Adoptions Andrew Mercer Reformatory 🇨🇦 @AdoptionsAMR

Advocacy, research & support for people born at &/or adopted with ties to the Mercer Reformatory at 1155 King St. W. Toronto (1880-1969) Follow @AMReformatory andrewmercerreformatory.org Joined October 2021

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

3 weeks ago

Transfers between Mercer & Good Shepherd (GS) were common. Many tried to escape both. Today, we remember Mildred Daniels—released from Mercer by order of an inspector, later detained at GS Detroit, where she fell to her death while trying to escape on Sept 5, 1906 #NeverForgotten

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

a month ago

The Ontario Female Refuges Act allowed officials to imprison women aged 15 to 35—who were unwed and pregnant or deemed to be troublemakers—in reformatories, where they were held against their will and subjected to questionable medical experimentation. youtube.com/watch?v=NSGGXM…

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

a month ago

🧵1/ A lesser-known part of Ontario’s history: In the early 1900s, babies born in prison had their origins quietly erased. Starting around 1911, Ontario began removing identifying info from their birth records. Why? The answer is more disturbing than you might think. 👇

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

a month ago

🧵In 1939, girls as young as 16 were jailed at Mercer Reformatory for “offenses” like being unmanageable or incorrigible under the Female Refuges Act. A troubling history of how authority and social systems punished women and girls for nonconformity. 1/2

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

a month ago

There has been no apology to date, nor any inquiry—particularly into what happened to the babies born to incarcerated mothers. Read Velma's blog here: velmademerson.wordpress.com/the-mercer/ #Incorrigible

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

a month ago

"Can you imagine being arrested and jailed because your boyfriend is Chinese? Most of us would never believe that was possible, but it did happen in Toronto, Ontario, Canada." Incorrigible trailer youtu.be/Kf_9U511eSA?si… via @YouTube

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

a month ago

Professor Nahum Mushin AM, former Family Court Judge, on adoption. While inquiries into adoption have taken place worldwide or are ongoing, NO ONE in Canada has investigated the #forcedadoption of children of criminalized & incarcerated mothers. #ShameOnCA youtube.com/watch?v=yHUWnL…

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

a month ago

Toronto’s Dark History: The Mercer Reformatory for Women | The T.O. You ... youtu.be/yCbA4EBkBto?si… via @YouTube

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

2 months ago

In Nov 1958, Gladys Shenner’s article “The Scandal of Women's Prisons in Canada” appeared in Chatelaine, examining conditions in women’s prisons at the time. Read it here: archive.org/details/sim_ch… #WomensHistory #CanadianHistory #Chatelaine

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

2 months ago

𝙇𝙞𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙮 Street holds a brutal history of confinement. Institutions here and surrounding area imprisoned people from across Ontario—criminalized women and men, those labeled ‘insane,’ and youth. 1/3 #CarceralHistory #TorontoHistory

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

2 months ago

The YCJA protects the identities of young offenders—including those who were pregnant teens. For some adoptees, this means their carceral birth history remains hidden behind current restrictive disclosure regimes and past practices of concealment.

Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

3 years ago

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

2 months ago

Read the tragic story of Georgina Grant Brooks—a Black woman whose life was cut short while incarcerated at the Mercer Reformatory. Her story is featured under Stories Written by Descendants, below a list of others who also died while imprisoned. 📷 andrewmercerreformatory.org/deaths

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

3 months ago

A must read: “Sex Cells: Women’s Paths to Institutionalization in the Hospital for the Insane, Cobourg, 1902-1935” Found here: andrewmercerreformatory.org/reading-materi… A sobering reminder: old gendered and moral laws are gone, but control persists in subtler, bureaucratic forms today.

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

3 months ago

🧵Photos of incarcerated women rarely appeared in the news. Though the article claims she escaped from Mercer, the registry shows she fled the Toronto General Hospital clinic—a month into her two-year sentence. Likely pregnant, she was there to be registered for a carceral birth.

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

3 months ago

At just 14, Mary Ann was incarcerated by her own father in 1900—deemed “incorrigible.” She spent nearly 5 years behind bars, forced to work in Mercer’s profit-driven factories. Mary Ann is just one of thousands of women and girls whose suffering cannot be forgotten.

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

3 months ago

Childhood trauma leaves lasting impacts on the brain! Imagine the effects on prison-born babies punished in utero, facing early separation and adoption trauma. Yet for many adoptees, their carceral birth histories remain hidden—with serious implications. scienmag.com/italian-neuros…

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

4 months ago

"The Mothers Were Told Their Children Had Died" Adoption scandals are emerging worldwide. Every country must scrutinize its adoption systems—especially those involving babies born to criminalized and incarcerated women. Yet the issue remains largely ignored.

Tobias Hübinette @TobiasHubinette

4 months ago

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Prison Adoptee @PrisonAdoptee

4 months ago

A scandal has emerged out of New Zealand. Although numerous countries are investigating abuses in intercountry adoption, the adoption of babies born to criminalized and incarcerated mothers remains largely unexamined—whether domestic or intercountry. rnz.co.nz/news/national/…

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

4 months ago

"Pregnant prisoners were kept alive until they gave birth and then murdered. At least 500 newborns were taken from their parents while in captivity and given to military couples to raise as their own."

Kimberly Murray @kahnasatake

4 months ago

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Andrew Mercer Ontario Reformatory for Females @AMReformatory

4 months ago

1/ In Canada, eugenics helped shape child welfare policies that separated children from incarcerated mothers. What was framed as “protection” was often control—targeting poor, racialized, disabled, and Indigenous women. 🧵 andrewmercerreformatory.org