the past while since my last posting. After being moved to the cardiac ward above ground, Bran has improved dramatically. His spirits lifted with the ability to go for a walk. He now has a little bag that holds a monitor which transmits his heart information over air waves. He goes for short walks, generally 2-3 troops around the ward. This has helped his blood sugar control, his blood pressure, not to mention his morale.

He hasn’t had the second stent put in yet. They planned it for today and had him fasting in the morning, but something (probably an emergency procedure) pushed him off the schedule. We’re hoping for tomorrow. He was feeling somewhat low tonight so I texted him offering him a sugar free cake with a file baked in it. At any rate, hopefully tomorrow will be the magic stent insertion. That would mean if all went well, he’d be coming home on Saturday.

They’re still trying to poison Bran. Night before last, for supper, they gave him (a diabetic) sweet and sour chicken on white rice. Yeah. The nurse hunted down a meal that Bran could eat without sending him into a diabetic coma. He got cream of wheat again as well. What is wrong with these people?! They’re supposed to know what the fuck they’re doing and yet they make such frequent mistakes I have to wonder who’s running the show. A friend of ours is in another hospital in town. She has a severe wheat allergy. She got cream of wheat too. I guess it’s their way of cleaning out patients. Kill them.

I have a bit of a full day tomorrow. I have to pick up a package from the post depot. Then I have to get a script filled and request the pharmacist fill one of Bran’s. Then it’s off to the university to have the department head sign my withdrawal letter. Then off to visit Bran…unless he’s downstairs having the stent put in. If he is then I might just go home, leaving Boy there, and get more sleep.

I’ve not mentioned Boy much in all this. He’s been exceptional. Not that it’s unusual for him to be so, but even more than the usual exceptional-ness. He’s gone to visit his Dad on his own, is cooking for himself because I’m not home to do so, and is generally helping out a whole lot which reduces my stress levels considerably. He’s been the joy of joys of my life. He’s also helped me hold myself together. It distresses him to see me distressed and he does his level best to ease things for me. I couldn’t have asked for a better son.

Today I went to training at the CSC training centre. It was presented by two police officers (one from Saskatoon, one from RCMP in Regina) and one CSC analyst. It was all about organized crime and street gangs in Saskatchewan. It was an extremely interesting presentation by three very intelligent and savvy men. Saskatchewan has it’s share of the well known gangs like Hell’s Angels, but vastly outnumbering them in membership is the Aboriginal gangs like Native Syndicate, Indian Posse, former Crips now Cash Boyz, and Terror Squad. Some of the gang members, some rather high ranking members, have come through the centre for urinalysis or as part of their reporting requirements. We’ve never had trouble with them, but the potential issues are rather scary. We never house known and active gang members at the house…thank goodness, but we don’t have control over who comes on for extra reporting requirements.

Anyway, after that it was my regular shift. Thank goodness everyone was in a good mood. One guy is going to find out the hard way next time I’m on evenings that doing his laundry in the evening means getting it done before 11, not ignoring it and then “remembering” that it needs to be dried for the next day. It’s all about responsibility. He’s always trying to get away with short cuts and special exemptions. Tonight I was just too tired to care. I won’t be so forgiving next time.

In a few weeks I’ll be going to a “Creating Choices” thing at Wanaskewin. This one will be focusing on women prisoners somehow. If you google Creating Choices you’ll encounter a document created by CSC (Correctional Services of Canada) in response to the scathing Arbour Commission Report (that you can also google) about “certain incidents” at Prison for Women at Kingston Penitentiary (aka P4W). Of course, being a large bureaucracy they’re very adept at making it look like they’re making progress in terms of positive change without actually doing anything. Canada went from having a central prison for women to having 5 prisons for women as well as healing lodges (low security prisons for Aboriginal female prisoners that should be focusing on Aboriginal traditions and healing). The healing lodges are all on reserves.

Anyway, I hope it’s as interesting as today’s stuff was.

I’ve decided, after talking it over with Bran, and much thought and consideration (redundancy can be fun too), to withdraw from the graduate studies program. After Dad died it became somewhat pointless and now with Bran becoming sick it’s just one more pressure on me to try and deal with.

I was going to take a year off to consider my options, but the requirements to get that year off are far too intrusive on my privacy to even consider. As someone who’s been on welfare and had that department’s nose in my life, I have no wish to have another bureaucrat decide things for me. So I’m going to print up the withdrawal letter tonight, get the department head to sign it and turn it into the grad studies people and be done with it. Maybe I’ll regret it and try again at a later date, but somehow I doubt I’ll want to.

Now I’m home after 16 hours of work. I’m trying to wind down but it’s not working very well. I guess I’m over stimulated or something. I’d love to have a cup of coffee right now but that would screw with my sleep and it’s stupid enough right now.

Today was another adventure in my life. Today I visited Saskatchewan Penitentiary, River Bend Institution and Willow Cree Healing Lodge to recruit new residents for the half-way house. The Pen wasn’t as intimidating as I’d anticipated. Maybe it was because I wasn’t there to be incarcerated or as a family member to visit an inmate. Let’s see…I’ll start at the beginning of the day and go from there.

First, I was awake at 6 am and was ready by 6:30. My ride arrived about 6:45. We drover her sister to a friend’s place and then we headed out of town. After a 2 hour drive we got to Prince Albert where the prison is, just on the edge of town. Prince Albert is a prison based town. Not only do they have the Pen, they have Willow Grove, the provincial jail for women and a men’s provincial jail.

