‘Dark history’ of colonialism cited in province’s sky-high Indigenous-incarceration rate

Despite years of court-driven efforts to divert Indigenous people from jails, they continue to make up a hugely disproportionate number of Saskatchewan’s inmates.

According to Statistics Canada data for 2016-17 released Tuesday, 76 per cent of admissions to Saskatchewan jails were Indigenous people. That’s precisely the same percentage as the year before, and only two points below the 2011-12 figure.

It remains the highest of any province in Canada, and far in excess of the roughly 14 per cent of Saskatchewan people who are Indigenous.

“Our system definitely needs to reform,” said Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations vice-chief Heather Bear. “We are working with a broken system. It’s not even about rehabilitation anymore. It’s about ‘Lock the Indian up.’ ”

Two prominent Supreme Court cases have called for a move away from incarceration for Indigenous offenders. The Gladue decision of 1999 and the Ipeelee decision of 2012 push judges to consider any reasonable alternative to jail during sentencing. They also must take into account the special circumstances of Indigenous people, such as experiences with poverty and residential schools.

Judges regularly cite those factors in their rulings, but Bear said they need to do more. She also called for reforms to address backlogs at legal aid and put more First Nations people in powerful positions within the justice system.

“We need people there who know and understand the plight of our people,” she said.

Bear further connected the statistics to factors like homelessness, addictions and poverty, which themselves have roots in a “dark history” of colonialism. Those challenges make it more likely for Indigenous people to end up in court.

Once there, she said, many face additional barriers that prompt them to give up.

“You have this backlog of people waiting to plead out,” she said. “They have no desire to fight their charges.”

Saskatchewan has one of the highest average incarceration rates in Canada. On an average day in 2016-17, there were about 1,900 people in custody in provincial jails, or 214 prisoners per 100,000 people. That’s second only to Manitoba and comparable to countries like Honduras and Moldova.

Saskatchewan’s overall count increased three per cent since 201516, though the number of people in community supervision decreased at the same time.

Much of the upward trend has come from a surge of people remanded to custody while they wait to face charges. That figure went up 13 per cent.

For Bear, the most troubling statistic of all is for women in custody. Fully 85 per cent of female prisoners admitted to custody in 2016-17 were Indigenous, according to the Statistics Canada data.