Prison is a land without trees. Perhaps for reasons of security, the authorities fear that a tree might hide a prisoner, or serve as a hiding place for drugs and weapons. But we have one tree, a young maple about …
Auteur : Colin McGregor
If this article doesn’t confuse you, all the better, because it sure confuses me, and I wrote it. It’s hard to underestimate how, when leaving prison after 29 years, you are disconnected from the outside world. After a long absence, …
If this article doesn’t confuse you, all the better, because it sure confuses me, and I wrote it. It’s hard to underestimate how, when leaving prison after 29 years, you are disconnected from the outside world. After a long absence, …
Behind the red door at 137 Avenue du Président-Kennedy in downtown Montreal, the interior walls are no longer painted white. That’s because this summer, downtown St. Michael’s Mission had some artists come in and paint murals on their walls – …
He lowers his head and looks into the emptiness with a blank stare. We are in prison, in an inmates’ common room. A small kitchen, a TV affixed to the wall, a few chairs, some sofas. He’s spent 40 years …
Behind the red door at 137 President Kennedy Avenue, at the base of the big church with the red roof, there’s a place of support and of healing for the area’s people in need. They congregate outside the door, lounging …
You wouldn’t think that there’d be much hope for someone in their 40s or 50s with a criminal record, who’s been in jail for a decade or more, of piercing the job market. Prejudices against ex-cons; the blinding flurry of …
We had a visit here at The Social Eyes from the Reverend Tim Smart, who works in the prison system as well as having his own outside church to run. Tim was one of my chaplains in jail. Tim brought …
“Can I count on you to do some painting on Wednesday at the Bistro Le Ste-Cath?” By Colin McGregor That’s an approximate translation of the brief courriel that I received from The Social Eyes and Reflet de Société publisher Raymond …
This happened when I was imprisoned, on a transfer from one jail to another, temporarily in a holding facility for transferees. By Colin McGregor, Prison CFF de Laval Laying on the upper bunk of a 10 x 7 foot prison …