Oh, I should do a little review about Canada the Criminal Code of Canada and prisons since many of my readers are not in Canada (and even Canadians don’t know their own legal system).

Canada doesn’t have the same kind of division of criminal laws that the United States has. The Criminal Code of Canada is the document that states what a crime in Canada is. The federal government is the body that determines criminal law. So it is Parliament that creates, votes on and establishes criminal law in Canada.

Criminal laws are divided into three different categories: summary offences, indictable offences and offences that could be either depending on the determination of the Crown Prosecutor. The Crown Prosecutor represents the government, much like the District Attorney does, but isn’t elected. They’re hired like any other civil servant.

Summary offences are ones that are less severe, petit theft, robbery without violence, and the like can be summary offences. These will receive community service, fines, probation or sentences that are two years less a day (with or without probation determined at sentencing). Indictable offences are more severe such as bank robbery, theft with a weapon/violence, assault causing bodily harm and murder. These offences result in sentences two years and over.

People who are sentenced to two years less a day are sent to provincial jails. They are run by the individual provinces and overseen by each province’s Department of Justice. These people will serve part of their sentence and then be released on probation (as opposed to parole) at their early release date.

People who are sentenced to two or more years are sent to a federal penitentiary. Right now a prisoner will have to serve at least 1/3 of their sentence in prison. That might be a maximum, medium or minimum facility. At 1/3 of their sentence they can apply to go on day parole. The parole board might decide to let them go on day parole or to hold them longer in the system. After a prisoner has served 2/3 of their sentence they are eligible for statutory release. This doesn’t mean they are released, just that they are eligible. Most prisoners with a finite sentence (if they didn’t get day parole) will be released on full parole at that time. Very few people are kept to their warrant expiry (end of their sentence) because CSC prefers to gradually reintegrate people back into society. It tends to be more successful that way.

The government has introduced a bill to Parliament that would get rid of accelerated parole (where day parole lasts only 1-2 months), statutory release is eliminated meaning that every prisoner will have to go through a day parole release or stay in prison to their warrant expiry and getting rid of 2X the time credit for time spent in remand. The theory behind 2X the time (2 days credit for every day spent in remand) is that remand is so unpleasant and restrictive that it counts for twice the time in a regular prison/jail). I worry that more men and women will spend their entire sentences in prison and be released into the community without any resources already set up (as they can on day parole) and without any adaptation to the outside. It’s as sure a way of setting people up for failure as the accelerated parole has been for many offenders.

The exception to this are those who are on life sentences. These people can also apply for parole, but they are rarely released on full parole straight out of the prison. The reason for this is that they have been inside for too long to cope effectively directly out of prison. No amount of watching television prepares a person for that amount of culture shock. People serving life sentences are released on day parole that will last 1 or more years at a half-way house. This is to help them get used to being out and allow for a more gradual reintegration into the community. If they are revoked for some reason (usually a breach of conditions such as drinking) they go back for a few years. They can apply for another round of day parole after they’ve been back in prison for a time. We’ve had a couple of guys a few times on day parole who are lifers who went back and were released again on day parole.

There are also a fewer number of people who are released after 2/3 of their sentence on statutory release with a residency requirement. This means that they have to live at a half-way house as a condition of their release. They have a few more rules to follow, but it functions, for all intents and purposes, the same as day parole except that they have to check in for all meals and stay during the ½ hour meal time.

The people we spoke to at the prisons weren’t just offenders. We also presented what we do to in-house parole officers. They are expecting to get more Section 84 releases (Aboriginal offenders who want to be released to places that have cultural sensitivity and/or programs in place and are Section 84 approved by CSC) from Sask Pen. We’ve already had several from Willow Cree, which isn’t surprising considering is a Healing Lodge for Aboriginal offenders. Anyway having the in-house parole officers more acquainted with our place means that they will be more likely to refer people to our place. This helps them direct offenders who are coming up to their day parole release decide where to go. We saw only 1 man at Sask. Pen, about 8 or 9 at River Bend and 4 at Willow Cree.

So now you know the population of offenders that I work with.

Now, onto the prisons. Sask. Pen. wasn’t quite as intimidating as I thought it would be. I expected razor wire on top of the 99 year old tall walls. The wire was on the inner yards, but not the exterior tall brick walls. You can Google pictures if you want. The front door was just a regular door. There is a sliding locked door that closes this off when they open the door to the prison itself. This prevents any prisoners inside that door (that’s where intake and outgo are ) from bolting and trying to escape. Then you walk through a metal detector that shows the level of your body that metal is. The metal of the underwire of my bra set it off was well as my volume of earrings. Across from this are were two people in a central area who monitored the prison yards on cameras. We went through a door there and then to a meeting room where we spoke to the parole officers and to an offender who was interested in coming to our half-way house. After that, we had a short tour of the facility.

