Creating Choices: The Report of the Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women

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The Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women was established in 1989 by the Correctional Service of Canada in collaboration with the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, which had long called for action. Its mandate was to examine the treatment of federally sentenced women in the Corrections system and to develop a plan for change. This included addressing the significant over-representation of Aboriginal women in the Canadian criminal justice system. Factors motivating calls for this investigation included growing feminist analyses of women’s criminality and treatment in corrections, the influence of Aboriginal struggles for self-determination, Charter Challenges related to the deep inequalities experienced by sentenced women, and the death at the Prison for Women and recommendations to close it down.