Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It was just for women. The Canada Correctional Service language has changed over recent years in terms of agreeing or disagreeing with the issues of systemic barriers and differential outcomes for aboriginal offenders. Their most recent response to the report—even though the strategic plan for aboriginal offenders still lists as one of its priorities reducing the outcome gap—would seem to suggest that they have developed the program tools they need to do so.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are some exchange of service agreements in place between the Correctional Service of Canada and provincial and territorial governments for the housing of inmates, but more importantly, there are two sections in the Corrections and Conditional Release Act that allow for the direct involvement of aboriginal communities in sentence administration of aboriginal offenders.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The simple answer is yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I believe the service is sincere in its desire to develop a new tool and a new set of tools by fiscal year 2009-10.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can tell you that in the past, the service on this file has missed many of its targets.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I believe the timeframe was determined based on what they projected as all of the steps they'll be required to take to validate a new tool, and that's subject to some debate. As far as the resources go, it is my conclusion that the service does not have the resources it needs to implement all of the priorities that have been identified.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. The profile would suggest that an aboriginal offender convicted of a violent crime is much more likely to be initially placed in maximum security and held in maximum security for a longer period of time. In most of the federal maximum security institutions, there are no core programs available designed specifically to meet the cultural needs of aboriginal offenders.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We have not done our own academic analysis of the tools. We have referred to and relied upon the external work that's been done by academics at Canadian universities, by the department's own research branch, and by the Canadian Human Rights Commission. We work with that tool all the time, and of course, of the thousands of complaints that we deal with every year in the office, many have to do with classification and access to programs, so we have a very operational familiarity with the impact of these over-classifications and the use of these actuarial tools that the service relies on.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Corrections identified aboriginal programs many years ago as a priority. The frustration is that as a result of things like over-classification, you see security needs being used, rightly or wrongly, as the reason for maintaining a population at a high security level. The highest security levels in federal penitentiaries do not give access to the kinds of core programs that have been identified, so you have the irony of having a population with high need being held in very secure settings because they have a high need, and needing access to a whole range of programs that the service only makes available at lower security levels.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Our conclusion is that the initial classification tools inappropriately place aboriginal offenders in disproportionate numbers in higher security levels than necessary. You have more people at initial placement going into higher security levels and finding it harder to cascade down security levels, because once they're in the high security level, they don't get the programs they need that would assist them in going into medium- and then minimum-security settings, and then getting before the parole board for a conditional release decision that would return them to their communities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, I think there are a number of ways to answer the question. One way would certainly be to say there's been a lack of integration and coordination across federal government programs in relation to federal-provincial-territorial initiatives and initiatives involving first nations communities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm sorry, I guess the English copy was missing a page. We'll get some additional copies made and circulated. The over-classification for aboriginal women is even worse. For example, at the end of September native women made up 45% of maximum security federally sentenced women, 44% of the medium security population, but only 18% at minimum security.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, you should have the full set of copies.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll be making the formal opening statements on behalf of the Office of the Correctional Investigator. My name is Howard Sapers, and I'm the correctional investigator for Canada, appointed about two and a half years ago. I'll go as quickly as I can through this, being mindful of the time.