Imprisonment has been at the heart of colonized Canada, but the correctional and research focus has always been on men. It was not until 1990 that the Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women – a unique collaboration between the Correctional Service of Canada and the voluntary sector – advanced an alternative vision recognizing women’s specific needs alongside their racial identities, in the hope that new provision might reduce women’s imprisonment.

Stephanie Hayman asks whether the task force’s vision was realized. Turning to the often ignored partners in imprisonment, the officers responsible for prisoners’ welfare, Hayman enables us to hear the voices of the original staff at Edmonton Institution for Women (EIFW), the first of the new larger prisons to receive prisoners, as well as staff who followed them. Their reflections are set in the context of EIFW’s flawed opening, the intense media scrutiny it received, and its temporary closure after only five months. She shows how staff supported prisoners through the turmoil while managing their own distress and explores how these conditions developed, why staff came into conflict with management, and how Indigenous women experienced distinct harms. The work traces correctional and political responses to EIFW across the new prisons, with a particular focus on events at Grand Valley and NOVA Institutions for Women.

Foregrounding the experiences of prisoners and staff, From Hope to Distress offers a provocative assessment of the ways in which reform ideals can be absorbed and distorted by those responsible for their implementation.