Introduction
The Tribune‘s special issue for the Winter 2026 semester was centred around the theme of ‘memory,’ with our writers, staff, editors, and creative team discussing the role of institutional, collective, and personal memory in society, politics, educational institutions, and more. In the special issue’s Features section, Opinion Section Editor Ellen Lurie examined the impact of Correctional Service Canada (CSC)’s cuts to Collèges d’enseignement général et professionnel (CEGEP) educational programming in federal prisons in Quebec. The cuts will be active as of June 30, 2026, upon which the two federal penitentiaries in which these courses are offered—the Cowansville men’s and Joliette women’s institutions—will no longer offer the program in its current form. As CSC contemplates a cost-neutral alternative to CEGEP education in Quebec prisons, including the potential for online prison education, students and constituents alike must consider the coherence of this funding decision in the context of the carceral system’s aims of rehabilitation, reintegration, and supporting the psychological and social wellbeing of incarcerated individuals.
An individual currently imprisoned in the Cowansville facility wrote an open letter to CSC, in which he detailed the impact of CEGEP education on his personal experiences within the penitentiary. This letter was shared with The Tribune. Read it here:
How can I show you I’m doing better if there’s nothing good for me to do?
To whom it may concern, on the subject of the CEGEP program in Cowansville penitentiary,
I am writing an open letter to express the importance CEGEP has had in my incarceration in helping me better myself. I will share a bit about myself and relevant parts of my institutional life, and how CEGEP has helped me with my associations in the institute and building good habits, which is important for someone like me with substance abuse issues. I think that there are negative impacts to closing the CEGEP that those who do not spend their time within the same walls as us might not have a perspective on. I also do not think the action to defund the CEGEP is one that coincides with CSC’s mission statements. I think it might even be damaging to the Parole Board’s effectiveness in judging us.
I’ll start with a bit about myself. My name is Theodore and I’m an inmate given 7.5 years for involuntary manslaughter, auto-thefts and trafficking, and a long-time heavy drug user. I came from a decent home and finished my high school before my heavy drug use started. I had a very hard time picturing my life turning into something “pro social”; a life that has financial autonomy, one in which I participate in the community around me. That is very difficult as a heavy drug user, hard to hold a job, your priority for money is elsewhere. No, I tried multiple times—once right after high school and later in my adult life—to go to school, to a DEP [Diplôme d’études professionnelles], or at least some training program, but I failed a lot of these opportunities. Anything long-term seemed unachievable for various reasons.
When I signed up for the CEGEP program, I was motivated to try to structure my time better. I had just finished the institutionally-mandated program, so I had a lot of free time and nothing to do. I, like most people, spend this time locked in my cell watching TV. It’s a significant portion of the day. The only social groups that can be found are those formed around what we do in the blocks; therefore, very limited. Keeping to myself and sporadically conversing with inmates is really the limit to my life in the blocks. Apart from cooking, there are very few productive activities. I struggle to find activities that would meet my need to socialize, and are not counter-productive to my Correctional Plan. Prison is isolating by nature, and sometimes I struggle to fit in. I now understand that, in the past, when I used to consume drugs on the outside, on some level I was really looking for a social group to fit and feel safe in. I would consume with my group and I would pass my days jumping between that and cooking. That wasn’t really bringing me any closer to the life I desired.
After 10 years of drug use, I have very few good habits left. Think about it, that means that while others potentially had 10 years enforcing and perfecting their good habits—which may help them succeed in life—I was mastering how to get and use drugs. When I got to this institution I was in psychological distress, my hygiene was bad, my sleep was terrible. However, I knew at the bare minimum I had to get up every morning, because success in life is mastered in steps. Once I was up, I then had a chance to think about what to do with all the time before me, and what the next steps in my life should be.
I signed up for CEGEP and I was reluctant at first, honestly. I had an aversion at this point for these things, maybe a mix of low self-esteem from not completing any programs led me to this “Why try?” attitude. But I told myself, “I’m in jail, there’s no pressure for success”. On top of that fact, my carceral plan says to participate in adult education activities. Ultimately, I got convinced by the Director herself going around; after speaking to her and really liking the friendly, positive vibe I said, “Why not?”.
I spent the next 8 months going to school and sticking to the schedule, which helped me distance myself from people around me that did nothing productive in their free time. I went to school every day that I could, I would never miss a day because I didn’t feel like it, to slack off or when pressured to by those who wanted to rope me into “counter culture” activities—this is a real part of jail life, the social pressure to participate. Other than organizing meals, my classmates are the only other ones that I had regular contact with. It started off with homework with some, but with others it grew to actually checking up on one another, cooking and watching movies and spending more time together, etc. The CEGEP program had helped me find an in-group that was positive.
