About
Prisoners’ Rights Group
The Prisoners’ Rights Group (PRG) was a Vancouver-area activist group founded in 1976. Its most well-known co-founder was Claire Culhane (1918-1996). Culhane (nee Eglin) was born in Montreal, the daughter of Jewish Russian immigrants. From her youth she was active in the Depression relief movement in Quebec and became a member of the Communist Party of Canada. In the 1960s she became one of Canada’s most recoqnized anti-Vietnam war activists.
In 1974, she volunteered to teach a women´s studies class at the Lakeside Regional Correctional Centre for Women. Her experiences there and as a hostage negotiator in the 1975 BC Penitentiary riot, led to her becoming the country’s leading advocate for the abolition of prisons.
For a summary of Culhane’s history with the prisoners’ rights movement link here.
Instead of Prisons Series
The Prisoners’ Rights Group produced the Vancouver Cable 10 community television series Instead of Prisons between 1978 and 1983. Culhane, who hosted the program, conducted interviews with prisoners and prisoner rights advocates from Canada, the United States, and Ireland.
Provenance
Claire Culhane deposited 18 episodes of the Instead of Prisons series with the Video Inn Library between September 1980 and November 1981.
Scope and Content
14 episodes remain in the Video In Library on 1/2″ open reel.
5 episodes are available as digital files.
Finding Aid
Instead of Prisons Finding Aid
Access
1/2″ video can be digitized on request by researchers.
Contact library@vivomediaarts.com for details.