Prison Adoptee
@prisonadoptee.bsky.social
I was born to an incarcerated mother. Many adoptees like me—especially those whose mothers were labeled 'juvenile delinquents'—remain unaware of their carceral birth because youth protection laws prevent disclosure.
https://andrewmercerreformatory.org/
https://andrewmercerreformatory.org/
🥚If you’re an adoptee and your mother was a ward of a Children’s Aid Society, this won’t show in your records. Same if she was a "juvenile delinquent" or a ward of an Industrial/Training School—all of which means she was effectively incarcerated.
Why did admissions to maternity homes decline?👇1/2
Why did admissions to maternity homes decline?👇1/2
November 26, 2025 at 9:21 PM
🥚If you’re an adoptee and your mother was a ward of a Children’s Aid Society, this won’t show in your records. Same if she was a "juvenile delinquent" or a ward of an Industrial/Training School—all of which means she was effectively incarcerated.
Why did admissions to maternity homes decline?👇1/2
Why did admissions to maternity homes decline?👇1/2
🥚The Privilege of Not Being Adopted: Survival, Trauma, and the Closed Circuit of Ego Unconsciousness
“Why Non-Adoptees Are Ignoring Adoptee Trauma – And It’s Hurting Everyone”
Source: medium.com/thoughtless-...
“Why Non-Adoptees Are Ignoring Adoptee Trauma – And It’s Hurting Everyone”
Source: medium.com/thoughtless-...
November 19, 2025 at 11:43 PM
🥚The Privilege of Not Being Adopted: Survival, Trauma, and the Closed Circuit of Ego Unconsciousness
“Why Non-Adoptees Are Ignoring Adoptee Trauma – And It’s Hurting Everyone”
Source: medium.com/thoughtless-...
“Why Non-Adoptees Are Ignoring Adoptee Trauma – And It’s Hurting Everyone”
Source: medium.com/thoughtless-...
🥚6-mth follow-up, breast exam.
The dreaded question — your family history.
“I’m adopted.”
“Oh, sorry — yes, you are. I didn’t see that.”
“What? It’s on my chart?” I exclaim.
I check — literally a box ticked for Adopted.
“New field,” she says.
Digital progress: logged. Human noticing: still pending.
The dreaded question — your family history.
“I’m adopted.”
“Oh, sorry — yes, you are. I didn’t see that.”
“What? It’s on my chart?” I exclaim.
I check — literally a box ticked for Adopted.
“New field,” she says.
Digital progress: logged. Human noticing: still pending.
November 12, 2025 at 9:49 PM
🥚6-mth follow-up, breast exam.
The dreaded question — your family history.
“I’m adopted.”
“Oh, sorry — yes, you are. I didn’t see that.”
“What? It’s on my chart?” I exclaim.
I check — literally a box ticked for Adopted.
“New field,” she says.
Digital progress: logged. Human noticing: still pending.
The dreaded question — your family history.
“I’m adopted.”
“Oh, sorry — yes, you are. I didn’t see that.”
“What? It’s on my chart?” I exclaim.
I check — literally a box ticked for Adopted.
“New field,” she says.
Digital progress: logged. Human noticing: still pending.
🥚For all those adoptees punished in utero, whose carceral birth histories were hidden as they suffered innumerable harms and whose lives were cut short — may their truths be unearthed, their stories honored, and the silence end for those still unaware of their carceral beginnings.
October 30, 2025 at 7:52 PM
🥚For all those adoptees punished in utero, whose carceral birth histories were hidden as they suffered innumerable harms and whose lives were cut short — may their truths be unearthed, their stories honored, and the silence end for those still unaware of their carceral beginnings.
4 girls — including my mother — escaped Mercer’s OTS wing but were caught and locked in the dungeon, where another desperate escape was attempted. It’s time to end these brutal, inhumane isolation conditions that disproportionately affect Indigenous, Black, and disabled people.
#S205 #EndSeg
#S205 #EndSeg
October 22, 2025 at 7:36 PM
🥚Statistics from the Children of Unmarried Parents Act were used to support claims of mass adoption among unmarried mothers. So how is it that only 562 out of 4,023 consented to relinquishment — or 562 out of 1,992 non-cohabiting mothers?
Race? Age? Institution? Incarcerated mothers?
See alt txt
Race? Age? Institution? Incarcerated mothers?
See alt txt
October 21, 2025 at 10:36 PM
🥚Statistics from the Children of Unmarried Parents Act were used to support claims of mass adoption among unmarried mothers. So how is it that only 562 out of 4,023 consented to relinquishment — or 562 out of 1,992 non-cohabiting mothers?
Race? Age? Institution? Incarcerated mothers?
See alt txt
Race? Age? Institution? Incarcerated mothers?
See alt txt
🥚Adoptee born of a mother at a Salvation Army home?
They ran a wide network of maternity and receiving homes, often with the courts, to house girls labeled “delinquent” or mothers on remand or released from jails or reformatories. YCJA prevents disclosure. #HiddenHistories
They ran a wide network of maternity and receiving homes, often with the courts, to house girls labeled “delinquent” or mothers on remand or released from jails or reformatories. YCJA prevents disclosure. #HiddenHistories
October 14, 2025 at 12:35 AM
🥚Adoptee born of a mother at a Salvation Army home?
