Prison Transparency Project and Centre for Justice Exchange with Dr. Vicki Chartrand

According to Dr. Chartrand: there is a tremendous and dangerous gap between the perceptions and optics of what the public knows about prisons and other carceral institutions and what is really going on inside those walls.

Dr. Vicki Chartrand is part of the Prison Transparency Project (PTP) research team that has received 2.5M from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada’s (SSHRC) Partnership Grant. The PTP is a collaboration between researchers from Argentina, Spain, and Canada to analyze and advance for greater transparency and accountability in prisons, and other carceral systems like migrant detention centres, the world over. The project will partner with prison watchdogs lawyers, organizations, family members, and people in prison to research the layers and levels of access to information and incarcerated persons to identify major issues people in prison and carceral institutions are facing, including major human rights abuses.

According to Dr. Chartrand “there is a tremendous and dangerous gap between the perceptions and optics of what the public knows about prisons and other carceral institutions and what is really going on inside those walls. This research project is an important opportunity to compare carceral practices across the globe and throw into question the utility of a 17th century invention that operates to disappear people.”

Central to the PTP research project are the partners who will provide invaluable insight into the depths and veneers of carceral transparency. One of the partners on the project is the Centre for Justice Exchange, a research centre at Bishop’s University founded and directed by Dr. Chartrand. At the centre academics, student interns, and volunteers seek to advance collaborative, creative and community-based approaches to justice. The current criminal justice system currently operates with a model that tends to individualize conflicts, social problems, separate people which in returns, removes the essential support and resources people need. Justice Exchange believes that justice should help improve people’s life circumstances, build communities, and provide opportunities for people to learn, grow, and create.

The objectives of the Justice Exchange Research Center are to envision a justice through four keys:

1. Collaborative and community engaged research and dissemination with a focus on community justices along with the dismantling of segregated and punitive frameworks
2. Building collections of resources through the sharing of information and community support
3. Public education and awareness on collaborative and community justices through public campaigns and projects
4. Advance pedagogical praxis and experiential learning

As partners, the Justice Exchange will be informing the PTP research team on their experiences, initiatives, and challenges in gaining access to and supporting people who are in the prison system, and the constraints and concerns for Indigenous people. As Sheri Pranteau, Oji-Cree, formerly incarcerated and president of the centre reminds us, “Indigenous people are incarcerated at rates higher than any group of people across the lands known as Canada. The government should be more concerned with honoring the land and treaties and investing in the communities with clean water, access to housing, and programs, rather than spending millions of dollars to lock us away.”

As a new research center, Justice Exchange is prioritizes a community-engaged scholarship and  collaborative methodologies that build on community resources while learning from communities through their expertise and wisdom. For the PTP project, this means learning from the prison community to address the many harms and human rights violations that persist in carceral environments.

For more information about the PTP project or the Centre for Justice Exchange, you can contact Dr. Vicki Chartrand at vicki.chartrand@ubishops.ca or visit justiceexchange.ca. For students interested in the project or the work at the Centre, Justice Exchange, offers a 3-credit course based internship program through the Department of Sociology at Bishop’s University (SOC333). The course integrates students’ research skills and interests with the activities of the centre to provide students with a practical insight and experience working in the field of justice. Students must have taken at least one Criminology related course to qualify for the Internship. Visit https://justiceexchange.ca/about/internships/ for more info.

Joannie St-Germain M.Sc.
Research Officer
Office of Research and Graduate Studies
819-822-9600 ext. 2242