Maritime prison reading program faces uncertain future

A prison reading program for mothers and children founded by Saint John residentMarianna Stack, who died earlier this week, is facing an uncertain future in the Maritimes.

Stack died at the Saint John Regional Hospital on April 6. She was 73-years-old.

She co-founded the local chapter of the Elizabeth Fry Society, which advocates for women in jails and prisons.

Through Elizabeth Fry, she also created a program called Mother-Child Read Aloud.

It started in 2000 at the Saint John Correctional Centre, then spread to the federal women's prison in Truro, and other institutions.

Volunteers like Stack bring books and recorders into the facilities. Mothers read out loud, then the books and audio are mailed to their children on the outside.

Kim Pate, national director of the Elizabeth Fry Society, says Marianna Stack will be fondly remembered.

"She was an amazing woman and contributed to the lives of so many people in so many ways. It's a huge loss," said Pate.

In 2011, Stack's work was featured in a documentary on CBC Radio's TheSundayEdition.

Stack said she was reluctant at first to volunteer with inmates, but soon came to love the work.

"Once I got in to it all, I realized that could be my mother, my sister, my daughter, my friend...people get addicted to drugs and alcohol, well, I think I got addicted to going to jail to visit these people as a friend," said Stack at the time.

However according to Kim Pate, Mother-ChildRead Aloud is on thin ice.

"They're limping along a bit in the Maritimes because of a lack of funding. In other parts of the country, and the world quite frankly, people have picked up this idea."

In New Brunswick, CBC reported previously that Read Aloud ended in 2012, when female inmates in the provincial system were transferred from Saint John to Miramichi.

Officials with the Correctional Service of Canada are preparing a response to questions about the Mother-Child Read Aloud program.

There are five regional prisons for women in Canada, including the Nova Institution for Women in Truro.

Pate said money is not the only obstacle, so is access to inmates. She said security policies limit the discretion of prison staff when it comes to visitors, and technology entering a facility.

"Certainly in the prisons for women there has never been a huge issue around contraband...really, the risk is miniscule compared to the incredible measures that are being taken to restrict things like this kind of program coming in, and access for the community," said Pate.