They ran a wide network of maternity and receiving homes, often with the courts, to house girls labeled “delinquent” or mothers on remand or released from jails or reformatories. YCJA prevents disclosure. #HiddenHistories
They ran a wide network of maternity and receiving homes, often with the courts, to house girls labeled “delinquent” or mothers on remand or released from jails or reformatories. YCJA prevents disclosure. #HiddenHistories
🥚Note to adoptees: Youth protection laws will prevent you from learning your mother’s circumstances—whether she was criminalized or not. As one account explains, "girls found wandering the city streets are picked up by police and convicted of vagrancy even though they committed no criminal offence.”
October 12, 2025 at 3:14 PM
🥚Note to adoptees: Youth protection laws will prevent you from learning your mother’s circumstances—whether she was criminalized or not. As one account explains, "girls found wandering the city streets are picked up by police and convicted of vagrancy even though they committed no criminal offence.”
🥚Very few adoptees know we were born in prison. I suspect thousands share this history — but it’s hidden behind youth privacy laws worldwide.
Upcoming event with Deborah Jiang-Stein, author of Prison Baby.
Upcoming event with Deborah Jiang-Stein, author of Prison Baby.
October 8, 2025 at 6:01 PM
🥚Very few adoptees know we were born in prison. I suspect thousands share this history — but it’s hidden behind youth privacy laws worldwide.
Upcoming event with Deborah Jiang-Stein, author of Prison Baby.
Upcoming event with Deborah Jiang-Stein, author of Prison Baby.
🥚Canada's "placing-out" system for indentured domestic and farm labour often secured the children of criminalized and incarcerated women and girls.
Full story of the D’Andrea, case coming soon.
Re D'Andrea, 1916 CanLII 479 (ON SC), <https://canlii.ca/t/gw6np>, retrieved on 2025-09-27
Full story of the D’Andrea, case coming soon.
Re D'Andrea, 1916 CanLII 479 (ON SC), <https://canlii.ca/t/gw6np>, retrieved on 2025-09-27
September 27, 2025 at 6:45 PM
🥚Canada's "placing-out" system for indentured domestic and farm labour often secured the children of criminalized and incarcerated women and girls.
Full story of the D’Andrea, case coming soon.
Re D'Andrea, 1916 CanLII 479 (ON SC), <https://canlii.ca/t/gw6np>, retrieved on 2025-09-27
Full story of the D’Andrea, case coming soon.
Re D'Andrea, 1916 CanLII 479 (ON SC), <https://canlii.ca/t/gw6np>, retrieved on 2025-09-27
🥚Full article discusses unmarried mothers in maternity homes & ends with a focus on those in Mercer. One of them—my mother—was imprisoned there from Mar/53–Oct/54. Records state her firstborn was being adopted, yet the Ministry holds no record of the agency involved.
#disappeared
Title in ALT text
#disappeared
Title in ALT text
September 16, 2025 at 7:41 PM
🥚Full article discusses unmarried mothers in maternity homes & ends with a focus on those in Mercer. One of them—my mother—was imprisoned there from Mar/53–Oct/54. Records state her firstborn was being adopted, yet the Ministry holds no record of the agency involved.
#disappeared
Title in ALT text
#disappeared
Title in ALT text
🥚Grueling process retrieving records from the Mercer Reformatory. Sometimes descendants reach out after finding a relative in a census—with a baby! Yet access requests are denied under the YCJA. What!?! Ontario maintained the age of delinquency under 16 in the JDA until the YOA.
September 5, 2025 at 4:33 PM
🥚Grueling process retrieving records from the Mercer Reformatory. Sometimes descendants reach out after finding a relative in a census—with a baby! Yet access requests are denied under the YCJA. What!?! Ontario maintained the age of delinquency under 16 in the JDA until the YOA.
Incarcerated pregnant mothers face serious issues across Ontario in 2025—imagine what they endured from 1880–1969 at Toronto’s Andrew Mercer Reformatory.
🔗 Bancroft et al. (2025), Precarious Perinatal Care: doi.org/10.1186/s128...
🔗 Bancroft et al. (2025), Precarious Perinatal Care: doi.org/10.1186/s128...
September 3, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Incarcerated pregnant mothers face serious issues across Ontario in 2025—imagine what they endured from 1880–1969 at Toronto’s Andrew Mercer Reformatory.
🔗 Bancroft et al. (2025), Precarious Perinatal Care: doi.org/10.1186/s128...
🔗 Bancroft et al. (2025), Precarious Perinatal Care: doi.org/10.1186/s128...
1/
“In 1903 Arthur Griffiths lamented that to be born in prison carried with it an ‘inalienable heritage of woe.’”
That phrase stopped me cold.
🧵 A thread on carceral birth, adoption, and uncovering hidden legacies:
“In 1903 Arthur Griffiths lamented that to be born in prison carried with it an ‘inalienable heritage of woe.’”
