National Vice-Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples Kim Beaudin is calling for Indigenous involvement in oversight of the correctional system.
NationTalk: Regina Leader-Post – Eighty-eight per cent of women held in federal custody in Saskatchewan are Indigenous, according to new data.
Last week, federal correctional investigator Ivan Zinger released updated findings to his annual report dated June 30 showing the overall proportion of overrepresentation of Indigenous people in federal custody has increased to 32 per cent, or about 4,200 people.
The report further said half of all women in Canadian penitentiaries are Indigenous. “Indeed, Canada’s correctional population is becoming disturbingly and unconscionably Indigenized,” Zinger, the top federal prison watchdog, wrote in the report.
Statistics from his office shows Indigenous women are overrepresented among female inmates who aren’t serving a community-based sentence.
Year-to-date in 2023, 37 out of 42 women in federal custody are Indigenous and 624 out of 898 men in prison are Indigenous; overall, a total of 661 out of 940 federal inmates — 70.3 per cent — are Indigenous.
Kim Beaudin, National Vice-Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, questioned how many reports are needed to say what’s going on. Report after report has been produced, but followup action has been lacking. “We’ve got so much work to do,” he said, questioning whether the political will exists to make changes.
He said Correctional Service Canada has told its national Indigenous advisory committee that the courts put people in prison, not CSC. “But they can play a major role if they wanted to,” he said.
Beaudin is calling for Indigenous involvement in oversight of the system.
“If we truly did have input and could change things, you’d see the numbers drop,” he said.
In an email, a spokesperson for CSC said that while it can’t influence the decisions that bring offenders into its custody, it’s committed to working with Indigenous communities, Elders and advisory boards to support safe reintegration into the community.
Steps CSC has taken include hiring a deputy commissioner for Indigenous corrections in May, creating Indigenous Interventions Centres to support Indigenous inmates, and strengthening the Mother-Child program by broadening the definition of “mother” to be more culturally inclusive and reflect kinship bonds. “CSC recognizes there is always more work to do, and we continue to work in partnership to implement our commitments,” the statement said.
Zinger reiterated in his report the general causes of overrepresentation, arising from the effects of colonialism, and made several recommendations to the federal government and CSC, including developing a national Indigenous de-carceration strategy.
The issue of overrepresentation was raised last week by high-profile lawyer Marie Henein when asked about the sentence received by her client, Dawn Walker. Walker was ordered to serve a one-year conditional sentence in the community, followed by probation, after pleading guilty to three charges, including parental abduction.
A conditional sentence is an alternative to incarceration for sentences of less than two years; it is served in the community if the person is not considered a community safety risk and adheres to a set of conditions. Walker could have otherwise been ordered to serve her sentence in custody at Saskatchewan’s provincial women’s jail, Pine Grove Correctional Centre.
Statistics show an overwhelming majority of people serving jail sentences in custody are Indigenous. In recent years, about three-quarters of all people jailed in Saskatchewan are Indigenous.
Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety said the average annual percentage of female provincial inmates who identified as Indigenous was 85 per cent between 2018 and 2023.
Pine Grove is overcapacity, said Nicole Obrigavitch, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Saskatchewan. More than half of the women are there on remand (pretrial custody). She said people are re-traumatized, separated from their children and not developing pro-social supports when institutions are overcrowded, especially on remand.
“The women that we’re seeing in provincial institutions now are the women that we’re going to see in federal institutions shortly thereafter,” Obrigavitch said.
The high remand numbers are a symptom of a lack of affordable housing and supports in the community, since not having a place to go after release can result in denial of bail, she added. “When people are in survival mode, they do things to get by. We’re only as good as our options. And if the options aren’t good, unfortunately people engage in criminal behaviour and they also engage in using substances to cope with the things that they’re facing.”
The provincial corrections ministry pointed to the introduction of the Saskatoon Tribal Council-run Īkwēskīcik iskwēwak program providing transitional supports to women returning to their communities after being released from Pine Grove post-sentence. It launched this spring, combining services and housing for 18 women under one roof.
Obrigavitch said the Elizabeth Fry Society has a plan for a housing continuum with in-house supports for addictions and mental health.
“We’re trying to provide an environment for people with complex needs so that they’re not falling through the cracks.”