On this week’s episode of Rank and File Radio – Prairies Edition, we talk about prison justice. A nation-wide prison strike in the U.S just concluded last week, from August 21 to September 9. The strike was centred around 10 demands, including an end to unpaid labour, or prison slavery, and increased rehabilitation programs. One provincial prison in Nova Scotia also participated in the form of a peaceful protest. The two following interviews explore different aspects related to prisoner justice in Canada.

Meara Conway attended McGill law school and articled at the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto. Originally from Saskatchewan, she recently returned to her hometown of Regina to work as a staff lawyer for Legal Aid and immediately took up the struggle against chronic under resourcing and mounting cuts to Legal Aid. She is currently Vice-President of her staff’s local, CUPE 1949.

Katharina Maier is a faculty member of Criminal Justice at the University of Winnipeg. She holds a law degree from Germany and completed her PhD in Criminology and Socio-legal Studies at the University of Toronto. Katharina is broadly interested in issues around punishment, incarceration, and prisoner re-entry. Her current research looks at the role of halfway houses and their role in facilitating the transition from prison to community living. One of the goals of her research is to understand what punishment means to people and how it is experienced by criminalized populations.