Growing rate of Indigenous people in jail is a disgrace

There is a crisis in Saskatchewan and it’s flying below the radar. The Indigenous prison population is growing at an alarming rate.

In 2006-07, 70 per cent of male youth admissions to custody in Saskatchewan were Indigenous, but by 2016-17 it was 92 per cent. That’s the highest rate of all the provinces. Saskatchewan has a First Nations and Metis population of around 15 per cent of the total population but our numbers in the province’s jails far outnumber that.

The percentage of Indigenous women in provincial jails is more than 90 per cent.

Over the last 10 years, the numbers of Indigenous women incarcerated in federal institutions have more than doubled. About 39 per cent of women incarcerated in federal institutions are now Indigenous, making them the fastest growing prison population in the country.

So, what are the reasons behind this situation, which should be seen as a disgrace for our country? The Indigenous population in Saskatchewan is among the fastest growing group in the country. Since 1980, the population has tripled and it continues to increase. Today, about half the First Nations population is under 23 years of age. Much of our population live in poverty with the after-effects of residential schools and foster care.

Social services, employment and education have all failed to keep up and budget caps and cutbacks have only exacerbated the situation.

Saskatchewan is a part of the methamphetamine epidemic that is racing across the province like a prairie fire. This cheap and highly addictive drug is destroying individuals and families and there is very little treatment available for addicts.

Then there is systemic and racial bias in the justice system. A few years ago, the Supreme court decision on Gladue recommended that the background of Aboriginal offenders be taken into account when sentencing. The result has been the Gladue report which can be ordered by the court and included in the body of information when the judge considers sentencing. Unfortunately, in Saskatchewan there has been little call for Gladue reports and this is reflected in the sentencing.

Saskatchewan is becoming like the United States where a third of black men will be in jail at some time during their lifetime.

But jails don’t work. They are merely crime colleges where offenders are warehoused, join or are pressed into gangs and go back on the street more experienced and angry. Life becomes a vicious circle of crime and time.

The jail system is just another example of the institutionalization of our people. Colonialism places people in institutions so they can be controlled and moulded into the colonizer’s definition of what is a good citizen. But it has a dismal record of failure.

The history of First Nations is a history of control and failed institutions from Indian agents to residential schools to the ’60s Scoop and the penal system. Our people have been placed in institutions and controlled by rules of dominance and heavy-handed personnel.

The drug abuse, violence and disrespect for the law are symptom of years of control by outside institutions. The underlying reason for social dysfunction among our people goes back to the fact that we have lost control of our lives. That’s the end result of colonialism with all the various good intended paving stones that trip us up on our road to hell.

Today, many of our young people are returning to their roots to gain control over their lives. Unknown to many outsiders, there is a renaissance in traditional beliefs and spiritualism taking place in Indian country.

Many of our young people are divorced from their roots and culture. They need to talk to the elders and learn life lessons from the First Nations perspective.

If we are to know where we are going, we must know where we came from. Outside educators, social workers and missionaries and various zealots taught us that we came from people limited to a primitive culture, technology and spirituality. Rather than learn about us they chose to belittle our people and our history. In reality, the first peoples of Turtle Island created a rich legacy of relationships, spirituality and culture.

The substance abuse, the gang violence and family dysfunction will only go away when our people gain control of their lives and return to the path of culture and spirituality.