Prison Family

In spite of it all, there is hope.  It pokes through all of this darkness like sunbeams, despite the best efforts of a dark system to hold the light back.  In this episode, get to know MOMS, Mothers Offering Mutual Support, founded in Ontario in 2012.  Over the years, MOMS has held countless hands and dried the tears of female family members walking this "journey nobody wants to take".  And meet Chris Brown, internationally known musician who founded and who continues to nurture Pros & Cons Prison Arts Program, founded in Ontario in 2011.    These wonderful and tireless individuals remind us daily that hope wins. Email us @ [email protected] Instagram:  www.instagram.com/prisonfamilypod/en MOMS Ottawa:   www.momsottawa.com Pros & Cons Prison Arts Program:  www.prosandconsprogram.com Cdn Families & Corrections Network:  www.cfcn-rcafd.org Office of the Corrections Investigator:  https://oci-bec.gc.ca/ Theme music is Go Funk Yourself.  Listen on Paint in the Forest from Pros and Cons Prison Arts Program.  Recorded at Joyceville Institution.  

Trigger Warning:  This episode deals with death by neglect in an Ontario institution. We are joined by Jennifer to tell us the story of her funny, beloved brother Bill.   Prepare to fall in love, both with her and with Bill. Email us @ [email protected] Instagram:  www.instagram.com/prisonfamilypod/en MOMS Ottawa:   www.momsottawa.com Pros & Cons Prison Arts Program:  www.prosandconsprogram.com Cdn Families & Corrections Network:  www.cfcn-rcafd.org Office of the Corrections Investigator:  https://oci-bec.gc.ca/ Theme music is Lost.  Listen on Undisclosed Location from Pros and Cons Prison Arts Program.  Recorded at Grand Valley Women's Institution.

Trigger Warning:  This episode deals with needless death and suicide.   Nadine tells us about her precious 19 year old son,  not convicted of any crime, who was tortured inside the Edmonton Remand Centre and took his own life to avoid further pain.   Yusuf tells us about his brother, Solieman, who was callously beaten to death by a group of prison guards at the Toronto East Detention Centre, while waiting for a bed in a mental health hospital. Email us @ [email protected] Instagram:  www.instagram.com/prisonfamilypod/en MOMS Ottawa:   www.momsottawa.com Pros & Cons Prison Arts Program:  www.prosandconsprogram.com Cdn Families & Corrections Network:  www.cfcn-rcafd.org Office of the Corrections Investigator:  https://oci-bec.gc.ca/ Theme music is How Deep in the Valley.  Listen on Postcards from the County from Pros and Cons Prison Arts Program.  Recorded at Joyceville Institution.

We meet Dr. Beverly Jacobs in this episode, a specialist in indigenous law and a champion of Indigenous legal rights.  She is all too familiar with the bias that is inherent in every aspect of our criminal justice system.  We'll spend some time with her, and Dr. Ivan Zinger, exploring how indigenous folks fare in the correctional system vs. their white brethren, and what we should be doing about it. Trigger Warning:  Contents may be upsetting.  Take care. Email us @ [email protected] Instagram:  www.instagram.com/prisonfamilypod/en MOMS Ottawa:   www.momsottawa.com Pros & Cons Prison Arts Program:  www.prosandconsprogram.com Cdn Families & Corrections Network:  www.cfcn-rcafd.org Office of the Corrections Investigator:  https://oci-bec.gc.ca/ Theme music is Residential Homeboy.  Listen on Paint in the Forest from Pros and Cons Prison Arts Program.  Recorded at Joyceville Institution.

