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Probation officer meets with offender (1970s) Corrections Branch Archives

First woman at Young Offenders Unit (YOU)

An effort was underway to hire female
employees in the Young Offenders Unit
(YOU). Rita (Ma) Perkins was the first woman
to obtain such work. When hired by Warden
Christie in 1958, she was told that she was the
first woman in Canada to work with young
male offenders. She was required to do
everything that men did with the exception of
carrying a sidearm.

Working with a group of 12-15 trainees
between the ages of 15 and 23, she acquired the
nickname Ma Perkins. Boys could talk to her in
private at one end of the unit. One Indian boy
kept asking to talk to Ma, then said it wasn’t
important. Finally, he told her that his mother
“listened to Ma Perkins on the radio talk show
every day.” Ma was in her forties and accepted
as a mother figure by the trainees.”

First forestry camps

Forestry camps emerged as an alternative
means of providing segregation, individualized

treatment, and a constructive training program.

They were a less costly form of treatment
program and alleviated congestion in the gaols.

3 Interview with Rita (Ma) Perkins, 1989.

62

Corrections in British Columbia