Close Contact
The Correctional peace officer counts his inmates differently than his colleagues in other units of the Edmonton Remand Centre do. Each prisoner stands at ease beside his cellmate outside his [...]
Prisons
Prisons
Policing the Police
Everything we know about what really happened to Sammy Sobieh exists in a few minutes of silent video from two stationary security cameras, in which the only thing in focus is the date and time: [...]
Less Crime, More Prisons
Once upon a time in St. Albert, where I was running for city council in the 2007 election, I was gobsmacked by a question from an unidentified audience member at an all-candidates meeting. I [...]
Thug Life
The month after Chris Crane’s 18th birthday was a blur. The Alberta Warriors gang member spent most of it drunk or stoned, blowing $16,000 on alcohol and marijuana in just three weeks. His first [...]
By Darcy Henton
Scared Straight?
For a number of years I exchanged services with youngsters in trouble with the law. The terms of our exchange weren’t clearly articulated, but in practice they are simple to describe. I offered [...]
By Clem Martini
Behind Bars: Maximum Security + The Remand Centre
On a wintry overcast day the entrance to the maximum-security Edmonton Institution, about 20 minutes north- east of the city limits, is a narrow, snow-covered ribbon lined with grey willow [...]
By Darcy Henton
MOST READ
MOST READ
Trauma Repair
We were seeing people come back or simply not get better,” says Robert Perry. “And then along comes the brain science and it was like holy-oley! This seems to explain it. It’s not just poverty, it’s trauma—trauma brought about in the early years that has shaped you, not only your ...
Buried Treasure
Few people on the planet would suggest that Lethbridge has anything in common with Bilbao, Spain. Lethbridge is a town where the prairies sigh under the weight of yet another Wal-Mart squatting on farmland; Bilbao is home to one of the world’s most impressive art museums, where about 10 million ...
Misplaced Anger
Should Alberta ditch Canada? This simple yet ominous question—blazoned on two Alberta billboards earlier this year, and asked by many in the recent provincial election campaign—reflects a deep feeling of frustration and resentment throughout the province, much of it directed at Ottawa.
Environics, in their 2019 Survey of Canadians, found 71 ...