What is it like, as an innocent family member, to interact with prison staff?   What's it  like to visit someone who is in jail?  What do families endure to have a few precious face to face moments with the people they love?  What the hell is an ion scanner and why do we hate it so much?  We spend this episode exploring the concept of security as it's applied to carceral institutions, and spend some time on other less obvious security issues like general health care, food and lack of good nutrition, prisoner income and dental or vision care for people on the inside. Sandra tells about a  particularly harrowing story of a private family visit. Trigger warning:  Contents may be upsetting.  Take care. Email us @ [email protected] Instagram:  www.instagram.com/prisonfamilypod/en MOMS Ottawa:   www.momsottawa.com Pros & Cons Prison Arts Program:  www.prosandconsprogram.com Cdn Families & Corrections Network:  www.cfcn-rcafd.org Office of the Corrections Investigator:  https://oci-bec.gc.ca/ Theme music this week is Facts.  Listen on Paint in the Forest from Pros and Cons Prison Arts Program.  Recorded at Joyceville Institution.  

Does the Canadian criminal justice system, for all the huge investment we make in it, produce the results we expect?  It's a system that often breaks our loved ones and us in the process.  Family members reflect on the outlandish notion that criminal punishment somehow can cure mental illness and addiction.    In this episode, we meet Dr. Rose Ricciardelli, a well known researcher in this field., and  Dr. Ivan Zinger who runs the Canadian Office of the Corrections Investigator. They help Gail & Madeline investigate the role of mental health care in Canadian prisons.   Trigger warning:  Contents may be upsetting.  Take care. Email us @ [email protected] Instagram:  www.instagram.com/prisonfamilypod/en MOMS Ottawa:   www.momsottawa.com Pros & Cons Prison Arts Program:  www.prosandconsprogram.com Cdn Families & Corrections Network:  www.cfcn-rcafd.org Office of the Corrections Investigator:  https://oci-bec.gc.ca/ Theme music this week is Secret Survival.  Listen on Undisclosed Location from Pros and Cons Prison Arts Program.  Recorded at Grand Valley Women's Institution.

Meet Marilee Sherry and Valerie Rhodes, two incredibly accomplished child welfare specialists from the Child Welfare Truth Telling Collective.   Want to know what happens to a child when a parent is incarcerated?  Merilee, Val and our friend Louise Leonardi give us a heartbreaking picture, and an exciting alternative.  We reflect in this episode on why, despite decades of advocacy, carceral systems and child welfare systems seem so resistant to change and the pathways between and across the two systems. Trigger Warning:  Contents may be upsetting.  Take care. Email us @ [email protected] Instagram:  www.instagram.com/prisonfamilypod/en MOMS Ottawa:   www.momsottawa.com Pros & Cons Prison Arts Program:  www.prosandconsprogram.com Cdn Families & Corrections Network:  www.cfcn-rcafd.org Office of the Corrections Investigator:  https://oci-bec.gc.ca/ Theme music this week is Daddy's Little Girl.  Listen on Paint in the Forest from Pros and Cons Prison Arts Program.  Recorded in Joyceville Institution.

Madeline, Gail and Jake reflect on how their relationships have shifted over time as the result of Jake's incarceration. Tania joins us to talk about how their family went through the prison journey with her daughter and how they have successfully navigated these trying times and come out the other side.  We discuss what it's like to become a surety for someone you love with the help of Louise Leonardi, Executive Director of Canadian Families Corrections Network.  Trigger Warning:  Contents may be upsetting.  Take care. Email us @ [email protected] Instagram:  www.instagram.com/prisonfamilypod/en MOMS Ottawa:   www.momsottawa.com Pros & Cons Prison Arts Program:  www.prosandconsprogram.com Cdn Families & Corrections Network:  www.cfcn-rcafd.org Office of the Corrections Investigator:  https://oci-bec.gc.ca/ Theme music this week is Broken Pieces.  Listen on Undisclosed Location from Pros and Cons Prison Arts Program.  Recorded at Grand Valley Women's Institution.