The majority of prisoners housed at PA are medium to maximum security. They have two gang ranges one on the main floor tier and the other on the third floor tier on opposite sides of the quad. When each of the gang tiers are out the entire quad area movement is closed down. This prevents the gangs from being able to recruit people and equally importantly, not fight each other. So when one gang pod is taken to meals or to exercise the other pods (rows/tiers) are locked down. They have one that consists of people who require extra security to protect them. This can be high profile sex offenders, child molesters and/or people with psychiatric issues. There are two general population ranges, two ranges of older men (40 and over and 50 and over) and segregation as well. Most of the people in this building (a very large building) were medium security prisoners. One of the parole officers we spoke to would’ve rated them at high medium security.
We didn’t go into the maximum security building. That’s where the special handling unit (or SHU) used to be. They no longer have the SHU at that facility. That’s in Edmonton. We were shown where programs, Aboriginal programs and workshops were. All in all a very interesting tour.

There was only one loud clanging door like I expected to hear all over the institution. That was the door off the front foyer to the admissions and out-go. Apparently there are a whole lot more of them in the maximum security building.

Next we went to River Bend. That’s the minimum security facility at PA. It used to be a farm growing vegetables and breeding animals, running a piggery and a dairy farm as well as chicken/egg production. The farm ceased operation about a year ago. The farm operations will be replaced with more trades training that will give the prisoners the necessary skills to get a job in the outside world. While working on the farm kept the men occupied and provided food for the facility (as well as other facilities including half-way houses) the work they did there didn’t give them skills to get jobs anywhere other than a farm. How much call is there for people to grade eggs, work on dairies, or muck barns?

This was a more relaxed facility. There are 17 houses where anywhere from 6 to 8 men live. Each house (literally) has a bedroom for each man, a kitchen and living room area. The men buy their own food, cook for themselves and clean their own living spaces. The only cameras in this area focus on the main yard. There are no fences around this facility to hold people in. The men aren’t there to make trouble for themselves. It’s atmosphere was more like ours. From the meeting we had with the prisoners there we’re likely to get more people from there. Most of our residents come from River Bend.

After we had lunch (not very good Chinese food – I rarely get gas from Chinese food that doesn’t tofu in it, today I did) we headed to Willow Cree. Willow Cree is a minimum security facility located on a reserve. The staff are nearly all Aboriginal. Elders were hired to help facilitate the healing of men who were damaged by residential schools (the root of enormous pain for Aboriginal people and their communities) and younger men who are affected by the generational cycle of abuse rooted in the harm done by residential schools and the federal government’s policies aimed at getting rid of the Aboriginal people covered under the Indian Act. It’s a very long and tragic story for Aboriginal people and a massive black scar on the image of Canada being a place where human rights are purportedly respected. Since we’d had a tour last year at the AGM hosted in Saskatoon we didn’t need one today. We talked to several men who were interested in coming to Saskatoon. Their acceptance at our half-way house is nearly guaranteed as they will be minimum security and come to us under Section 84.

Then it was a 1 hour drive back to town and home.

All in all it was a very nice, informative and interesting day. I very much enjoyed meeting the people I met and look forward to going back sometime in the future. Next time my co-worker will be going up with the Director. I hope she enjoys her trip as much as I did mine.

Today was a very busy day. There were a few presentations this morning about stuff that was interesting, but somewhat mind numbing. This afternoon, however, rocked the Casbah! We went out to Willow Cree Healing Lodge on the Beardy’s First Nation Reserve. It’s a federal facility that houses up to 40 male offenders, they call relatives in Cree. I can’t remember the word but they’re not inmates or residents, they’re relatives.

I was totally blown away by the dedication of the staff from the guy who runs security (it’s a minimum security facility with no fences at all) to the Elder to the other facilitators. There are actually 4 Elders, two women and two men. It’s an amazing place that leaves me with some hope for the future of the people who live there. Though the men who live there aren’t requried to do programmng, the point of going there is to reconnect with their culture, heritage and spirituality. There was a group of men who were out with an Elder doing a sweat. Another group were preparing the feast for after the sweat.

Sadly most of the program staff were away at CSC functions. The parole officers from Saskatoon were also at that. Any, I was totally amazed and impressed. I wish that we had been able to do the entire day there like had been originally planned and I”m totally pissed off that the guy who was supposed to have arranged that was a dick, did nothing and then quit leaving things in the lurch.

If you want to learn about Canadians, go here. You’ll learn everything there is to know. Yes, I’m being sarcastic, but it is funny.’

Did I say I was still sick? Well, I am.

I just had the most glorious nap. It feels so good to not be feeling like my body wants to drop.

Ok, let’s get you updated on the Dykewife life events.

Greg, this is a roll up keyboard. I’m working on getting used to it before school starts. That way I’ll be ahead of the game. its not ergonomic, which is what I really grok on (I can’t believe that “grok” is in my system dictionary!) It’s really cool and not just in a neat way, but also cool as in temperature. I don’t have a hard drive under my palm or a battery or any other heat creating devise that the notebook has.

The keyboard rolls up like a sleeping bag. There are bright red lights on the far right hand side to indicate the lock buttons (caps, numbers, screen). I like that because it’s really easy to accidentally tap the caps lock, in fact, I’m finding it’s much easier to do on this keyboard than on any other I’ve used. Another thing is the backspace key is small. I do prefer the larger key style, but I’ll get used to this. It is really awesome though.

Boy’s recliner is in. It’s HUGE!!! It’s gorgeous, but it is huge. He and Bran went and got a lovely acrylic throw in a very vibrant scarlet colour to brighten up the dun brown of the chair.

