WHAT WE’ve been up to lately
with our friends at good pitch vancouver!

In 2019, Conviction had the honour of being a part of the first Canadian Good Pitch in Vancouver - there we gained support and funding for our IMPACT CAMPAIGN. This year, we got together virtually to make new connections.

Good Pitch has been using documentaries to bring organizations together into powerful coalitions for over 12 years in 15 different countries. Over 3,200 organizations have attended Good Pitch worldwide, creating a network of foundations, NGOs, campaigners, academics, philanthropists, policymakers, brands and media. Story Money Impact is the Canadian producer of the Good Pitch program in Canada.

CREATING THEir own films, taking agency over
their own stories

Not only did the women in the film collaborate to create Conviction, they were given cameras upon their release, to tell their own stories using film and photography. These powerful short films – Bianca’s World by Bianca Mercer, Unloved by Treena Smith and Layers of my Life, by Caitlin Hill – were all conceived, created and edited by the women themselves, with the support of the Conviction directing team.

The films, and other behind the scenes stories, are showcased on the Conviction page on the documentary Channel Website.

• Support and follow ‘FROM THE GROUND UP’ - the housing and community support project the women began in Conviction. On Facebook and Email.

• RAISE YOUR VOICE. Email, write or call your municipal, provincial/territorial MLA or Member of Parliament and ask your elected officials and senators to: 

  • Re-allocate funding from Corrections to social, physical and mental health services in the community, vocational and post-secondary education, child care, and guaranteed livable income.

  • End the use of solitary confinement and stop performing routine strip searches – both are human rights violations.

  • Stop expanding and building prisons.

  • Ensure judges have discretion to divert from court and prison by sending/sentencing women to community service, therapy, detox and rehabilitation programs

  • Expect judges and politicians to go to prisons to meet those inside to see conditions first-hand.

  • Focus on decriminalizing and decarcerating

  • Allow public records to expire so an ex-offenders past doesn’t affect their future.

    NOTE: According to Senator Pate, personalized letters sent in the mail are more effective, and all mail going to MPs or Senators on Parliament Hill are FREE - no need for postage.

• DONATE YOUR TIME and/or funds to a worthy local organization. Support Elizabeth Fry and other groups, to develop housing and programs as non-carceral and community integration approaches along with custom designed mentor/services for every woman — particularly Indigenous women and those with mental health issues and trauma. Please mention Conviction when you donate so we can keep track of the film’s impact. In every province, Elizabeth Fry Associations are operating to help women inside our prisons - they always need volunteers, donations and support. Regional CAEFS are here:
  Efry Mainland NS I Efry Cape Breton | Efry St. John, NB I Ontario | Pacific Provinces/British Columbia | Prairie Provinces | Quebec

• DONATE to university/educational programs inside prison to help reduce recidivism. Walls to Bridges

The Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies is a good place to start to connect with what is happening in the world of female prisoner's rights in Canada. Follow CAEFS. To connect with Efry Mainland Nova Scotia

• Senator Kim Pate leads the fight against the incarceration and segregation of women, on Parliament Hill. Follow Kim here and check out her podcast.

• Connect with STRIDE - Community Justice Initiatives for women in prison, in southern Ontario.

• Sisters Inside - an Australian organization dedicated to the rights of women inside that country's prisons.

• FAFIA-AFAI on facebook - Feminist Alliance for International Action

• The Justice Arts Coalition is a coalition of those folks creating art around the US legal and penal system. @Prisonarts on Twitter

• Read Women Canada's Fastest Growing Prison Population, and Why Should you Care, by Senator Kim Pate

• Read Bianca Mercer’s story, about her experience in prison and being a part of the Conviction team.

• Watch the women from our film and From the Ground Up talk to CBC news about Indigenous women in prison.

• Read the Canadian Criminal Justice Association Justice Report Issue 35.3 featuring Conviction and interviews with five participants

• Read co-director, Ariella Pahlke’s story about Conviction’s collaborative process.

• Read Lauren McKeon’s article in The Walrus, Did Prisons Ever Work?

• TED talk from Deanna Van Buren about a world without prisons

• Native Women's Association of Canada's backgrounder on Indigenous Women in Solitary Confinement

• The Cost of Incarceration. Find out why, as Canadians, we need to make better investments. Read this story by Conviction filmmaker, Nance Ackerman

• Creating Choices a Corrections Canada document in 1997 that was the impetus for the closing of Prison for Women (P4W).

• Are Prisons Obsolete, a book by Angela Davis, exploring the US prison abolition movement. She argues forthrightly for "decarceration", and for the transformation of the society as a whole.

• Read Senator Kim Pate's first speech as a Senator, on the over-representation of Indigenous women in Canada's prisons.

• The Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights investigated Prisoners Rights in this country in 2018, find out more and get their report.

• Prison is not for Punishment in Sweden

• Down Inside, Thirty Years in Canada's Prison Service, Robert Clarke

• Incarcerated Women, the fastest growing prison population, NEWSWEEK

• Why Prisons Don’t Work

• Why Sweden is Closing its Prisons