Aboriginal inmates get raw deal: Ombuds
Oct 16, 2006
CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA — The Canadian prison system is practising “systemic discrimination” against aboriginal offenders, says the federal ombudsman for inmates — a finding that his political masters in the Conservative government refuse to accept.

Howard Sapers, in his annual report Monday, said the Correctional Service of Canada too often overestimates the risk posed by native prisoners and sends them to maximum-security institutions when less rigorous treatment would do.

Aboriginals are also more likely than non-aboriginals to be sent to solitary confinement, and to be overlooked for early parole and thus end up serving too much time behind bars, said Sapers.

“The general picture is one of institutionalized discrimination,” he told a news conference. `That is, aboriginal people are routinely disadvantaged once they are placed into the custody of the correctional service.”

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day balked at that conclusion, insisting as he officially tabled the report in the House of Commons that there was “no empirical evidence” to support the finding.

Sapers acknowledged that, whenever a complaint of deliberate harassment is substantiated, prison officials are “very quick to act” against the offending employee.

But the overall workings of the system still amount to a kind of collective discrimination, he said. “It's a different focus than individual acts of individual correctional officers.”

Sapers pointed to statistics that show the total number of people incarcerated in federal institutions went down by 12 per cent between 1996 and 2004. But the number of native inmates increased 21 per cent in the same period.

The figures were even more dramatic for native women, whose numbers rose by a startling 74 per cent.

Just as troubling, said Sapers, is the fact that four in 10 natives behind bars are aged 25 or under, reflecting the frequency with which young aboriginals run afoul of the law.

When they are overclassified at the start of their terms and placed in maximum security, they are deprived of the educational and rehabilitation programs they need to win parole.

When they are finally released after serving their sentences, they are much more likely to re-offend and return to prison, said Sapers.

“To break this cycle, the correctional service must do a better job of preparing aboriginal offenders while in custody, and provide better support while in the community.”

Native groups welcomed the report and appealed to the government to remedy the situation — though some sounded skeptical about the chances that Ottawa would do so.

“Alternatives to the continued warehousing of our people are urgently required,”; said Angus Toulouse, Ontario regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations.

He noted, however, that the prison service has yet to implement key recommendations urged on them in the past, including the appointment of a deputy commissioner for aboriginal issues.

“It is time for action,” agreed Beverley Jacobs, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada.

“`We've had enough task force reports, internal reviews national strategies . . . . Today's report clearly shows there has been no significant progress.”

Sapers, whose official title is correctional investigator, called for prison officials to adopt a new security classification process to reduce the number of aboriginals being held in maximum security.

He also wants more use of unescorted temporary absences and work release programs to ease native offenders back into society gradually, and measures to encourage earlier release on full parole.

He recommends, as well, the hiring of more aboriginals to work in the prison service, and greater involvement of aboriginal communities in post-release support programs.

Though he focused on native issues in this year's report, the ombudsman also touched on a wide range of other matters. He called on the correctional service to:

— Provide better services to federal offenders with mental health needs — the proportion of whom has more than doubled over the past decade.

— Meet its legal obligation to provide every inmate with essential health care according to professionally accepted standards.

— Hold timely investigations and follow-up in incidents of serious injury or death among inmates.

Aboriginal offenders are routinely discriminated against by the corrections system and are far less likely to get parole or be rehabilitated by their experiences in jail, the ombudsman for federal prisons says.

Releasing his annual report into conditions in federal prisons, Correctional Investigator Howard Sapers said the challenges faced by aboriginal people in Canadian jails amounts to "a national disgrace".

He said the overall incarceration rate for aboriginal Canadians was nine times higher than for the population at large and the situation was even worse for aboriginal women.

One in three inmates in federally-run women's prisons were aboriginal, he said, with almost half of them in maximum security institutions.

He said there was "routine overclassification" of native prisoners, who were far more likely to be sent to maximum security prison than offenders from other backgrounds.   

"That means they [aboriginal offenders] often serve their sentences away from family, community, their friends and elders," Sapers said, "They are sent into segregation more often...severely limiting access to rehabilitative programs and services that are intended to prepare them for their release."

Parole is routinely denied or revoked, often on technical grounds, he said.

Sapers called on the federal government to address the situation urgently with new programs, more resources and consultations with aboriginal leaders and communities.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has said he will consider the findings of Sapers' report but there is no evidence of systemic discrimination against native offenders in the prison system.