Visit to Fraser Valley Institution for Women

I recently had the unique opportunity to visit three federal prisons in British Columbia, accompanied by lifelong prisoner rights advocate and my friend, Senator Kim Pate. Our second visit was to Fraser Valley Institution, a multi-level (minimum, medium and maximum) security prison for women located in Abbotsford. We first met with the staff, inside the prison’s gymnasium. We were told that 61% of all prisoners and 89% of those classified as maximum security are Indigenous women. This is yet another example of the over-representation of Indigenous Peoples, in particular of women, in Canadian prisons.