Correctional facilities refer to designated areas where people caught committing crime in the society are confined. Correctional facilities mainly consist of prisons and any other place of incarceration set by a government. This essay will discuss on correctional facilities with regard to women. The essay will mainly focus on recreation benefits and recreation constraints for women living in correctional facilities in Canada. Canada has a stable judicial system and all individuals over 18 years serving a jail term of more than two years is put under the mandate of the federal agency, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). Women serving a jail term of less than two years are put under community supervision programs which are run by the provincial authorities. The Correctional Service of Canada is the one in charge of providing recreation and leisure facilities to the women put in correctional facilities.
Population Background
This case study majors its discussion on women inmates from Canada who have found themselves behind bars because of different offences they have committed. All the women in the correctional facilities are of over 18 years of age and the essays examines the benefits they get from recreational programs and the constraints to the intended recreation programs and activities.
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Recreation Benefits
The correctional Service of Canada is mandated to ensure that recreation facilities are availed to all women inmates in the whole of Canada. Correctional facilities in Canada range from community level to national level and are all under the CSC. One of the recreation activities which are common among all the correctional facilities for women in Canada are sports and physical activities (Ambrose & Rosky, 2013). Different types of sports and physical activities like soccer and gym are initiated in all correctional facilities in Canada. The sports and physical activities have numerous benefits to the women inmates across all levels of confinement. One of the benefits which are realized through sporting events is the ability of the women inmates, especially those serving long jail terms, to cope well with the idea of in incarceration.
Women inmates are more likely to be faced with psychological problems, especially if they are sentenced for long jail terms. Incorporating sports events in the daily programs of the correctional facilities helps many women inmates to overcome psychological and mental problems (Norman, 2015). Sporting events also act as a channel of providing opportunities for inmates to change and vent negative feelings of tension and anxiety into positive productive attitudes. Incorporating sporting events in the correctional facilities for women also educate them of various game and sport rules and strategies. The rules and strategies learnt during these sporting events can be applied later in life when the women inmates are reintegrated into the society.
Another benefit of incorporating sporting events in the correctional facilities is that it helps the women inmates to build good relationships with the prison staff (Norman, 2015). Sporting events promote free and healthy interactions between inmates and prison staff which make it possible for the inmates to share their experiences and challenges during the jail terms. Building good relationships in the Canadian prisons has led to a decrease of psychology-related cases because the women inmates are able to seek advice from the prison staff whenever they face any challenges (Norman, 2015). Physical body building activities like gym have several benefits on the women inmates in correctional facilities in Canada (Gallant, Sherry, & Nicholson, 2015). One of the benefits of physical activities is that it helps the women inmates to cut on unnecessary weight thus improving their general health. Through incorporating physical activities in the correctional facilities of Canada, cases of illnesses resulting from body overweight have reduced.
Most of the correctional facilities in Canada are installed with TVs where female inmates can watch movies and news. Watching movies among the women inmates helps them to relieve institutional stress (Donelle & Hall, 2014). Being confined in one place without any information of what is happening around the world might create stress among the women inmates in the Canadian prisons. Therefore, the Correctional Service of Canada ensures that each prison is equipped with TVs which are watched by the inmates during leisure time. Other benefits of recreation realized in the correctional facilities for women include improved individual creativity through participating in arts and model programs and improved individual self-esteem through being given chances to showcase their different talents.
Recreation Constraints
Provision of recreation programs and activities in the Canadian correctional facilities has not been easy due budget constraints (White, 2019). All the recreation programs and activities require capital to have them running. For instance, the sporting events require proper planning on how to prepare playing grounds, purchase the required balls and hire trained personnel to take on the task. In most cases, the Correctional Service of Canada is not well funded by the government to cater for all recreational activities budgeted for by the different correctional facilities. The correctional Service of Canada only operates within the limits of the revenues set by the government to run the prisons department in Canada. Budget constraints most of the times lead to some expensive recreation programs like weightlifting to be abandoned. The correctional facilities are therefore left with no choice but incorporate only the simple recreation activities like soccer, volleyball and handball.
Overcrowding in the Canadian correctional facilities is another factor constraining recreation among the women inmates. Rise in overcrowding cases in prisons has greatly constrained the provision of recreational facilities because the available recreational facilities cannot match the high number of inmates in the female correctional facilities across the country. Among the worst affected correctional facilities are in the regions of Toronto, Windsor, London, and Niagara, all which have recorded over 100% capacity of inmates in their facilities (Azadian, 2015). With this high population of inmates in the correctional facilities, recreation cannot be conducted efficiently because all the inmates’ needs cannot be met. Different inmates would want to participate in different recreation activities depending on their preferences, which are highly limited by the high populations. The overcrowding has been enhanced by the rise in crime and the preference of jail term as a form of punishment for offenders by the judicial system.
Mismanagement in the correctional facilities has also contributed to the constraints being witnessed while implementing recreation and recreational facilities to the women inmates. According to White (2019), the state of the Canadian correctional facilities and especially the ones for women inmates, has been deteriorating over time due to poor management (White, 2019). The system of the prison witnessed in the country has failed despite the funding they get from the government. Therefore, improper budgeting and utilization of available resources has made it hard for recreation among the women inmates in the correctional facilities to be implanted effectively. The Canadian government also feels that the mismanagement might be caused by understaffing in the correctional facilities and is thus in the process of deploying more staff to the correctional facilities (White, 2019). The government intends to achieve a ratio of one prisoner to one prison staff, which will be the leading ratio in the world.
Conclusion
Correctional facilities in Canada have witnessed a rising number of women inmates in recent years. The increase of women inmates has called for appropriate measures to ensure that recreation is incorporated in the correctional facilities to help the women cope with real life issues. Among the incorporated recreation programs include sporting events and physical body building facilities. However, the provision of these recreation facilities has faced some challenges which the government is trying to deal with.
References
Ambrose, M., & Rosky, J. (2013). Prisoners’ Round: Examining the Literature on Recreation and Exercise in Correctional Facilities. (2): 362-370.
Azadian, F. (2015). Canada’s Epidemic of Overcrowded Prisons. Retrieved October 4, 2019; from https://www.marxist.com/canadas-epidemic-of-overcrowded-prisons.htm
Donelle, L., & Hall, J. (2014). An Exploration of Women Offenders’ Health Literacy. Social Work in Public Health. 29(3): 240-251.
Gallant, D., Sherry, E., & Nicholson, M. (2015). Recreation or Rehabilitation? Managing Sport for Development Programs with Prison Populations. 18(1): 45-56.
Norman, M. (2015). Sport and Physical Recreation in Canadian Federal Prisons: An Exploratory Study of Carceral Physical Culture. pp. 14-26.
White, P. (2019). Canada’s Investment in Prison System Isn’t Bringing Results, Watchdog Reports. Retrieved October 4, 2019; from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadas-investment-in-prison-system-model-isnt-bringing-results/
