Bonny Spencer has seen what it takes for a woman to transition back into the world after getting out of prison — and that shift can be much harder for an inmate forced to serve time outside their home province, separated from their families and other supports by hundreds of kilometres, she says. 

Spencer, who is Métis, was a knowledge keeper at the Edmonton Institution for Women for years, working with inmates from across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. She saw how the distance between inmates and their families created challenges for some of the women trying to turn their lives around so far from home, she said.

In some cases, women had to miss things like a funeral for their mother — or even their child — because of a lack of time or staffing to escort them home.

“That’s been one of the devastating impacts. I saw a lot of women give up, and it be a big journey back to get them back on track,” said Spencer, a retired social worker.

Because the Correctional Service of Canada operates only a handful of women’s prisons across the country, women given a federal sentence — two years or more — in a province without one of those institutions generally have to serve that time somewhere else.

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.

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.

“It is really potentially a constitutional issue, in the right case. I think it is worthy of a battle,” Simmonds said.

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 — posing a challenge for the women themselves, and the broader society they’ll eventually be let back out into.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

“It seriously hinders a woman’s ability to rehabilitate and to see … what’s going to happen when they get out of custody.”

Limited options in Manitoba

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 — but the U of M’s Comack said they’re realistically only open to a small number of inmates.

They include Winnipeg’s Eagle Women’s Lodge, 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, which can allow a federal inmate to be placed in a provincial jail, she said.

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.

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. 

That 2013 agreement with Corrections Canada ended after Manitoba made plans in 2015 to convert the beds into its Walking Bear Therapeutic Community addictions program, a provincial spokesperson said in an email this week.

As of the end of the 2025-26 year, there were 19 women serving time at the Eagle Women’s Lodge after being sentenced in Manitoba, Corrections Canada said. Another 118 women sentenced in Manitoba were incarcerated outside the province.

What’s the solution?

Winnipeg defence lawyer Christopher Gamby said while some inmates may want to serve time in another region, the forced separation from family can be a problem for others when it comes time for release.

“Being able to visit family … being able to reintegrate into the community by way of escorted temporary absences — these kind of things are important for an offender who is looking to reintegrate and possibly even apply for parole,” said Gamby, the communications director for the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Manitoba.

Looking forward, more focus is needed on what will prevent women from ending up back in prison, he said.

Spencer and Comack agreed, saying improving resources inside and outside of prison for things like mental health, basic life skills, education and housing could go a long way toward preventing reoffending. Comack said those alternatives could also help avoid expensive annual incarceration costs — which Corrections Canada pegged at $262,547 per woman in the 2024-25 year, the department’s emailed statement said.

And while Spencer said building more prisons isn’t the answer, adding capacity in healing lodges like Eagle Women’s in Winnipeg for federal prisoners — keeping more women closer to home, and connected to their communities and cultures — could be a step in the right direction.

She said working at the Edmonton prison with Indigenous women from so many different communities was a challenge, and recalled the difference it made in one case when she brought in an elder from Manitoba to speak with inmates from that province.

“That really helped the women, because she could talk to them about home,” Spencer said.

“It really bolstered the women’s moods and even motivation to keep getting their crap together, so to speak — and make that goal of getting home in a good way.”

Corrections Canada said in its email it’s taking steps to address capacity issues, including by changing the Grierson Institution for men in Edmonton into a minimum-security prison for women.

The correctional service said it’s also looking to expand the kinds of agreements that are behind facilities like Winnipeg’s Eagle Women’s Lodge — made under Section 81 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, which allows for Indigenous organizations to oversee the care and custody of Indigenous inmates — including in the Prairie region.

It said it recognizes the importance of maintaining connections for rehabilitation, and has taken steps including offering live video visits at all institutions.

The department said it “continues to explore opportunities to expand capacity and enhance regional options.”