Grand Valley Institution for Women (GVI; french: Établissement pour femmes Grand Valley) is a

women's prison This article discusses the incarceration of women in correctional facilities. As of 2013 across the world, 625,000 women and children were being held in penal institutions, and the female prison population was increasing in all continents.

Kitchener, Ontario ) , image_flag = Flag of Kitchener, Ontario.svg , image_seal = Seal of Kitchener, Canada.svg , image_shield=Coat of arms of Kitchener, Canada.svg , image_blank_emblem = Logo of Kitchener, Ontario.svg , blank_emblem_type = ...

, operated by the

Correctional Service of Canada The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC; french: Service correctionnel du Canada), also known as Correctional Service Canada or Corrections Canada, is the Canadian federal government agency responsible for the incarceration and rehabilitation of ...

(CSC). In

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, all offenders sentenced to prison terms of greater than two years serve their time in a federal institution operated by the CSC. The Grand Valley Institution, which had a reported capacity of approximately 130 women as of April 2010, is the only federal women's prison in Ontario.

History

The prison opened in 1997. Previously

Prison for Women The Prison For Women ("P4W"; french: Prison des femmes), located in Kingston, Ontario, was a Correctional Service of Canada prison for women that functioned at a maximum security level from 1934 to 2000. Background The first female inmates ar ...

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...

was the only federal women's prison in Canada. Area neighbors initially opposed the development due to its location in Kitchener and its proximity to residential areas, but as of 2017 the opposition had died down. The housing for lower security prisoners was built first, and the housing for maximum security prisoners was built later. On October 19, 2007, prison officials at the Grand Valley Institution observed the death of 19-year-old inmate Ashley Smith causing much controversy and legal inquest.

Composition

The majority of the prisoners live in detached buildings, or "cottages". The prison has a secure unit for prisoners temporarily held in

administrative segregation Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, adminis ...

, who do not communicate with other prisoners, and those classified as maximum security prisoners, who are held in "pods" which each have five cells. Initially the prison had a white picket fence as a boundary, but a chain-link barbed wire fence later replaced it.

Demographics

Circa 2017 the prison had 168 prisoners, with most of them each having four or fewer years remaining of their sentences, and 13 of them being classified as maximum security. Four of them had children accompanying them. Circa 2017 the prison had 208 employees.

Programs

The program in which mothers have children with them in prison had been active since 2016 and is active as of 2017. Ryan Flanagan of CTV stated that previously the program was in "fits and starts".

Notable prisoners

* Terri-Lynne McClintic *

Jennifer Pan Jennifer Pan (born June 17, 1986) is a Vietnamese Canadian woman who was convicted of a 2010 kill-for-hire attack targeting both of her parents, murdering her mother and injuring her father. The crime took place at the Pan residence in Union ...

Grimaldi, Jeremy. '' A Daughter's Deadly Deception: The Jennifer Pan Story''.

Dundurn Books Dundurn Press is one of the largest Canadian-owned book publishing companies of adult and children's fiction and non-fiction. The company publishes Canadian literature, history, biography, politics and arts. Dundurn has about 2500 books in print, ...

, November 12, 2016. , 9781459735255 p
313
or , 9781459735262

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

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* Ashley Smith *

Elizabeth Wettlaufer Elizabeth Tracy Mae "Bethe" Wettlaufer (née Parker; born June 10, 1967) is a convicted Canadian serial killer and former registered nurse who confessed to murdering eight senior citizens and attempting to murder six others in southwestern Onta ...

References

{{Reflist Buildings and structures in Kitchener, Ontario Prisons in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo Correctional Service of Canada institutions Women's prisons in Canada 1997 establishments in Ontario Women in Ontario