That phrase stopped me cold.
🧵 A thread on carceral birth, adoption, and uncovering hidden legacies:
August 19, 2025 at 9:10 PM
1/
“In 1903 Arthur Griffiths lamented that to be born in prison carried with it an ‘inalienable heritage of woe.’”
That phrase stopped me cold.
🧵 A thread on carceral birth, adoption, and uncovering hidden legacies:
“In 1903 Arthur Griffiths lamented that to be born in prison carried with it an ‘inalienable heritage of woe.’”
That phrase stopped me cold.
🧵 A thread on carceral birth, adoption, and uncovering hidden legacies:
A horrendous adoption story out of London, ON: Children's Aid Society took a mother’s baby. Both mother and child endured deep trauma and addiction. The adoptee—now tragically deceased—was failed at every level of so-called care.
archive.is/2025.06.19-1...
archive.is/2025.06.19-1...
June 22, 2025 at 2:20 PM
A horrendous adoption story out of London, ON: Children's Aid Society took a mother’s baby. Both mother and child endured deep trauma and addiction. The adoptee—now tragically deceased—was failed at every level of so-called care.
archive.is/2025.06.19-1...
archive.is/2025.06.19-1...
@notalegalrecord.net
Letting you know something happened to the Adoptees of Bluesky feed.
Letting you know something happened to the Adoptees of Bluesky feed.
June 16, 2025 at 6:50 PM
@notalegalrecord.net
Letting you know something happened to the Adoptees of Bluesky feed.
Letting you know something happened to the Adoptees of Bluesky feed.
Thank you! Wish they had historical stats.
June 7, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Thank you! Wish they had historical stats.
More to this story but the title is revealing!! Always the adopted daughters fault.
April 24, 2025 at 5:01 PM
More to this story but the title is revealing!! Always the adopted daughters fault.
🥚Across Ontario, many girls under 16 were imprisoned for various “crimes” in training schools. 👇 Once released, she remained a ward of the school and on probation until age 21, later reduced to 18. These girls were heavily surveilled,...(1/2)
April 20, 2025 at 4:40 PM
🥚Across Ontario, many girls under 16 were imprisoned for various “crimes” in training schools. 👇 Once released, she remained a ward of the school and on probation until age 21, later reduced to 18. These girls were heavily surveilled,...(1/2)
🥚If a young mother was 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗱 in one of the institutions listed in the article — even a maternity home — that information will not appear in the non-identifying adoption records you receive under O. Reg 158/18 from a Children’s Aid Society (CAS) file, nor on the adoptees birth registration.
April 15, 2025 at 2:33 PM
🥚If a young mother was 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗱 in one of the institutions listed in the article — even a maternity home — that information will not appear in the non-identifying adoption records you receive under O. Reg 158/18 from a Children’s Aid Society (CAS) file, nor on the adoptees birth registration.
🥚Sixty-five years ago today, I was born to a criminalized mother—incarcerated twice while pregnant. These records were difficult to obtain. Most adoptees will never know if their history includes a carceral birth, especially if born to a so-called “juvenile delinquent” in a maternity home.
April 14, 2025 at 10:16 PM
🥚Sixty-five years ago today, I was born to a criminalized mother—incarcerated twice while pregnant. These records were difficult to obtain. Most adoptees will never know if their history includes a carceral birth, especially if born to a so-called “juvenile delinquent” in a maternity home.
"Adoptees & Addiction is a peer led support group. We are NOT an official 12 step program or officially aligned with any. Most members are a part of AA or NA or OA or SLA or have been in the past, but it's absolutely not a requirement for being a member."
More info www.adopteesandaddiction.com/quote
More info www.adopteesandaddiction.com/quote
April 13, 2025 at 4:46 PM
"Adoptees & Addiction is a peer led support group. We are NOT an official 12 step program or officially aligned with any. Most members are a part of AA or NA or OA or SLA or have been in the past, but it's absolutely not a requirement for being a member."
More info www.adopteesandaddiction.com/quote
More info www.adopteesandaddiction.com/quote
🥚My question is how many #adopted people have been killed?
"Canada now has same-day MAiD and it's not easy-to-read about. Thanks to Ontario's death review committee for doing this work" quote with link below originally posted on X by Isabel Grant
macdonaldlaurier.ca/rushing-to-d...
#MAID
"Canada now has same-day MAiD and it's not easy-to-read about. Thanks to Ontario's death review committee for doing this work" quote with link below originally posted on X by Isabel Grant
macdonaldlaurier.ca/rushing-to-d...
#MAID
April 12, 2025 at 5:11 PM
🥚My question is how many #adopted people have been killed?
"Canada now has same-day MAiD and it's not easy-to-read about. Thanks to Ontario's death review committee for doing this work" quote with link below originally posted on X by Isabel Grant
macdonaldlaurier.ca/rushing-to-d...
#MAID
"Canada now has same-day MAiD and it's not easy-to-read about. Thanks to Ontario's death review committee for doing this work" quote with link below originally posted on X by Isabel Grant
macdonaldlaurier.ca/rushing-to-d...
#MAID