Indigenous incarceration rate stubbornly high

First Nations must play larger role in justice system, AFN regional chief says

Alberta’s justice minister says she’s disappointed by the lack of progress in bringing down disproportionately high rates of Indigenous incarceration in the province.

The most recent provincial statistics, for 2017-18, showed an average daily adult inmate count of 3,704 in Alberta correctional facilities. Of that total, 1,494 — 40.3 per cent — were Indigenous.

Indigenous people make up only six per cent of Alberta’s population.

Over the past few years, the correctional facility numbers have remained steady, with Indigenous inmates making up 39 per cent in both 2016-17 and 2015-16. The percentage has gone up over the past decade, with the figure sitting at 36 per cent in 2007-08.

A year-and-a-half ago, Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley said the issue was a “huge concern” for the NDP government and the province was trying to take action to bring the rate down.

“It’s definitely disappointing to see that those numbers are as high as they are,” Ganley said in an interview. “It’s tragic not just for Indigenous people but for the whole of Canadian society that those numbers continue to stay where they are,” she said.

She said she is heartened by the fact there is increasingly a national conversation about Indigenous incarceration, which is an issue across Canada.

Statistics Canada recently reported that 46 per cent of the youth in custody in Canada are Indigenous. More than a quarter of adults in both federal and provincial corrections systems are Indigenous.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner recently said the high level of Indigenous incarceration in Canada is “unacceptable” and a “terrible situation.” Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said earlier this year that “we must save the next generation of Indigenous youth from the vicious and interrelated cycles of victimization and incarceration.”

Provincially, the NDP government has passed legislation to put an end to the use of warrants and jail time for minor infractions, and is trying to increase the use of Gladue reports — pre-sentencing or bail hearing reports that take an offender’s Indigenous background into account.

There are also Indigenous spiritual and cultural programming within corrections facilities and grants for First Nations-based restorative justice initiatives.

But Ganley said the most important steps the government is taking are to address the issues of poverty that affect many Indigenous people, and to work toward broader reconciliation for the legacy of the past, noting Premier Rachel Notley ’s recent apology for the Sixties Scoop that saw many Indigenous children removed from their families.

“There are a number of fronts where we need to make progress before we’ll really start to see progress on those (incarceration) numbers,” she said. “I think we know this is a problem that has evolved over a really long time, so it’s not going to be a quick or easy fix. But I would like to be seeing a little bit more progress.”

Marlene Poitras, the Alberta regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said she sees the high rates of incarceration as another form of institutionalization, akin to the residential school system that had a devastating effect on Indigenous communities.

“What we really need to look at is the trauma that most of these Indigenous people in prison have suffered and deal with it,” she said in an interview last week.

Poitras also said poverty plays a significant role.

More than 80 per cent of reserves have median incomes below the poverty line, according to Statistics Canada.

Poitras said First Nations need to play a bigger role within the justice system, calling for the increased use of measures such as healing circles and more resources for First Nations police services.

University of Calgary sociology professor Robert Henry agreed with Ganley that there is no quick solution to the problem, but believes there is much more the federal and provincial governments could be doing to address the underlying issues.

Resources need to be directed to areas such as addiction treatment and family supports, said Henry, who is Métis.

He said Gladue reports are rarely used properly, while alternative measures have languished despite governments paying lip service to the idea.

“Recognition of any issue is helpful but talking about something and not putting any action in place ... that becomes a problem,” said Henry.