Joint Effort is an all women prison abolitionist group involved in solidarity work with women prisoners at the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women (BCCW). Joint Effort started as a sub committee of the BC Federation of Women and has been volunteering at the women's prison since 1980.

The group consists of women who work to create contacts between women in prison and various community organizations outside the prison.

On the "inside" our work consists of organizing discussion groups, various workshops and music, theatre and sports events. We work with the Inmate's Committee and the Native Sisterhood to support their activities in any way that we can. In our weekly visits we try to create a space where women from "inside" and "outside" can communicate around issues of mutual interest, where respect and confidentiality are practised and where a woman can speak her mind and be supported.

On the "outside", Joint Effort is involved in providing public information about the situation of women in prison as well as lobbying the government on various issues.

Joint Effort is an independent group that is not associated with the prison or the church. We are unpaid workers and the group does not receive any government or institutional funding. With the closing of the Prison For Women in Kingston, Ontario, Joint Effort will be in contact with prisoners at the five new women's prisons that have opened up across Canada.

Articles Relating to Women in Prison and/or Joint Effort

Discrimination Against Aboriginal Women Rampant in Federal Prisons  Jul 25, 2003

Interview with Fire This Time  Jul 20, 2003

Prisons Are A Failed Experiment (Especially for Women)  Jul 15, 2003

Women in Men's Prisons Unacceptable  Jul 13, 2003

Canadian Human Rights Commission Investigates Systemic Discrimination in Women's Prisons  Jul 13, 2003

Mental and Developmental Disabilities and Women in Prison  Jul 11, 2003

Federally Sentenced Women Prisoners Begin Hunger Strike  Feb 25, 2003

Going Inside - Notes from a Joint Effort Member  Feb 10, 2003

Letter From Springhill Prisoner  Oct 31, 2002

Kimberly Rogers Inquest Begins  Oct 15, 2002

Joint Effort's Statement at The Politics of Prison: From Bad to Worse - A public forum in response to the recent cuts announced to prisons in BC  Mar 2, 2002

Letter From Yvonne Johnson  2001

Justice for Lisa Neve! Alberta won't appeal ruling on dangerous offender ruling. Former prostitute was freed after six years in prison.  Sep 29, 1999

Joint Effort's Abolitionist Perspective  1997

Women Prisoners to be Housed in Men's Prisons  1997

Criminal Histories Not So Dangerous  1995

Contacting Joint Effort

Email: j_effort@hotmail.com  Phone: 604.682.3269 ext 3019

PO Box 78005, 1755 East Broadway
Vancouver, BC
V5N 5W1