Good morning.
First of all, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak before you. My name is Francine Boudreau. I am currently working at the Cowansville federal penitentiary, which is a medium-security institution. I have been a correctional officer with the Correctional Service of Canada for 26 years. For all those years, I have had to work at five men's institutions with various security levels—maximum, medium and minimum security. I am also a coordinator for the status of women as part of the Province of Quebec delegation for the UCCO-SACC-CSN union.
The prison setting used to be exclusively for men. But, over the past few years, women have been able to take their places in prisons by filling various positions. It was not easy for the first women who were hired to take up the challenge of legitimizing the place of female officers in penitentiaries. It was not easy for them to move up the ladder and to achieve employment equity and recognition for women's contribution to correctional settings. They were able to get people to recognize that the correctional setting was no longer a place where physical strength was the only consideration in hiring.
Although we commend all the steps taken by government authorities to achieve this significant representation of women as full members in the criminal justice system and although we are seeing a definite improvement in the status of women, a particular problem can still be observed. It is not very common—we may even say it is very rare—in other fields of work. I am talking about sexual harassment by clients, in this case by inmates.
Over the past decades, women had to demonstrate that they had the necessary physical and psychological abilities to work in this harsh environment, largely designed for men. By demonstrating that they had the skills, the capacity and the strength to deal with inmates, women were able to make a place for themselves in this environment.
But the fact remains that they may be subject to sexual harassment by the inmates, which male colleagues do not have to face. So it is wrong to assume that women are on an equal footing with their male colleagues in their careers. And that is precisely because they are women.
If a woman is a victim of sexual harassment by an inmate, she may experience various emotions. She may be very worried and stressed, particularly because she may feel that she has to justify herself and prove that she did not bring this about through her femininity. This reaction comes from the fact that the woman will probably have to live with value judgments, second-guessing her own actions and words, as well as lack of trust on the part of her work colleagues and superiors. So she may end up with a number of questions on her mind. How will her colleagues and superiors react? What did she do to bring this about?
If she isolates herself as a result of this type of harassment and the ensuing questions, her career may be undermined and she will be doubly penalized. All too often, women second-guess themselves and feel guilty, although they have no control over other people's reactions. Being a woman should not be a difficulty in itself. Yet others often blame them or question their actions. When women are hired, they must not be expected to become more masculine. Women have a right to advance in their jobs without inmates harassing them. They should never feel powerless in those types of situations.
The employer has zero tolerance for harassment when it happens between colleagues. However, when the inmates are responsible for sexual harassment, the resources are more limited. In fact, this type of situation is little known because the person going through it does not report it right away. For all the reasons I listed earlier, the victim will not easily confide in her work colleagues or superiors, which only complicates the problem and does not provide any solutions.
In addition, since these situations are not often known, it is more difficult to raise awareness in the workplace and, as a result, to demystify the issue. Moreover, from a disciplinary perspective, it is much easier to prove offences when offenders' language and behaviour are abusive. Sexual harassment is open to interpretation and the grey areas leave less room for recourse. Yet the situation is very real, and it is important for everyone to know that, in 2013, women who take their places in correctional settings still have to continue to fight on a number of fronts to achieve respect for their rights and to be respected as individuals in order to really have equal status with men.