Historic Edmonton prison switching from men to women as Canada's female inmate population doubles

Canada’s prison service is converting a historic heritage building in downtown Edmonton from a prison for men into one for women to help accommodate a national doubling of female inmates.

Grierson Institution has a storied history in law and order, dating back to the era of frontier policing. Its original barracks was built in 1912 as the headquarters for the Northwest Mounted Police, the forerunner of the RCMP.

While the planned conversion was pitched by Correctional Service Canada (CSC) to the correctional workers’ union as part of sweeping federal budget cuts requiring a trim of $132.2 million over the next three years, the union warns the tricky conversion will cost far more than it saves.

“For us, it was a surprise that they will move ahead with the change to switch Grierson from a male minimum institution to a female minimum institution,” said Frédérick Lebeau, national president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.

“Yes, the population is getting higher on the women side, but changing Grierson into a female institution will cost a lot of money. It doesn’t make sense,” he said.

Grierson is a small prison with a capacity of just 30 inmates, but Lebeau said prisons are not the same for men and women.

“You will have to do some major renovations for a woman’s institution. There are only four showers. I think they have four, five sinks, three or four bathrooms,” and laundry facilities will not be adequate, he said.

“The whole dynamic, the whole layout of the building, is built for men. They will have to do a new kitchen, restrooms, they will have to do a major retrofit and renovation.”

He said all the maintenance work at Grierson is done by inmates, such as shovelling snow and mowing grass. If female inmates don’t also do that, it will require hiring contractors, Lebeau said.

The workforce will have to change as well. Fifteen male correctional workers were told they need to move to another institution or retire, he said. Staff at the new Grierson will be 70 to 80 per cent women.

The change will be hard on those workers told to leave because they are among the oldest correctional staff, Lebeau said.

“The most senior officers in the country are working at that place because it’s a very low minimum and it’s quieter. This is the one you want to go to at the end of your career.”

He said the new female staff transferred in will likely have to be replaced down the line, adding to the anticipated cost of conversion.

CSC said the transformation is to accommodate changing prison demographics. The Edmonton Institution for Women (EIFW), a prison for 167 female inmates in west Edmonton, is full. It has minimum, medium, and maximum-security beds.

“The in-custody women offender population has doubled over the last 20 years,” Roxane Braun, a spokeswoman for CSC’s Prairie region, said in a written response to questions from National Post.

Moving female inmates with a minimum-security classification to Grierson will allow the EIFW to use the beds for medium-security inmates, and its perimeter fence with electronic security will be extended.

Braun did not respond to questions about costs.

Grierson’s original red brick and sandstone building is described in heritage building documents as being in the Tudor Gothic style and designed to be a “self-sufficient para-military enclave.” The site saw major additions in 1935 and 1955.

The complex “reflects the evolution of the Force from frontier policing to national law enforcement,” the heritage report says, adding that Grierson is “probably the only point in Canada” that illustrates that policing transition. The RCMP moved out in 1975, turning the site over to CSC.

It is located at 9530 101st Ave., in downtown Edmonton. The complex also houses an aboriginal healing lodge.

“As part of the transition, the Stan Daniels Healing Centre, a healing lodge for men located on the same site, will change locations with Buffalo Sage Wellness House, a healing lodge for women. This will allow the entire Grierson Complex to be dedicated to women. Inmates currently housed at Grierson Institution will be moved to other institutions,” Braun said.

Over the years, there have been sporadic escapes from Grierson that made local headlines, although, given the low security, they are described as inmates being “unlawfully at large.”

Along with dormitory-style rooms in the basement, there is a gym, library, kitchen, a recreation room with a pool table, a colourfully decorated visitation room, and a common room with couches, board games, video games, a TV and books.

Why there is a such a growing need for prison space for women is a complicated issue, said Sandra Bucerius, a criminology professor at the University of Alberta and director of the Prison Project, which documents prison life.

“Globally, women are the fastest growing incarcerated population,” she said. “Women are often charged with non-violent, poverty-related offenses, often linked to substance use, homelessness, and coercive relationships.

“As the drug poisoning crisis worsens in Canada, justice involvement among marginalized women has significantly increased.”

Bucerius said women are also often returned to custody for administrative breaches of parole because of marginalization.

“We have countless houseless women in our study who were released from incarceration with curfews. Well, you can’t really comply with a curfew when you don’t have a residence,” she said.

Alberta also has some special problems, such as a prominent street gang that started admitting female members, meaning more women facing incarceration requiring higher security housing.

Lebeau wonders if the rising issue of transgender inmates exacerbates the problem, presenting a new challenge for the system.

The number is low, likely no more than ten nationally who entered prison as a male and transferred to a female institution, he said, along with a couple of female inmates transferring to male institutions.

“It’s a minor impact, but it’s an impact,” he said, especially if the number climbs.

“The system is built as a binary system. We have prisons for men, we have prisons for women, since the creation of the correctional services.”

The union was told the Grierson switch is expected to happen this spring but that seems ambitious. CSC told the Post that a timeframe is not yet known: “The change involves multiple phases, and planning is still underway,” Braun said.

Whatever the gender of the inmates living there, Lebeau said they should all have one thing in common because of Grierson’s infrastructure: “You need a very, very specific women or male offender when transferring to Grierson. You have to be very low risk for society because you are in the heart of downtown.”

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