Is it possible for a criminal to change? Having established that crime comes from egotism, I launch on my search for the answer to this question posed to me while I was on a community outing during my prison sentence. By Colin McGregor My next […] See more
The man who runs the Maison Orléans, a place of healing and welcoming in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, is curious. The subject being discussed – rehabilitation in a prison setting. By Colin McGregor Why ask me about this subject? Because, at the time, I am in […] See more
“Darkness, la noirceur. It’s the darkness.” We are in prison, in a common room for inmates. A kitchenette, a TV fixed to the wall, a few chairs, some couches. By Colin McGregor He’s spent 40 years behind bars. Only last week did he get permission […] See more
I awake in a sweat, dazed and disoriented. I turn my pillow over to the dry, cold side underneath, and think: a few seconds ago, I was walking along Sherbrooke Street on a sunny summer’s day, rummaging through second-hand bookstores. Not now. My eyes adjust […] See more
On a transfer bus from Cowansville to Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, in the lower Laurentians just north of Laval. It does not matter if it is day or night. I cannot tell. By Colin McGregor | File Prison In the rear, in a cage, manacled and handcuffed, all […] See more
René Girard, a writer and philosopher from France, feels that human societies are necessarily full of negative emotions. People copy others – that’s human nature – and one person’s violence and rage can multiply, can get horribly out of control. To avoid anarchy, all societies, […] See more
Note: Jean-Pierre Bellemare was convicted in 2021 of a crime committed in 2018, and is currently incarcerated. Sometimes my jailbird past seems too heavy for me to bear. Many of the folks around me see me as a successful example of a rehabilitated criminal, which […] See more
The debate over how prostitution should be handled in our society has elicited lively opinions for a long, long time. Here is the opinion of one woman who worked as a hooker for a year and a half. She wrote this 5 years ago, but […] See more
It is break time at the prison upholstery shop. We work in a large, brightly lit room with a high ceiling and concrete floors. Along one cinderblock wall, chairs are lined up, mostly facing outward. This is where we sit for the 15 minutes we […] See more
Last year, we were asked to remove all the religious symbols from the Chapel in Cowansville Penitentiary (Quebec), a men’s federal prison with close to 700 inmates. A chapel that was previously decorated with Christian symbols now became a neutral space within the barbed wire […] See more
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