Day before yesterday…I guess that’s Saturday now… someone tried to break into our house. We have two windows that aren’t like the others (Sesame Street, here we come!). They’re ones that crank open so that when they’re open, they’re like having no window in the hole at all. They’re designed to allow egress of any person of any size in case of emergency. The other windows are of the old fashioned lift variety, but they’re not 1/2 and 1/2 but 2/3 on the bottom and 1/3 at the top. This means that neither Bran nor Boy would be able to get through if there was a reason for them to be crawling through the window to get out.

Anyway, at night we open (or rather we used to) the window wide in our bedroom to capture any nice night breeze into the fan and blow it onto the bed. I got up in the morning to get ready for work. I was sitting in the living room, working on the necessary oomph to get into the shower, Bran noticed that the screen was gone in the window. It had been taken out of the window and laid against the house. I’m almost certain that it didn’t happen in the night, because I have a sense of remembering that it was there when I walked by it when I got up. However, I’m not totally certain. What makes that possibility even more concrete was that though Bran didn’t sleep that night, he did spend time reading on the bed.

Bran reinstalled the screen into the window. You can see where the person tore the light plastic screen to get to the two small knobs that pull out and allow the screen to come out of the window. The top part of the screen where the top knobs were is still intact. Because they were still in the frame, whoever it was had to warp the screen frame to get it out. Bran then did a walk around the house to make sure that the rest of the house was secure. Happily enough, it was.

That created a certain degree of paranoia in the family. I mean, it’s most likely that the person tried to get in while both Bran and I were awake. I’m pretty sure that was the case. I’m also sure that he/she wouldn’t have been able to get into the house without making our fan, a directional fan, tilt with its usual loud clicking ratchet sound. That means they didn’t get right into the house. The fan is extremely easy to have it tip with that loud sound, you can do it just by turning the on/off knob and put ever so slight pressure on the top of it.

Boy is very reluctant to open his windows more than the amount to the locks on the old fashioned types. Then again, he has a large number of expensive and easy to transport electronics. Of course, that also means that his room gets quite warm. Poor kid.

Saturday night was a very restless sleep for me. My dreams were extremely active. Most of them weren’t bad dreams, but I was on the run from the time the dreams started to the time they ended when I got out of bed. Active dreams like that wear me out. I don’t feel rested at all.

Bran had something similar except he left the sleep part out. He spent a lot of the night pacing about the house being on alert. By the time I got up for work, Bran was ready to collapse. Luckily he didn’t until after he’d taken me to work.

Saturday was an ok day. It was quiet, but it was ok. I mean, Bran and I went to Tim Horton’s and picked up a triple/triple extra large coffee for me and I drank a 5-Hour Energy drink, but I felt reasonably not too bad. My co-worker had a quiet night shift (her first – quiet night, not first shift). I cooked lunch and supper and then got off work. I’d spent the down time of the day (of which there was a lot as usual on the weekends) watching murder and mayhem that I’d been recording for the past several months. I left them there for my co-worker to watch on the night shift.

Sunday was my drop-on-the-spot day. Despite the coffee, despite the 5-Hour Energy drink, I was dragging my ass all day. In the morning, despite having a very healthy breakfast of soy milk and honey nut Shredded Wheat, I had a very significant blood sugar drop. I was shaky, weird headed and sweating. At first I thought I was becoming ill. I mean, this doesn’t happen very often. However, my body, in its fatigued and stressed state, was reacting. It took a while to figure things out. It was just before lunch, but I had a small snack of some saltines. Within about 10 minutes I was feeling more stable. I had lunch (a very healthy sandwich and bowl of soup). An hour later I was totally recovered and it didn’t happen again.

That brings us up to last night when I got home from work exhausted and not wanting to be awake. I was in bed before 10 (I think, I was too tired to see the clock). Now I’m awake, it’s nearly 3 am and I have to work at 4 pm today.

Dad was up on Saturday for someone’s wedding. I have no idea who the people are, but whoever they are they’re important enough for Dad to drive 2.5 hours to attend it. However, because I was working it was Bran and Boy who entertained him while he was not at the wedding.

Oh, a new commenter asked what my work is. Everyone say, “Hi!” to Janice.

Janice, I work at a half-way house for federal offenders. Canada has a slightly different justice system from the USA. The Criminal Code of Canada is a federal Act. It is Parliament who creates new criminal laws. The provinces has a certain amount of jurisdiction but it has more to do with by-laws, such as speed limits, parking and the like. Criminal law, such as those dealing with theft, rape, murder, prostitution, and so on, are all federally legislated.

The corrections system is divided up into two types of offences and two systems of corrections. Summary offences are considered “less” and therefore don’t have heavy consequences to them. They are likely to be fines or fine options (doing work for non-profit rather than paying a fine or serving a jail term). The jail terms that summary offences incur are always less than two years less a day. Sentences are served in provincial jails. Community release is called “probation”.

Indictable offences are the more serious type. These offences will garner sentences of two years or more. Indictable offences are further divided into two more categories, indexed and non-indexed offences. How these categories are defined is somewhat of a mystery to me, but I do know that index are nearly always violent offences. Whether or not a crime is an index offence or not determines whether a person would be eligible for accelerated day parole or not.

Persons convicted of indictable offences are sent to federal penitentiaries. Nearly every province has at least one for male offenders and a much smaller one for women. Penitentiaries, like American prisons, have various security levels from minimum (frequently a “farm” or “camp) to our supermax in the Prince Albert Pen to the facility in Quebec where the most violent persons are sent.

