Brenda Morrison was once considered one of Canada's most dangerous inmates. Her life of crime began on the streets of Regina when she was a young adolescent. In 1987 Morrison was given a four year manslaughter sentence in the death of her boyfriend. Then in June 1993, she and another woman robbed a 53 year-old man, beat him with a baseball bat, and stuffed him in a car trunk. Committed to the Prison for Women in Kingston, Morrison helped orchestrate the riot that led to the infamous events of April 1994. Video of her, and other women, being subsequently strip-searched by male officers of the Emergency Response Team sent shock waves around the country. Now, nine years later, P4W is closed and Brenda Morrison has a new life.

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Morrison finished her sentence in Saskatchewan at a minimum security institution for native women. She credits the native healing lodge at Okimaw Ohci with helping her “deal with authority” and to become “a little bit gentler.” As she puts it “ if you are treated with kindness you act with kindness. If you are treated with hostility for a certain amount of years, you become that person.”

Morrison was released from the healing lodge five years ago. She has struggled to stay clean and sober, relapsing into drugs a few times, but her relapses have been short and she says she is back on track again. After she left the lodge, she returned to live on the Sakimay Reserve, 100 kilometres east of Regina. She went back to school and began working as a carpenter on the reserve. Her specialty is roofing. For a brief time, Morrison served on the Canadian Elizabeth Fry Societies Board of Directors.

She recently left the reserve and moved to Regina. She’s now looking for work and plans to resume school in the spring. In the meantime, she’s going to renovate her house. Now 40-years-old, she has two daughters, a 19-year-old, and a three-year-old.

It has been an extremely tough and, at times, brutal life. But Brenda Morrison says she wouldn’t change anything. All her experiences have made her the person she is today.

She has lost touch with the rest of the women of the Prison for Women.