Prison Justice Videos

Patricia Block tells her story of giving birth while serving time at BC's Fraser Valley Institution. Patricia had requested to serve a federal sentence so that she'd be able to keep her baby with her because the prison has a unit specifically built for mothers and babies. But because of a lack of communication between government agencies, Patricia's baby was put into foster care two days after being born. Now on the outside and re-united with her daughter, Patricia looks back to reflect on what happened... and talks about what she's doing to make sure this doesn't happen to other women in the future.

Seonok Lee is an activist and academic from South Korea. She discusses the plight of migrant workers in South Korea who challenge the draconian laws which criminalize their presence in the country... and the government's response of increased force.

Ann McNeil is a tibetan buddhist nun who serves as a chaplain at several BC prisons. She talks about the work she does to support and guide prisoners in buddhism and meditation. She is part of a panel discussion discussing meditation in prison happening Monday, November 16 at Langara College in Vancouver. It's part of a screening of the film "The Dhamma Brothers". More information at http://vancouverbpf.wordpress.com/

In this podcast: Food bank recipients volunteer, Tibetan Buddhism in B.C. Prisons, and Baka Beyond on a train platform in Nanaimo, B.C. (1:40 - 7:47) Sachin Seth went to the Fort York Food Bank to talk about how the recession was affecting the facility, but found food bank recipients volunteering their time to keep the place running. Here are three of their stories.read more

Having safe sex inside prison... is a lot more complicated than you might think. This was what members of a queer prisoner support group in Montreal discovered... when they tried to create a program advocating safe sex on the inside. Liam Michaud-O'Grady and Julia De Montigny offer a workshop called "You Improvise To Survive". They gathered statements from gay, queer and trans prisoners across the US and Canada on what sexual "safety" means when condom access is restricted or when queer sex is criminal. For more information about this workshop and about the work Liam and Julia do, go to http://www.prisonercorrespondenceproject.com/?page_id=159

Jeff Lazar is an American filmmaker based in Seoul, South Korea, who is documenting the growing movement against mandatory military service in that country. He talks about the many young men who are jailed for refusing to do military service... and the lengths others go to in order to avoid jail and the military.

Lawyer Alex Wolf speaks about the hundreds of people who are left stranded each year when they go to court in the British Columbia suburb of North Vancouver. Defendents from Squamish to Pemberton have to travel for hours to get to court because their local courthouse was shut down... and they have no way to get home once they're released.