There are two levels of parole, or community supervision. There is day parole where a person can be in the community to work, visit family and such, but they have to return to a secure facility at a certain time (latest for regular curfew is 11 pm). Statutory release (full parole) means the person can live in the community with everyone else, but is still supervised by a parole officer.

Most of the people who live where I work are on day parole. It’s a sort of graduated release system designed to help men and women gradually adjust to being out of prison and in the community. Prison is extremely regimented. That structure quickly becomes ingrained into a person’s psyche and suddenly removing a person from that can be devastating. So Canada has a system of gradual release.

Before a person becomes eligible for day parole, they will have already gone on escorted leaves (like going to the mall with a corrections officer or two – depending on the offence, two with people who were convicted of an offence involving sexual assault or death), unescorted leaves (ranging from a few hours to a few days). Depending on the success of these leaves, then day parole is considered. Day parole isn’t always granted. Sometimes offenders are kept to their statutory release date when they leave the prison on full parole. Whether or not that happens depends on their conduct in the pen, whether they’ve taken programming related to their offences and so on. Sometimes people released on full parole have a residency requirement where they are required to live in a half-way house. Those people usually have unresolved issues with addictions related to violence.

The half-way house I work in accepts people on day parole and statutory release, with or without residency requirements. Most of the people on full parole who come to live where I work are only there until a community parole officer can do a community assessment of where the offender proposes to live (with family, friends, or spouse) or until they are able to become financially able to get their own residence.

The vast majority of people who live there deal with addictions. The addictions are most often the reason they committed the crime that sent them to the penitentiary. Frequently the person was drunk, high or hurting for a fix, when they committed the crime. Right now we have people who will always be on parole (first and second degree murder are offences that have lifetime supervision requirements) to drug possession and trafficking.

We can also house offenders who are sentenced to provincial jails. They spend time in a provincial facility and are then sent to the half-way house instead of being put on parole. Provincial facilities don’t have the same supervisory or graduated release system. In the case of a provincial offender residing at the half-way house, a special arrangement is made. The offender will be supervised by a parole officer and living at the half-way house is an alternative to being in jail. The offender can work, visit friends and family, but has to abide by the decisions of their community parole officer. The offender will live at the half-way house for an indeterminate amount of time prior to their “warrant expiry date” or WED.

Day parole is most often for 6 months, though it can be extended for people who are needing more structure in their lives or shorter for those on accelerated day parole. Offenders convicted of indexed crimes or who are serving their second (or more) indictable offence conviction are not eligible for accelerated day parole. So most people we see there are going to be gone after 6 months time. The director works hard at ensuring men and women who come to live there are not risks for violence. This means that someone who was convicted of a violent index offence, who hasn’t taken programming in the penitentiary, and who has been a discipline problem, will not likely make it to our facility. If (and the if is very small) the person is released on day parole, they will be required to live at a federally run half-way house. The place I work at is privately owned.

So there you have it. A shortened synopsis of the Canadian corrections system. Wasn’t that fun?

I like the people I work with, both staff and residents. The residents really are just ordinary people who made some bad choices. For some, those choices involved the lives, or deaths, of other people. When these people are sober they are nice. Were it not for the influence of the drugs or alcohol, these people wouldn’t have committed their crime. So it is at our place where they learn to live in the community and avoid the people, places and triggers that would send them back to using. I like to think that I have a small part in helping them learn to make better choices.

Now. It’s time for me to eat something. I think I’m going to have one of the pizzas that are in the freezer. After it’s done then I can get the ones I really like.

Ta-Ra

More about Nico/Cooper at Joe.My.God.‘s blog. It just gets more pathetic and stupid as more information comes in. Turns out that he isn’t a he. He is a she who has gender identity issues. What that has to do with making up a persona and stealing other people’s writing and photographs and claiming them as her own is beyond me. Sure, make up a life, but fuck! Write your own fiction. Don’t steal another’s life and worse, another’s tragedy, as your own.

It’s a busy night outside. Thus far, within the past 10 minutes, two fire engines, two ambulances and three police cars have sirened their way across the intersection to some sort of emergency. Thankfully work isn’t busy at all. In fact, most of the people are already in bed. Only two are out right now. I expect one shortly and the other just past 11.

Bran and Boy dropped by with a 5 Hour Energy for me. It seems to be helping. An hour ago I was having major issues keeping my eyes open. Now things are fine. Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading other people’s blogs.

You have to go to Rain Coaster’s blog and watch that video. I love it! Therefore everyone else must go and see it and love it too.

Drat, I might have to call in one of our guys tonight. If he doesn’t get here in 10 minutes I have to call RDO and …he’s arrived!! I hate calling people in. That sucks! I know the next guy will be about 5 minutes late because of the buses. I’ll do the recording as usual, give him the 10 minute grace and he’ll come sprinting up to the door at 5 past.

You know, the guys here are really nice people…for people who’ve done some pretty awful things. I mean, they were in the federal system so you know it’s not for shop-lifting. These are people who’ve embezzled, stolen, assaulted and sometimes killed other people. Not one of them has, from my observations, any of the signs of being a psychopath. For the most part they’re people who’ve gotten into drugs/alcohol (though there are the exceptions) and it was through the influence of the drugs/alcohol or trying to get some drugs/alcohol, that their crimes were committed. When they’re sober they’re stand up people.

