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Aboriginals treated worse by prisons: report

Watchdog blasts Ottawa for 'service failure'

By: Mia Rabson

14/11/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 13

OTTAWA -- Aboriginal inmates in Canada make up too high a percentage of Canada's prison population and tend to get harsher sentences and less programming, a report from the country's prison watchdog said Friday.

Howard Sapers, the Correctional Investigator of Canada, said the situation for aboriginal inmates in this country is appalling and called upon the Correctional Service of Canada to create a deputy commissioner for aboriginal corrections.

The report says in 2008, 19.6 per cent of federal inmates were aboriginal, although they make up just four per cent of the Canadian adult population. That number grew by nearly 20 per cent over the previous decade.

The number of aboriginal women in jail soared an alarming 131 per cent in that decade, and one in three women now in federal prisons in Canada is aboriginal.

Sapers' office only has jurisdiction for federal prisons. More than 70 per cent of inmates in Manitoba are in provincial facilities. Statistics Canada reports 66 per cent of Manitoba inmates on remand and 69 per cent in sentenced custody are aboriginal.

The OCI report also notes aboriginal offenders are less likely than non-aboriginal offenders to be granted parole, more likely to be in segregation, more likely to have been in prison before, are classified as higher risk and are more likely to reoffend after they are released.

The statistics, says the report, are a sign of the corrections' service failure to ensure aboriginal prisoners are getting the help they need. It notes a 2006 strategic plan for aboriginal corrections was to have been mostly implemented by the end of 2007, but has not been.

Culturally appropriate programming for aboriginal inmates is not yet universally available. Programs are also lacking in the community to help aboriginal offenders reintegrate after they are released which contributes to higher reoffence rates.

Sapers said there is a lack of "dedicated and focused leadership" in the Correctional Service of Canada when it comes to addressing the needs of aboriginal offenders.

He said the appointment of a deputy commissioner would help address the government's "serious governance and accountability gap" in its commitment to improving the lives of aboriginal offenders.

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said there already is a Correctional Service of Canada Aboriginal Initiatives Directorate with a director and 18 staff members.

"Appointing a different commissioner is not going to solve the problem," Van Loan said in an emailed statement. "What's going to solve the problem are changes in approach. We, as a society, have a lot to do."

Manitoba NDP MP Pat Martin said appointing a deputy commissioner for aboriginal inmates would be a good step but said Ottawa has to also stop thinking it can solve crime problems by locking more people up for longer.

Martin said the Conservative government's tough-on-crime agenda with mandatory sentences will only mean even more aboriginals spend more time in jail. "When your only focus is on punishment, you deliberately ignore the social conditions of aboriginal people," said Martin. "More jail cells just means bigger con colleges."

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 14, 2009 A7

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13 Commentscomment icon

tobt, please mitigate my ignorance and explain how there is to be equality [between individuals, let alone "nations"] without assimilation or integration...or any other euphimism you choose.

Equality can only begin when the "oppressed," as you put it, see fit to serve as a catalyst to get rid of legislated racism, like the reserve system, Indian Act, etc. Society, as a whole, has certain "expectations" for ALL of its citizens. In '54 the US supreme court affirmed that "Separate but equal" isn't possible.

What a poor argument, there are thousands of visible minorities from hundreds of other countries that aren't nearly as overrepresented in the prisons. They are also not the ones with so-called "leaders" making six figure salaries while blaming colonialism and the "white man" for the reason why their "people" are oppressed or become criminals.

Three words, GET OVER IT!

What a bunch of ignorant racist comments on here. All history shows anywhere in the world that the most disenfranchised (usually the people who are colonzied) are overrepresented in the prison system, live in poverty, sub-standard housing, under-educated and the most unhealthy. It is an effect of systemic racism that does not want to help minorities but to assimilate and oppress them. There is much indirect and direct racial treatment of people in Canada and until the inflicting racial attitudes of the opressors stop, there will never be equality amoung the nations. Watch and see, many of the new immigrants coming to Canada who are obviously from a visibly minority will be over-represented in the justice system. So long as white caucasians remain in power and make the decisions, these injustices will continue to happen. Media is also guilty for tainting and biasing the realities of minorities...they are pacifying the elite and those in power. It is a messed up world. I do not look Aboriginal and it is amazing the terrible racial words that come out of people when they think they are with "their own kind". Others on here can be blatenly racist and I find it repugnant that it is even posted. If we did that to your culture, our comments would be banned or censored.

Oh no, it's not about them committing crimes at all. Wow.

This article is not about Aboriginals commiting crimes- its about how the prison system treats them worse then the other races in prison with them. Don't let your racist views and bias beliefs get in the way of understanding the meaning of this article.

If they don't want to be treated worse in prison then don't break the law.

There's a direct correlation with breaking laws and going to jail. Strange as that sounds.

ManitobaResident, I think your observation that "The problem is on the reserves," should be modified to "The problem is the reserves." The reserve system, along with other equally racist instruments, like the Indian Act, legislate inequality/racism/separation. Has there ever been a more shameful/abominable exercise in social engineering than the reserve system?

What?Do they think they are at a hotel?
If you don't like it don't break the law over, and over and over again!
I am one who thinks inmates have too many rights when in prison.
Why should they have any?
Prison should be made to make people never want to go back.
But for many it's better then being out in society!
Free food,drugs, place to sleep...

It has been painfully obvious to me that First Nations people have been targetted out of racism. If you do the crime, certainly there is a cost. But above and beyond that, profiling and targetting has to stop.

I am actually surprised the percentage of aboriginals making up the Manitoba prison population is so low. Its finally good to see that all the funding that goes to this ethnic group is paying off. C.R.W.

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