Scientific Experimentation on Canadian Inmates, 1955 to 1975

Osborne, Geraint B.

doi:10.1111/j.1468-2311.2006.00422.x

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…In the late 1950s and early 1960s, experiments with LSD and electroconvulsive therapy were conducted on women at P4W, leading to a 1998 lawsuit (St. Clair & Cockburn, 1999). Even after such controversial research ended and more ethical standards for research were implemented, professors and graduate students at Queen's and other universities continued to learn from women incarcerated at P4W, often in ways that did not benefit the women themselves (Osborne, 2006). Careers have been launched on the backs of incarcerated women, even as these women remained confined in a cold, decrepit institution.…”

Section: Remembering P4wmentioning

confidence: 99%

Memory, Imagination, and Resistance in Canada’s Prison for Women

Guenther

2021

Space and Culture

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A group of women who were incarcerated at Canada’s first federal Prison for Women (P4W) have been fighting to create a memorial garden since the prison closed in 2000. In 2017, the prison was sold to a private developer who plans to convert the historic building and grounds into condos, retail, and office space. What does it mean to remember the dead, and to fight for the living, at a time when neoliberal common sense demands the efficient conversion of a place of suffering and death into a “heritage building” on “prime real estate”? How might a collective practice of radical imagination help to resist the commodification of memory into a tourist attraction or an aesthetic improvement of private property? And what is the relation between memory, healing, and accountability in a place where state violence, gender domination, and settler colonialism intersect?

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Section: Remembering P4wmentioning

confidence: 99%

Memory, Imagination, and Resistance in Canada’s Prison for Women

Guenther

2021

Space and Culture

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“…1 Experiments included sensory deprivation, behavioural modifi cation, electro-shock therapy and experimental pharmacology (e.g., LSD). Prisoners across Canada have come forward with their experiences, including a former prisoner at P4W, Dorothy Proctor, in 1995 (Osborne, 2006). Proctor later brought a lawsuit against CSC in 1998 (CBC News, 1998).…”

Section: Endnotesmentioning

confidence: 99%

After the Prison Closes: Seeking Healing, Memory and Awareness at P4W

Mussell¹

2019

JPP

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“…In Canada, little is available on historical accounts of experimental research with prisoners. Two academic papers provide accounts of pharmacological research with prisoners, notably LSD, sensory deprivation and behavioural experiments between 1955 and 1975 [ 10 , 11 ]. Dorothy Proctor, a teenage inmate, was part of an experiment with other women incarcerated in the Kingston penitentiary who were administered electroshock therapy, sensory deprivation, and LSD.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethics of health research with prisoners in Canada

Silva¹,

Matheson²,

Lavery³

2017

BMC Med Ethics

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BackgroundDespite the growing recognition for the need to improve the health of prisoners in Canada and the need for health research, there has been little discussion of the ethical issues with regards to health research with prisoners in Canada. The purpose of this paper is to encourage a national conversation about what it means to conduct ethically sound health research with prisoners given the current realities of the Canadian system. Lessons from the Canadian system could presumably apply in other jurisdictions.Main textAny discussion regarding research ethics with Canadian prisoners must begin by first taking into account the disproportionate number of Indigenous prisoners (e.g., 22–25% of prisoners are Indigenous, while representing approximately 3% of the general Canadian population) and the high proportion of prisoners suffering from mental illnesses (e.g., 45% of males and 69% of female inmates required mental health interventions while in custody). The main ethical challenges that researchers must navigate are (a) the power imbalances between them, the correctional services staff, and the prisoners, and the effects this has on obtaining voluntary consent to research; and (b), the various challenges associated to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of study participants who are prisoners. In order to solve these challenges, a first step would be to develop clear and transparent processes for ethical health research, which ought to be informed by multiple stakeholders, including prisoners, the correctional services staff, and researchers themselves.ConclusionStakeholder and community engagement ought to occur in Canada with regards to ethical health research with prisoners that should also include consultation with various parties, including prisoners, correctional services staff, and researchers. It is important that national and provincial research ethics organizations examine the sufficiency of existing research ethics guidance and, where there are gaps, to develop guidelines and help craft policy.

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Scientific Experimentation on Canadian Inmates, 1955 to 1975

Cited by 5 publications

References 58 publications

Memory, Imagination, and Resistance in Canada’s Prison for Women

Memory, Imagination, and Resistance in Canada’s Prison for Women

After the Prison Closes: Seeking Healing, Memory and Awareness at P4W

Ethics of health research with prisoners in Canada

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