Abstract
Amanda Nelund authored the book, A Better Justice: Community Programs for Criminalized Women? (2020), to critically analyze alternative justice programs in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Utilizing the lens of feminist theory, the author maintains that many women are inappropriately incarcerated, and the prison system further marginalizes women. Women are purported to be the fastest-growing incarceration population in Canada and are subjected to harmful physical, emotional, and psychological outcomes due to imprisonment practices. Feminist theory is an ideal conceptual underpinning for this book as its ideologies involve the social, economic, personal, and political equality of all, particularly women.
The book offers an in-depth understanding of the mission, goals, practice, and implementation methods within each alternative justice program in Winnipeg. The author collects data through qualitative interviews with alternative justice program staff. The data provided from the qualitative interviews serve as rich evidence of the services offered, quality of interactions between staff and service recipients, and staff perceptions about alternative justice approaches. Although there is enhanced value in understanding alternative justice programs from the perspective of the service provider, some of the data provided in the book are limited to subjective opinions of staff about the program and end-users of service.
Incorporating the views of service recipients themselves would have strengthened the research in this book. Integrating the voices and viewpoints of the women receiving services from alternative justice programs, can balance the analysis with end-user assessments of the strengths and deficits of the programs. As many incarcerated women served by these programs identify as Indigenous, it is especially important to uplift their voices and views in the overall program evaluation process. In doing so, the analysis aligns more succinctly to the values of the Foucauldian feminist approach including the activists and practitioners committed to social justice and equality. Furthermore, the viewpoint of Indigenous women helps in determining commonality, points of diversion, and resistance from program staff as those factors relate to client perceptions and experiences in the alternative justice programs, greatly strengthening the analysis.
The data collected in this research is not restricted to qualitative interviews of program staff. Internal agency documents, websites, and media reports are incorporated in the analysis of these programs. Although these additional sources are used to marginally strengthen the validity and reliability of the analysis, these sources can also be skewed with internal subjectivity of the alternative justice program staff and/or leadership. The media sources, subjectivity notwithstanding, may offer a less partial yet external perspective of these programs, but their inclusion does not completely remove concerns about differing political agendas mitigating the analysis.
The book further explores the construction of identities for criminalized women with the understanding that the formulation of these constructed identities influence the services offered and the manner in which those services are delivered. Moreover, the author investigates how the neoliberalist approach to alternative justice programs impact program operations and perceived outcomes. The ethics-of-care approach is also examined as an inherent characteristic of many alternative justice programs. The author highlights how the mainstay of numerous alternative justice programs is the commitment to oppose traditional criminal justice practices.
The author's transparency about social location, as a researcher and person of non-Indigenous background, is significant for this, and any, research undertaking. This acknowledgment and transparency increase the researcher's awareness, thus reducing bias. The author believes that the notion of a researcher as an outsider serves more as a strength for perceptive inquiry and exploration of data than a limitation to the analysis. Supporting interview data is provided to support the author's position. Nonetheless, there is merit, legitimacy, and cultural humility in understanding and emphasizing the experiences of marginalized and oppressed Indigenous women, particularly, since the voices of the Indigenous women are not directly incorporated into the analysis. Information about the cultural background of participants provide a context in which the reader can critically examine the potential impact and value of alternative justice programs.
The book's major contribution is the discussion analysis and overall findings. The author provides a comprehensive discussion about the deconstruction of the criminalized woman identity and the construction of Indigenous woman identity by program staff. Herein the reader learns about the in-depth experiences of Indigenous women through the perspective of service providers. By resisting neoliberal and criminal justice ideology, alternative justice programs customize services to Indigenous women, engage in advocacy, and affirm their cultural needs.
Throughout the book, the themes of social justice and equality are emphasized. Globally, women continue to be incarcerated at an alarmingly high rate. Additionally, minority women with low socioeconomic status are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. This book serves as a response to injustice by undertaking research examining alternative justice models. The programs outlined in this book differ from traditional criminal justice models by emphasizing person-centeredness, cultural humility, and social support services. In short, the author reveals that these programs address the biopsychosocial challenges of Indigenous women. These challenges are oftentimes pathologized and criminalized in society, thereby creating the need for alternative justice programs. The author concludes by answering the question posed at the start of the book: Do these community programs for criminalized women provide a better justice?
A Better Justice? (2020) is a remarkable read for researchers, graduate students, social workers, academics, professionals representing criminal justice providers, and stakeholders. General audiences will also be interested in learning about the research findings discussed in this book. Readers will understand important trends in the Winnipeg criminal justice system, the impacts of the criminal justice system on Indigenous women, alternative justice models and approaches. This is an excellent book for anyone who is interested in human rights, Indigeneity, and proponents of criminal justice change.
