Jail Baby: Stories about Children Born in Prison

This is a conversation with Hope McIntyre concerning her latest play Jail Baby co-written with Cairn Moore. It presents the life of character Jasmine, a composite fictional protagonist demonstrating the lives of women who are in prison and who have or who are about to give birth to children in prison. Jail Baby was created in partnership with the Elizabeth Fry Society of Manitoba after recognizing the need to share the stories of incarcerated women and women moving in and out of the justice system. Work and research was conducted over 3 years with actual women incarcerated in Alberta and Manitoba. Hope and Cairn held workshops with participants that allowed the research and discussion to be frank and worthy of presenting the stories of incarcerated women. 

While it is not just an Aboriginal story, 1/3 of all women in prison are Aboriginal and it is a too common experience in various segments of society. Activist Sel Burrow feels that prison should be the final answer to issues of poverty, racism and social conditions that too many of these women face. The interesting work of Hope and Cairn is the idea that while in prison rehabilitation needs to occur in order to break the negative support groups that congregate around these women, replacing them with positive support groups.  At the completion of the writing of the play the women who participated were given the chance to review the work, make comments, offer input and act out various scenes. During the production of the play (May 16-23, 2013) many of the women will be present, and there will be a chance to discuss directly with the actors and women afterwards.

Taken from Sarasvàti Productions

Jasmine bursts into the world unlike your typical new born child and is anointed a “jail baby.” Born in prison, raised by a mother who revolves in and out of the correctional system, tossed in and out of foster care, Jasmine is destined to become one of society’s monsters. When she finds herself pregnant and facing her most serious charge yet, Jasmine is horrified at the thought of having her unborn child repeat her life of despair.

Through a series of hilarious parodies, the myths of prison life for incarcerated women are presented and weaved together with Jasmine’s journey. From bad prison B movies to Kangaroo Court, the ensemble of characters turn common beliefs on their heads in order to make the audience question their preconceptions of criminalized women.

Jail Baby

World Premiere
by Hope McIntyre and Cairn Moore
with Nan Fewchuk and Marsha Knight
May 16-26, 2013
Asper Centre for Theatre and Film
(at the University of Winnipeg, 400 Colony Street)
Directed by Ann Hodges
Set/Costume Design by Abigail Myers
Lighting Design by Dean Cowieson
Sound Design by Chris Coyne
Stage Manager Matthew Lagacé
Featuring: Ashley Chartrand, Melanie Dean, Shannon Guile, Daina Leitold, Megan McArton, Tracey Nepinak and Cory Wojcik.

To Learn More (Interview and Podcast)https://archive.org/details/HopeMcintryeMixdown 
https://ia601704.us.archive.org/1/items/HopeMcintryeMixdown/hope%20mcintrye%20mixdown%20.mp3 


Citations

Corrections Canada and the Coming Tsunami of Youth in Prison

 

Here is an interview I did with Radio-Canada journalist Claudine Richard-Beaudoin about the terrible state of Canadian prisons and the over representation of Aboriginal peoples in that system.  HTTP://www.radio-canada.ca/emissions/midi_plus_manitoba/2012-2013/chronique.asp?idChronique=279078

March 8th, 2013

Howard Saper, the Correctional Investigator tabled a report (7 March 2013) with the Canadian Parliament. The report, entitled Spirit Matters:  Aboriginal People and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, examines the implementation of Sections 81 and 84 provisions of the CCRA.  Section 81 allows the Minister of Public Safety to enter into agreements to transfer care and custody of an Aboriginal offender who would otherwise be held in a federal penitentiary to an Aboriginal community facility.  Section 84 provides for Aboriginal communities to be involved in the release of an Aboriginal offender returning to their community. Nothing in the report is new except that the tough on crime approach may not be working. I see the report as indicating that we are creating the potential of a tsunami of under privileged young people (Aboriginal) who will eventually be sent to Canadian prisons. We should remember that this is the youngest population in Canada. Perhaps it is time to consider more traditional models of being more intelligent on crime. While no one likes criminals, eventually a criminal has the right to live in society. It should be the task of Corrections Canada to ensure that people when they leave prison have the skills to make a life for themselves on the outside. Too many people learn bad things in prison and it becomes a way of life. Many young men in the Aboriginal community feel that they are destined for the Criminal courts. How can we prevent young people from becoming involved in the system. We are seeing that too many institutional systems are failing too many of our fellow citizens. The education system is not meeting the needs of children and in the case of Aboriginal peoples they have schools which are under funded by 30-40%. The Child and Family services are also failing our youngest citizens. When we see the cases like Phoenix Sinclairs’ which are in my mind the tip of the iceberg, we must be concerned. Children have a destiny in life and positive destiny, but we are the adult can affect that destiny and reduce the potential for the success of all out children. 

While many see underprivileged children as not being their children, they still have value. We often ask what we can do. These children will exist along side us in society. We will see them in the streets, in supermarkets, on the bus and potentially in our cities. While Howard Sapers said he could not comment on the processes that go on outside of correction facilities I can and I see a direct correlation. My quality of life is affected by the quality of life of all children in Canada. Every person who is in prison is a failure of the Canadian state to ensure that all citizens’ Human Rights have been respected and they have been given the options to make good personal choices in life. No man is an Island and we cannot shut ourselves away from the world. By being tough on crime, we must be smart and eradicate crime before it starts. Childhood poverty should be eliminated and we will see cost savings in our prisons and improvements to the Canadian politic in one generation.