Madeline & Gail reflect on the stigma of having an incarcerated loved one. Familes are disrupted, often move away, they become secretive and they carry an outsized and misplaced burden of shame.   Family relationships become strained, social interactions are avoided.   At a time when friends are most needed, they often fall away.    We explore the role that media plays in presenting crime to the general public and reflect on the long term harms that are inflicted on families of incarcerated people.   Dr. Sara McNaul and Adriene Harewood make particular contributions to this episode. Trigger Warning:  Contents may be upsetting.  Take care. Email us @ [email protected] Instagram:  www.instagram.com/prisonfamilypod/en MOMS Ottawa:   www.momsottawa.com Pros & Cons Prison Arts Program:  www.prosandconsprogram.com Cdn Families & Corrections Network:  www.cfcn-rcafd.org Office of the Corrections Investigator:  https://oci-bec.gc.ca/ Theme Music this week was Falling.  Listen on Undisclosed Location, from Pros and Cons Prison Arts Program.  Recorded at Grand Valley Women's Institution.

The shockwaves generated by a criminal charge are painful and do not really ever go away.  In Shockwaves Part 2, you will meet Farhat, Dan, Mary and Nadine and the people they love.  They will tell you what that initial shock was like for them and for the wider circle of the person in trouble.  They tell their stories of interactions with police and the criminal punishment system, as family members.   Trigger Warning:  Contents may be upsetting.  Take care. Email us @ [email protected] Instagram:  www.instagram.com/prisonfamilypod/en MOMS Ottawa:   www.momsottawa.com Pros & Cons Prison Arts Program:  www.prosandconsprogram.com Cdn Families & Corrections Network:  www.cfcn-rcafd.org Office of the Corrections Investigator:  https://oci-bec.gc.ca/ Theme Music this week is Truth in War.  Listen on Postcards from the Country from Pros and Cons Prison Arts Program.  Recorded in Joyceville Institution.

What's it like to find out that someone you love has committed a crime?  Not top of mind thinking for most people, unless you are a prison family member.  If you are, those thoughts intrude on pretty much every waking moment.  People that we love have harmed someone else.  Sometimes they have also harmed us, emotionally, financially, or physically.  This series explores the impacts of incarceration on family members of incarcerated people. In episode 1, you'll meet Madeline and Gail, prison family members and your hosts, along with a handful of incredible individuals with lived experience in this area.   Trigger Warning:  Content may be upsetting.  Take care Email us @ [email protected] Instagram:  www.instagram.com/prisonfamilypod/en MOMS Ottawa:   www.momsottawa.com Pros & Cons Prison Arts Program:  www.prosandconsprogram.com Cdn Families & Corrections Network:  www.cfcn-rcafd.org Office of the Corrections Investigator:  https://oci-bec.gc.ca/ Theme music this week is Truth in War.  Listen on Postcards From the County, Pros & Cons Prison Arts Program.  Recorded in Joyceville Institution.  

Coming July 29th 2025 What's it like to find out that someone you love has committed a crime, has hurt someone?  Not top of mind thinking for most people, unless you are a prison family member.  If you are, those thoughts intrude on pretty much every waking moment.  People that we love have harmed someone else.  That hurts.  They have also harmed us, emotionally, financially, sometimes physically.  This series explores the impacts of incarceration on secondary victims - family members - who are innocent of any crime but are often victimized by the system that exists to punish the crime they didn't commit.  Here you will meet family members of incarcerated people and subject matter experts who are rock stars in the criminal justice world.

Coming July 29th 2025 What's it like to find out that someone you love has committed a crime, has hurt someone?  Not top of mind thinking for most people, unless you are a prison family member.  If you are, those thoughts intrude on pretty much every waking moment.  People that we love have harmed someone else.  That hurts.  They have also harmed us, emotionally, financially, sometimes physically.  This series explores the impacts of incarceration on secondary victims - family members - who are innocent of any crime but are often victimized by the system that exists to punish the crime they didn't commit.  Here you will meet family members of incarcerated people and subject matter experts who are rock stars in the criminal justice world.