3/3 Bulldozer, the magazine of the Toronto-based Prison Solidarity Collective, centrally focused on the first-hand experiences of incarcerated Indigenous Activists, including Leonard Peltier, and is a rich primary source account of activism in the 1980s.

2/3 A member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), Peltier’s prison letters focus on Indigenous activism, including education of traditional ways as well as scathing rebukes of the treatment of Indigenous communities and their experiences with the justice system.

1/3 Leonard Peltier was released from prison this week. Extradited from Canada, Leonard Peltier's conviction in 1977, struck a chord with Canadian Indigenous activists and the incarcerated, and stories about him and his letters were often printed in prison and activist newsletters.

3/3 The Law and Mental Disorder was published in three parts in 1964 by the Committee on Legislation and Psychiatric Disorder to consider the Mental Health Act. This Committee provided the requirements and rules for diminished responsibility, indeterminate detention and issues of mental fitness.

2/3 Patients frequently wrote about their interactions with the mental health system in prison newsletters. In 1989, a woman incarcerated at the Prison for Women in Kingston wrote about her experience at the St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital, which is currently the subject of a class action lawsuit

1/3 This month at #crimlib, come learn about the history of forensic mental health care in Canada. Displayed government doc, annual reports & accounts written by patients aim to demonstrate the development, flaws and changes at the intersection of mental health and criminalization.

3/3 At the Kingston Penitentiary in 1974, a prisoner reflected on the Night Before Christmas as anything but peaceful or celebratory.

2/3 The Communicator, produced by Springhill Institution, avoided the Christmas tropes in 1979 by pointing out that December was no different than any other month. Their cover calendar focused attention on issues of violence, solitary confinement, mental health and suicide and prison overcrowding.

1/3 In Canada, incarcerated men and women celebrated Christmas in their newsletter issues with colourful and nostalgic cover images, but the text often dealt with themes of missing family, nostalgia, the difficulty of being in prison for Christmas, and a desire for freedom.