It’s an issue that was raised during a Winnipeg sentencing this week, when former hockey coach Madison Biluk, who admitted to grooming and sexually assaulting a teenage player, was sent to prison for six years<\/a>.<\/p>\n Biluk’s lawyer Saul Simmonds said the lack of a women’s prison in Manitoba puts those sentenced to federal time in the province “at a serious disadvantage” compared to men, who can go to Stony Mountain Institution north of Winnipeg and have access to things like visitation and parole hearing appearances with community support.<\/p>\n “It is really potentially a constitutional issue, in the right case. I think it is worthy of a battle,” Simmonds said.<\/p>\n Elizabeth Comack, a distinguished professor emeritus in the University of Manitoba’s department of sociology and criminology, says it’s in the public interest to do everything possible to ensure that women in prison get the supports they need before they’re released. (Submitted by Elizabeth Comack)<\/p>\n People who have studied and worked in the justice system say the longstanding issue isn’t doing anything to improve rehabilitation chances for the hundreds of women sent to prison across the country every year \u2014 posing a challenge for the women themselves, and the broader society they’ll eventually be let back out into.<\/p>\n “It’s in the public interest to do whatever we can to ensure that those people get the kinds of supports they need, because they’re going to get out,” said Elizabeth Comack, a distinguished professor emeritus in the University of Manitoba’s department of sociology and criminology.<\/p>\n In an interview following Biluk’s sentencing, Simmonds and co-counsel Chelsea Suderman said they’ve seen more women getting federal sentences recently, making the issue even more prevalent.<\/p>\n Statistics Canada data provided this week shows while the number of women sent to prison every year is a small fraction compared to the number of men, that number has increased in recent years.<\/p>\n It’s a particular issue for Indigenous women, who account for roughly half of the incarcerated women’s population, a Corrections Canada spokesperson said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n There were a total of 886 Indigenous and non-Indigenous women in federal custody across the country in 2025-26, the spokesperson said, noting that number has approximately doubled in the last 20 years.<\/p>\n “I couldn’t imagine being taken away from my children, and having that separation that would have to happen if I was sentenced to a federal penitentiary,” said lawyer Suderman.<\/p>\n “It seriously hinders a woman’s ability to rehabilitate and to see \u2026 what’s going to happen when they get out of custody.”<\/p>\n Limited options in Manitoba<\/p>\n Even in provinces like Manitoba with no women’s prison, there are still technically options that can allow women to serve federal time without leaving \u2014 but the U of M’s Comack said they’re realistically only open to a small number of inmates.<\/p>\n They include Winnipeg’s Eagle Women’s Lodge<\/a>, which is run by the Indigenous Women’s Healing Centre and has 30 beds, according to the government’s website. Prisoners can also apply for what’s known as an exchange of service agreement<\/a>, which can allow a federal inmate to be placed in a provincial jail, she said.<\/p>\n However, the Winnipeg healing lodge is only designated for lower-security inmates, Comack said, while an exchange of service agreement could be difficult to get in a provincial jail that’s already over capacity<\/a>.<\/p>\n Though the Women’s Correctional Centre, a provincial jail west of Winnipeg, was initially designed to also house up to 25 federal inmates, that’s no longer an option, Comack said.<\/p>\n![\"Elizabeth](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/b0c39b7e0507047019c8359db2e028b5.jpeg\"\/)
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