Demanding Justice for Girls in BC Youth Prisons
by Corinne Longworth, at Prisoner Justice Day 2007

Good evening and thank you for inviting me to speak and for putting on this event year after year.  It is very important.  My name is Corinne Longworth and I have had the honour of doing a summer placement with Justice for Girls as part of my law school training.  In the three months I have spent there, I have been consistently shocked, horrified, and outraged at how the prison treats youth, and particularly girls, in youth custody.  I have been disgusted at the response or, better said, the gross lack of response by prison and Ministry officials to the human rights abuses that JFG brings to their attention.  My heart goes out to the young women as well as the young men confined, tormented, and abused behind youth prison walls. 

Here is a shock I wasn’t expecting: unlike adult prisons, girls and boys are incarcerated together in youth prisons.  This is a serious human rights violation.  It is a violation of young women’s rights to equality and security of the person and it needs to be stopped.  Prisons are harsh, terrifying places for teenage girls since a sentence to prison for young women is beyond the usual inhumanity of prison life; it is a sentence to cruel and unusual punishment in the form of constant sexual harassment and male violence. 

Are you aware that girls are a minority in the prison, surrounded by boys and predominantly male guards, compounding their oppression and vulnerability.  JFG believes that there should be NO co-ed incarceration.  JFG believes that girls should not be imprisoned with boys.  They should not be imprisoned with male guards, nor should they be examined by male doctors.  More than this, JFG believes that teenage girls should not be in prisons at all.  Prison is not a place of healing for these young women.

Although I am new to JFG, the organization has responded for over 5 years to violence and human rights violations against girls in prison. 

FOR EXAMPLE, here are some fact you should know:

• Male guards have “supervised” girls while taking showers
• One male guard once kicked a 14 year old girl in the head, causing her blurred vision and intense pain.  Despite this, prison officials still took one whole week to properly evaluate the trauma to her head. 
• A male prisoner sexually assaulted a young woman on a co-ed living unit at the Victoria youth prison.  The threat of rape and sexual harassment is a real and obvious extension of co-ed living units, which were simply standard at Prince George and Victoria until very recently.  Due to our advocacy, they are now building new, separate living units for girls.
• In another incident, one 15 year old girl was grabbed by the throat and restrained by a male guard so violently that it left bruising on her neck.  His excuse was that he did not want to “inappropriately” touch her.  He used their gender difference, the fact that he was male and she was female, to justify grabbing her violently by the throat.  The prison did nothing in response.
• But probably one of the most racist and abusive practices we encountered was the shackling of Aboriginal youth prisoners during sweat lodge ceremonies.  This was an extreme and disgusting form of cruel and unusual punishment.  It was an assault upon the dignity, spiritual and cultural practices of Aboriginal peoples.  It is reminiscent of the colonialist legacy of residential schools and their criminalization of Aboriginal cultural and spiritual practices. The only reason this deplorable practice ceased was because JFG and Aboriginal organizations forced the Ministry for Children & Family Development to stop it.

Shock two: Are you aware that the Ministry responsible for child welfare—the Ministry of Children & Family Development—runs the prison?  Does anyone else find this problematic?

Justice for Girls has told the Ministry of Children and Families and prison officials for years that imprisoning girls with boys and male guards makes these girls incredibly vulnerable to male violence.  The child welfare Ministry refuses to listen.

And shock three: are you aware that recently, less than two months ago, Justice for Girls uncovered a sexual abuse allegation at the Burnaby Youth Custody Centre?  We discovered that a male doctor, as part of court-ordered psychiatric assessments, was performing breast examinations and pap tests on girls.  Girls described these examinations as sexually abusive.  Now, I ask you, why on earth would a male doctor need to perform breast examinations and pap tests on girls as part of psychiatric assessments? 

These psychiatric assessments are court-ordered for the purpose of sentencing.  How can a breast examination or pap test help a court determine a just sentence?  It is simply ridiculous.  Absurd.  Justice for Girls has spoken to numerous lawyers and legal experts who equally share what I’m sure is your shock and outrage at this practice. 

Most girls in prison have been subjected to repeated and sometimes extreme male sexual violence in their past.  Imagine how violated these young women feel as a male doctor performs breast examinations and pap tests on them.

Yet, The Ministry of Children and Families claim that these exams are voluntary.  They claim that the girls consented.  But, they have provided no proof of informed or voluntary consent.  How can the prison claim that breast exams and pap tests, by a male doctor, on girls as young as 13, during a court ordered psychiatric assessment, could be consented to or voluntary? 

Girls have told us that they didn’t know they could say no.  They have said that they thought that their prison sentence would be lengthened if they didn’t comply. 

Institutional rape is the term that we use to describe forced breast and gynaecological examinations in a prison performed by a male doctor.  When this is done to girls as young as 13, we call it child sexual abuse. 

Since our report of abuse to the prison, the male doctor is now back working.  The Ministry has banned Justice for Girls.  The Ministry has defended, denied, defamed, attacked, and even threatened to press criminal charges against our organization.  We can only imagine the retaliation and intimidation the young women are subjected to inside.  Clearly, the Ministry gives new meaning to the phrase, “The best defense is a good offence.”

Yet, the girls in prison continue to stand up; they continue to say no; they continue to speak out. In my time at JFG, I have seen the girls take on the prison in a way that was even intimidating to me as an advocate, on the outside.  They have resisted authority, maintained their resolve, and continued to stand up and speak out in the face of this abuse.

I find these girls gutsy, brave and bold.  And, more than anything, I have found their courage and perseverance overwhelmingly inspiring.

If these young women have the courage to stand up, in a time when they are so vulnerable, isolated, and alone, I believe that we owe it to them to stand beside them.  I believe we owe it to them to support them in their fight against the prison, against discrimination, against abuse, against institutionalized rape, and against injustice.

There is something that you can do: join JFG in supporting and advocating for these young women, whose voices are clearly not being heard by the government.  On the JFG website, there is a copy of a letter to Tom Christensen, the Minister of Children and Family Development.  Please download it and forward it to this Minister.

Call for the end of breast examinations and pap tests in the context of psychiatric assessments.  Call for, at a basic minimum, that standards be brought to the level of adult prisons.  There should be no co-ed incarceration.  Girls should not be imprisoned with boys, or with male guards, or be treated by male doctors.

Truly, it is JFG’s belief that teenage girls should not be in prison at all.   Call for the deincarceration of girls!

Please go to our website and join us in standing beside these brave and inspiring young women. Thank you.