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My name’s mandy, and I’m here today to talk about zoos, labs, factory farms and the prison industrial complex. I feel like in the room there’s a lot of folks who are pretty aware of the issues with zoos, factory farms and labs, so I’m going to focus a little bit more on prison, because I’m making an assumption that that’s something that maybe people are less familiar with… do folks feel like that’s a fairly accurate assumption to make?

[Nods from the audience]

Okay. Cool. I was asked to speak because, like Alanna said in the introduction, I spent most of last year in Vanier Centre for Women which is just down the 401 in Milton. It is a women’s jail and it’s also a provincial jail, so just for some context: a provincial jail is one where you would go if you were convicted of something that got you two years less a day, or less, as a sentence.

So basically, not your most violent crimes. It’s also a place where you would be if you’ve been charged with something and you haven’t been convicted yet – you haven’t even gone to trial yet – but you haven’t been able to make bail. Continue reading →