An ‘escape’ without escaping: Canadian federal inmates explore virtual reality

Teacher Andy Stubbert demonstrates the VR technology available at Bath Institution as part of a pilot program that can find a different way to introduce inmates to job training and experiencing Indigenous culture.

This is the second part of a CTV W5 two-part series that explores technological changes at Canada’s prison systems that are providing prisoners with new education opportunities, while Correctional Service Canada attempts to manage risks the new technology presents.

Inmates in Canada’s federal prison system are accessing virtual reality for the first time, as part of a pilot program that could reshape how those prisoners get job training, learn about Indigenous culture, and reduce the chances they’ll reoffend.

W5 was granted exclusive access to a prison classroom in Bath Institution, a medium-security federal prison near Kingston, Ont., to see offenders don VR helmets and explore job sites and nature scenes they would never have access to behind bars.

“Some of the offenders have said to me it gives them the opportunity to escape into an environment that they wouldn’t normally be able to participate in,” said teacher Andy Stubbert as he demonstrated some of the courses that are available.

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In one, a construction worker offers a panoramic view from the operator seat of a crane, high above a construction site.

In another, Indigenous storyteller and drummer Matricia Bauer stands next to a placid mountain lake in Jasper National Park to talk about traditional knowledge in a “fireside chat.” In another, inmates are taken on a canoe trip through a Canadian lake.

The immersive experiences are just videos at this point, but Stubbert hopes to move on to interactive experiences that could provide training opportunities for inmates, such as working on engines for heavy equipment or airplanes that are outside the prison.

“It’s almost like a 360-degree view, like, everywhere you turn your head, it’s there,” said Bill, a 64-year-old inmate, as he described the courses that he could take.

W5 is not identifying Bill to avoid any impact on his victim. Bill was convicted of sexual assault.

In an interview, Bill said he didn’t graduate high school – a common factor in some 75 per cent of federal inmates, staff at Correctional Service Canada say. And Bill looks back on his decision as a teen with some regret.

“When I was 17, I knew it all, all right. So I didn’t have to go to school,” he said with a wry chuckle. “I thought I knew it all, but by no means did I.”

But he found that decision to drop out bothered him and filled him with shame. And after he was convicted, suddenly the chance to finish high school felt like an opportunity.

“Someone said, ‘Well, we have a school here,’ and that was a light bulb moment,” he said.

He said people in the class are in a better mood than those outside because they have hope that an education can lead to a better life upon release. Bill graduated.

Bill also helps other inmates with their skills, pointing out that the math they’re learning could help them in a construction jobs, and even saying that using a keyboard can be a crucial tool.

He stays on in the course because of “personal satisfaction and a bit of pride,” he said, adding that losing those opportunities would take away that hope.

He also emphasized how important it is to keep the technology closely monitored.

“If there’s a window for someone to try and do something illegally, they’re going to do it in this place. The people that are here just have criminal minds, otherwise they wouldn’t be here,” he said.

Prisons in other countries have turned to virtual reality already. In the U.S., prisoners have been given VR tools as a way to practice everyday skills, like laundry, as they prepare to go back to society.

It appears to also dull the worst effects of segregation: one prison in California that piloted virtual reality reported a dramatic reduction in infractions from individuals who participated in week-long sessions.

The headsets in the pilot program in Bath aren’t connected to the internet. But they do link up the inmates to possibilities they have not had before, Stubbert said.

“For us, I think it’s a bit of a tip of the iceberg. It’s something that I hope we’re going to embrace,” he said.

For tips about the prison system, or any other story, please email Jon Woodward.