So many people want to lock them (people who commit crimes) up and throw away the key. Sure, there are people for whom that is an excellent idea (Allan Legere and Clifford Olson are two prime Canadian examples) but they are in the vast minority. Sure I know that the majority of people who had problem childhoods grow up to be law abiding people, sometimes the choices available aren’t so clear cut. Sometimes there are no mentors to help save someone from a track record of crime. Sometimes the lure of drugs and alcohol to numb the hurts is too strong.

I can’t sit in judgement of most of these people. For the most part they made the only choice they thought they had at the time. The heartening thing is that right now most of the residents here are under 30. They are all working on their sobriety, their issues and creating a life for themselves that wasn’t available to them before they went to prison. For some, this is the longest they’ve been out of jail in their adult lives. I applaud them for their hard work. Will they be able to stay out of prison? Who knows? The good thing is that the longer they’re able to stay out the better the chances that they will remain out.

This isn’t to lessen their culpability to the crimes they committed that got them sent up in the first place. Each of them is well aware of what they did wrong. To varying degrees they’re working on the reasons for the decisions they made.

I’m still on the fence when it comes to sex offenders. I supervise(ed) a few on the program I run. Again, they’re working on things, but they tend to minimize their actions more than I’ve seen even people who’ve murdered do. I have to remind them that no, they didn’t kill someone, but they did a great deal of harm. It’s too easy for them to fall into society’s safe haven of “she was dressed in…” or “she provoked me.” Then they say, “Not that it’s an excuse.” To which I say, “Then why say it at all.” I tend to get blank stares on that. There’s that nasty double standard for sexual assaults that needs to be rectified in 100% of society instead of the mixed messages that is given out by police, prosecutors and judges.

Oh, I’ve been on a soap box. I guess I should stop for now. I have to get a little bit of work done.

Ta-Ra

One of my usual reads, Tornwordo has a link to a very interesting site. It’s about ringtones of differing Khz and whether or not one can hear them. The younger you are, the higher the Khz you can hear. Over my notebook speakers I was able to hear to 12 Khz, which was the range that a 50 year old (and younger)can hear. However, when I borrowed Bran’s ear buds, I managed to get that up to 17 Khz, the range of people generally 24 years old and younger. However, at that high a range I was no longer hearing a pitch tone but a buzz, like listening to the air currents in a shell, but at a distance. I was surprised that I managed to get that high considering the difficulty I have hearing sometimes. This site, Free Mosquito Ring Tones, claims that students can receive calls and texts without their teacher hearing them. It’s possible I suppose, but one would have to be very careful of that. Some teachers have taken very good care that their hearing is good.

************
Today was a mixed bag. One of the men I supervise was on special supervision conditions this weekend and he screwed up so I had to call the Warrant Officer to have him issue an arrest warrant. It sucks. So if the cops catch him they’ll take him to the RCMP station in town and dump him off there. That’s because he’s under the control of the CSC rather than the province. I’m rather disappointed, but there’s not a whole lot I can do about what he chooses to do.
************
I’ve gotten farther in the Harry Potter book. I’ve gotten past the lake challenge and the meeting with Sirius Black near Hogsmead.
************
Bran and Boy came to pick me up from work. We stopped at the store and I got a diet Pepsi (they had no Coke at all) and then we came home. I have tomorrow off in honour of Queen Victoria, who was the reigning monarch at the time Canada became a confederation in 1867. Surprise of surprises, she was actually born in May, specifically May 24, 1819. I guess the May long weekend is close enough to her actual birthday.
************
I plan on spending the day sleeping and reading Harry Potter. Boy and Bran are doing a movie marathon that includes The Mummy, The Scorpion (or something of that nameish type title) and some other movie that I can’t remember. Since I don’t really want to see any of them, I’ll be in the bedroom with my music player and maybe the ear buds I gave to Boy to use so that I can block out the sound of the television.
************
That’s it.
************
Ta-Ra
************

Pronounced as Arte Johnson did on Laugh In. For those of you too young to remember, look it up. For those of us old enough to remember, yay!