I developed habits like reading every day—that was hard to get started with at first, but going regularly to class helped me develop a good rhythm in my day to achieve this. Thanks to this habit, I completed my mail-in electricians’ course, and I have to credit my success to the habits and rhythm CEGEP had to offer me. These had profound effects in my life… it improved my mental health; it helped a lot with my confidence. Things I’ve had a lot of trouble with in my adolescence, like completing homework, tests and studying for exams, I was surprised to see that I was improving, and doing well with too. It gave me more drive for my electricians’ course, and seeing myself push through it gave me the frame of mind to picture my success in my life outside. To know that I can break down the obstacles, and know that the pieces I break them into are achievable, is big. I have no practice in keeping to a schedule or doing things on time. I have more experience failing these moments. My biggest anxiety was having to enrol in a DEP, making it all the way there just to fail. Big enough to cause an aversion, but I don’t feel that anymore. I’m confident that on my release I can stick to the plan I made for myself because I saw myself stick to this.
The habits I learned will place me on the right track and I don’t know where else I could have practised these habits. I had teachers that engaged me and peers that were on the same wavelength as me and would spend time talking about sociology, psychology and whatever else we took together. Just the breaking of the isolation of prison, the in-group that it created for me and the perspectives that it offered all come together to bring me here in my moment; I have the clarity of mind to think things through, I have a plan for my life, I know what to do to get to it and I have the confidence and the basic skills for success to do so.
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From my perspective, I think that removing CEGEP would remove an opportunity for people to have consistent, organized, supervised and productive activities that actually last in the institution. Inmates lack the opportunities to find supervised activities and there are not enough jobs to accommodate everyone. CEGEP provided a significant amount (44) of openings for inmates to have something to do. As I experienced myself, positive habit forming is an important part of reintegrating, as most offenders lack some basic skill or another needed to navigate obstacles in society (and instead subsequently turn to criminal behaviour). CEGEP plays an invaluable role in this: not only can you practice these skills, but the specific environment created by CEGEP operating in the penitentiary creates a transitional environment for offenders to “rehearse” living pro-socially. This includes skills, but also social situations: navigating teacher relationships, submitting to the curriculum and navigating interactions with peers, like group projects and meeting deadlines. All of these present social situations that, as inmates, we might have not had the opportunity to experience. Some of us had maybe even had reacted anti-socially to these in the past, forming negative associations.
This is especially important and relevant to those who are lifers and have come in at a younger age. These rehearsals help people who lack these experiences to form positive associations and provide this in a way that we are receptive to receiving. These rehearsals are committed to by us voluntarily. I will note that the [institutional program] uses role-play very often to try to drive their points across and make sure we know to apply the skills we are being taught. These rehearsals are even good, I imagine, for inmates suffering from mental health issues for the same reason: they can make it across these experiences and draw positive associations from them. The class size permits discussions and accommodates the group, and the frequency of class (once a week) won’t overwhelm an inmate, making it completable and thusly providing the positive association.
An observable problem, I think, is that there is a lack of activities in general. DEP programs, other than welding attestation, seem to be roaming and not permanent. The welding attestation program offered here is 6-8 months and, once a group of 15 people is selected, they are locked in for the duration of the program. There is already a wait when you get to the institution to get into a program, especially if you’re English, and only after this 3-6 month program can you even be eligible to get on a waitlist. All of these things come together in making the DEP program inaccessible to inmates who have less than six years to do. We should be able to transition into these programs more accessibly. Instead, you are removing them.
How do you disengage with your bad associates? You change your environment. We have to have environments to transition into, and for all the benefits that it brings I do not think CEGEP’s bill of ~1,130$1 per student per semester is an unreasonable bill to pay. It’s part of CSC’s
I understand that we have to account for how money is spent in programs so I can understand wanting to keep track of how many students graduated, which is an easy benchmark to account with. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple to judge a program’s success. I wouldn’t consider the point of CEGEP to get a diploma, but to offer skill-building, socialization opportunities and a pathway to integration that will help each and every offender reintegrate. Not to mention that the credits for CEGEP are there and usable outside. For those with enough time, they will get their diploma too. I think the administration needs to be accountable towards its mission of reintegration and reassess how the CEGEP’s performance is metered.
CSC directives explain this requirement the institution must hold itself to: “Accountability: Accountability involves the notion of being willing and able to explain, answer to and justify the appropriateness of actions and decisions. Accountability is applicable to everyone within CSC. Accountability is also about accepting and ensuring responsibility — providing necessary support, feedback, and oversight”.3 I think the institution needs to hold itself to account on this
Lastly, I think that closing the CEGEP would hurt the Parole Board’s ability to properly judge inmates. After all, the Parole Board doesn’t live here among us and all they have to go by is our parole officer, [correctional officer] and program officers, in most cases. CEGEP provides a whole variety of feelers for the Parole Board to judge us with. There is, for starters, the report that is written by the administrators on our attendance and progress in our education. It is also a program in which inmates can accomplish presentable metrics to the Parole Board about what they have done here. “How can I show you I’m doing better if there’s nothing good for me to do…?” This might be especially damaging to lifers and long offenders that oftentimes use these metrics to prove their worth in cascading down and going in front of the Board.
I hope my observations and experience is useful in framing the situation that inmates face at Cowansville penitentiary.