OPEN LIVING CONFIDENTIAL: FROM INSIDE THE JOINT

"Open Living Confidential" reacquaints readers with British Columbia's most committed environmental activist. Once again, this grandmother has been sentenced to prison for defending the environment, this time, she received a year's incarceration without remission at the Burnaby Correctional Center for Women. In her new book Betty writes about her time in prison. We learn about prison life, for her, and the other women incarcerated at the Open Living Unit at BCCW. Betty tells us about prison policy, including the humiliating and terrorizing use of dogs trained to sniff for drugs. As she recounts, "It's an irrational situation where authorities will take the word of a dog over a human prisoner. There is no recourse of the dog's word. The dog has spoken...One never knows when the dogs are coming. And one never knows who will be called out to be sniffed at or whose room will be examined...But one this is for sure...there will be a long wait sitting in that dining orom waiting on the dog's decisions. And the women's faces show the strain." Betty asks us to think about the envionrment, civil disobedience, and the state of the world we live in. She introduces the reader to eco-feminism, gender, anthropology, patriarchy, and above all, resistance. Ultimately, Betty asks us to question the Canadian criminal justice system and out passion for sentencing people to prison for nonviolent crimes. She explores how Canadian laws protect the interests of corporations and the rich, and makes criminals out of peaceful demonstrators, and poor and marginalized women".

~ Susan C. Boyd, PhD, Associate Professor, Studies in Policy & Practice, University of Victoria

PRAISE FOR OPEN LIVING CONFIDENTIAL

"In Open Living Confidential, Betty gives us much more than a fascinating and vividly-written prison journal. She gives us insight, compassion, rage, grief, belly-shaking humour, absorbing anecdotes and indefatigable faith -- and above all, she gives us truth. Truth is Betty's Holy Grail --she lives for it, no matter what the personal consequences -- and in this book she pursues truth and speaks it with courage". ~ Gabor Mate, MD, Best-Selling Author

"Betty Krawczyk is a hero and living legend, a highly principled, courageous and spirited elder who, from time to time, is taken to prison as punishment for standing up to corporations that are destroying old growth forests. As this wonderfully readable book attests, Betty is also a knowledgeable woman and a gifted storyteller with a sharp eye for detail and a laugh-out-loud sense of humour". ~ Karleen Faith, PhD, Professor Emerita, Simon Fraser University