***
Anyway, I discovered something. Since my move my stats have fallen. I don’t know why that should be. Sure I would get the odd hit from people going through the “next” thing on the dashboard header, but most of them came from people looking for such things and the 100 question meme or their DJ names. That isn’t happening right now. I don’t mind though. I prefer to think of those who are sticking with me after my move as discriminating readers of superior taste.
***
Work is still very interesting. I’ve learnt a great deal in the past couple of weeks. Mostly what I’ve learnt is that I’d like to run a facility such as the half-way house after I finish my Masters degree. Of course,the difference is that I’d like to pay the staff decent wages for what they’re doing. I mean, right now, I could earn as much or more by working at 7-11 or McDonald’s. When you consider the difference in responsibility, that’s pretty damned pathetic. I’d also have more programs in the facility itself for the residents to take advantage of if they wanted to including literacy, assertiveness training, trigger recognition and more. I would also ensure that staff had access to regular professional training opportunities to increase their own skills.
***
There have been many events in the past few days. I’m not able to talk about specifics, but one gent is currently learning an important lesson about personal responsibility, honesty and yoga mats. Of course, he’s not learning it. Having already heard from a 3rd party, he’s busy trying to divest such uncomfortable things as integrity and is attempting to blame everyone and anything else for his predicament. Tough.
***
One of the residents was released from day parole as of midnight. Because of CSC’s stickling onto rules, he had to return at 11, be at the house for an hour and then he could leave. He spent as little time as possible at the house anyway. Now, however, he doesn’t have a curfew, doesn’t have his room looked at several times a day, doesn’t have to report in to anyone other than his P.O. and doesn’t have to think about living with a number of men he doesn’t like or associate with. I’m sure he’s much happier now.
***
It rained tonight. I’m not sure if it’s still raining, but it was when Bran came to pick me up from work. I was clever enough to phone him and request that he bring me a pair of socks and my sneakers so that I could have warm, dry feet for the walk home. I’m so clever.
***
I have to remember to find the recipe for lemon upside-down cake for the woman who does the cooking at work. She’s always looking for new recipes. I don’t think that this one would be enjoyed by the people who stay there though. I know they’d like the cake, but the lemon part, because it’s tart, might not go over quite so well.
***
One of the things I’ve noticed is that many of the men don’t eat vegetables. I mean, none at all. Yesterday carrots were the veg of the day. Were they eaten? Not by many. There were tons leftover that will make their way into a soup this week. Salad is mostly eaten by staff, though there is one man who likes his salads. So tonight I was threatening to sing a song I’d made up called “Keep Your Colon Happy”. That didn’t go over very well.
***
I never thought I’d be grateful to bingo for my safety. At one time the street the house is on used to be a stroll for drug dealers, prostitutes and other nefarious characters (including the johns). Now there is a bingo hall across the street and so traffic has greatly increased. At least once an hour there is a huge influx of cars as people come and go from the games and taxis pick people up and drop them off. This means that there are far too many people around for the old business to be conducted. Who would’ve thought that bingo could clean up an area? I surely wouldn’t. It doesn’t hurt that the old hotel/bar that used to be across the street is now closed down. This means that the number of highly intoxicated people has been greatly reduced. Thus my walks to and from work are very uneventful.
***
When I got home Bran and Boy had been working on tidying the house. All that because I had folded the laundry that was clean. The toque/mitt tub has been put away for the summer. So that mess is out of the way. The room is now tidy enough that I can see where my murder and mayhem disc box is. Now I can put the First 48 and Crime 360 discs where they belong.
***
I need to find my little backpack purse thing. I have to carry around a day timer now so that I can know when I’m working. I won’t be able to take the schedule from work and I’ll need to write the next schedule into a book to put on the magnetic calendar that keeps the family updated on when I’m working. Speaking of scheduling. I’m picking up 3 extra shifts in the next two weeks.
***
Two people are quitting and one person is going to casual only so it’s possible that I’ll be able to pick up a whole lot more shifts during the summer. I hope so. It’ll mean more money for me. I could even do it in the school year so long as it works with school. I mean, I don’t have to be watching everyone all the time. I can do homework when I’m not doing building and room checks, doing breath tests for booze and writing up necessary notes in the log book. This evening, while things were quiet, I finished the first Harry Potter book.
***
Tomorrow I go on my very first “community assessment” with the parole officer who’s in charge of the Enhanced program. I’ll be able to see how things are done from a parole point of view and also be able to chat with the gent in charge to find out what he wants me to talk about with the men, a more clear idea of what I should be doing, what his expectations of the program are and such like. One of the guys is taking full advantage of the program. The other two can hardly wait until their warrant expiry date is up and CSC is no longer in their lives. I suspect that at least one of those two will end up in the Pen again. Actually, I think it’s probable that both will, though I have hopes for one. The other…well…as sad as it is to admit, he’ll probably be back there before the end of summer. I hope he proves me wrong.
***
You know, it’s weird to be talking about this stuff like I know what I’m doing. I mean, I generally know what I’m doing and such, but still, it’s weird. Four years ago I never thought I’d be where I am right now. Actually, I can’t remember where I thought I’d be right now. I do know that it wasn’t here. That reminds me…I have to find the books on counselling that Bran had from when he was in 4th year psych. It’ll come in handy.
***
That’s about it. I should go to bed so that I can be up and human for work tomorrow. I hope everyone in North America who reads this is having a good sleep (it’s 3:20 here) and those in other places are having a pleasant time at whatever time they’re at.
***
Ta-Ra
***

That’s what I have to do for my term paper in my theory class. I haven’t found any information about women, fines and the prison system being used as a debtors’ prison for women who cannot pay their fines. There is not a single article about that issue found in any of my searches throughout sociology based articles, women and gender studies articles, ethnography articles nor in general social science articles. Nertz. So I’ve printed out articles about women in prison, the gendered treatment of women in prisons, changes in laws reflecting law and order agendas and the like to find something that I want to focus on.

I’m sure I’ll find something but it bothers me that so many women, especially Aboriginal women in Canada, end up in jail because the crimes they commit, though not deemed significant enough to merit jail time, because they cannot pay the fines, cannot fulfil community service sentences because of family (having kids and not being able to either find or afford appropriate child care), or because they hadn’t been apprised of the fine options programs that various provinces operate. Colour me frustrated. It also appears that my thesis (if the research stuff pans out) won’t involve anything like this either. Maybe if I’m able to do a PhD I can focus on that issue.

Anyway, I’m home right now because of a very nasty sinus headache that’s been incipient for the past few days. It finally got its shit together, plugged up my sinuses so that I couldn’t breathe while I was sleeping and snored a whole lot (yeah, I woke myself up a few times because of the snoring) and woke up at about 10 with the distinct feeling that someone was using the area behind my eyes and forehead as a “let’s play with dynamite” test space. So I wrote an email of regret to my prof and wrote up the discussion paper that was due and Bran delivered it to the prof’s mailbox in STM.

I feel a whole lot better now. I also had some soup which may have helped in the clearing out department along with the antihistamine and ibuprofen I had taken.

Thank you, Sassy, for your kind offer to help with the WordPress stuff. I’m going to try and figure it out on my own first though. It’ll feel so much like I’ve learnt something if I do it on my own (even if it’s by accident and I’m never able to do it again). If I get stuck I’ll be sure to zip an email to you to find out where I screwed up. I’m going to try and get Movable Type working first though. If I can get that working then I can make my own templates (I found a neat article about how to create one of one’s own). If I can do that, then I’ll really be rockin’!

I’ve done more dishes (last night’s supper dishes and a few more). There are only a few cookie sheets left to wash and then I’ll be totally caught up. Well, nearly so. The stove needs cleaning and I’m not keen on that, but I’m sure I’ll get to it before the end of the week. Then the entire kitchen will be tidy and hopefully I’ll be able to keep it that way.

Boy is going to a friend’s house after class. So it’ll be a while before I get to see him. Bran’s out right now at the drug store getting our prescriptions done. I forgot to take my morning pills until now so I either wait until midnight (at the earliest) or skip the evening bupropion and try and stay on schedule starting tomorrow. I’m thinking that skipping the evening dose would be much smarter since I have to be up early tomorrow for class and there has to be a minimum of 8 hours between doses (the risk of seizures increases dramatically if two doses are taken within 8 hours). Betcha wanted to know that, right?

That’s about it. Tonight I may, or may not, read the articles that I printed today. I should get something done and I will try to, I just can’t guarantee the energy or motivation. Not even failing the class causes me any sort of out on my apathy right now.

Ta-Ra

That’s what we learned about today. Well, not fully, but it was definitely on the table. We learned more about victimology and how being a victim, or having the label applied to oneself, is a double-edged sword. Being labelled a victim means that a person is viewed by the law as being ineffectual. It means that, for whatever reason and for however long, one is viewed as sub-human. Odd?

It took women in Canada from 1917 to 1925 to win the right the vote across English speaking Canada. Quebec finally joined the rest of Canada in 1950. Canada’s First Nations people were finally granted the right to vote on March 31, 1960. Women finally were declared persons, under the law, thanks to the five women who challenged the laws that declared that women are chattel. Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nelly McClung, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby and Emily Murphy were five women who fought all the way to the Privy Council in England to be declared “persons.” Emily Murphy had been appointed to the judicial bench as a magistrate and her appointment was challenged by another judge who stated that, as a woman, she wasn’t a person and couldn’t hold that position. The Supreme Court of Canada stated that the law stated they were not persons. So they appealed to His Majesty’s Privy Council and finally, women were declared persons. This meant that women could hold judicial positions and be appointed to the senate. In 1928, women became people.

Anyway, that was related to today’s discussion because being declared a person is a very important part of law. It’s part of the reason why many people who are victims of abuse (pick any kind) frequently consider themselves to be survivors not victims. Rather than being the passive recipient of actions upon oneself, one becomes an active participant in their life.

How does this all relate to victimology? It has a whole lot to do with power, who has it, who doesn’t, who wants it, and who can attain it, all within the Canadian legal system.

Then it was a short bus ride home and I settled down to play on the computer, do crosswords and watch tv. Then at 6 pm there was a show called Checklist: A Measure of Evil. It was all about the PCL-R (a psychological test used frequently by prison systems to judge dangerousness) or Psychopathy Check List – Revised that is used as one of the measures to judge whether a man (or in some countries woman as well) is going to commit a violent crime. It also is used to determine what, if any, programs are going to be offered to prisoners. For those who have high scores on the PCL-R, getting programs is nearly impossible because prison/jail managers are going to give programs only to those they think are going to benefit from them.

The PCL-R is also used as part of the consideration process for prisoners seeking parole. So if a person scores high on the test, they might be kept longer in prison than is necessary.

The worst part is that this test is frequently conducted improperly and is nearly always done without the prisoner’s consent. While I understand that prisons need to assess the risk of individual prisoners as accurately as possible, I don’t think that conducting psychological tests without consent or knowledge is appropriate.

In at least one instance in Canada, the PCL-R was done using the prisoner’s record. This means that the interview process, critical to the actual assessment, was left out. It also means that the necessary outside interviews (interviewing family, friends, police, any social agencies that may have been involved in the person’s life) was also left out. This prisoner got an extremely high PCL-R score. He found out when he was looking to get into some programs that he thought would be useful to him and was denied based on the weight of the PCL-R score in his file. He won a court case to remove that test from his file.

The PCL-R is not used on women. The women in the Prison for Women (P4W) at Kingston Penitentiary won the court case challenging the test with the grounds that the test was designed for men specifically and hadn’t been proven to be an effective judge of psychopathy (what many commonly called sociopathy) in women. However, there are other countries that use this test one women as well despite the fact that it was not designed with women in mind, only men.

Anyway…It’s time for me to read about other people’s lives. Tomorrow is a short day for me. Since I wrote (and flunked) the penology midterm exam I don’t have to be at class because I went to the Elizabeth Fry presentation a couple of weeks back. The people who were given deferrals will be writing their exam tomorrow.

Ta-Ra