Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members.
Over the last decade, the Prairies region has led growth in the incarcerated population in federal corrections. It is now the largest region, both in geography and offender population. It also has the largest concentration of the Aboriginal inmate population in federal corrections. Today, 47% of inmates in the Prairies are indigenous. Some institutions in the prairie provinces can be considered “indigenous prisons”.
A history of disadvantage follows indigenous peoples of Canada into prison and often defines their outcomes and experiences there. Indigenous inmates are more likely to be classified as maximum security, spend more time in segregation and serve more of their sentence behind bars compared to non-Aboriginal inmates. Indigenous offenders are far more likely to be detained to warrant expiry or returned to prison for a technical violation of their release conditions.
Aboriginal people under federal sentence tend to be younger, less educated and more likely to present a history of substance of abuse, addictions and mental health concerns. A recent file review of the social histories of indigenous women offenders indicates that over half of the women reporting having attended or having had a family member attend residential school. With respect to childhood events, two-thirds of their parents had substance abuse issues, and 48% of the file sample had been removed from the family home. Almost all of the women's files indicated the existence of previous traumatic experiences, including sexual and/or physical abuse, as well as substance abuse problems.
The latest year-end performance and accountability report for Aboriginal Corrections prepared by the Correctional Service indicates several areas that require improvement in reducing the gap in correctional results and outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders.
For example, in spite of faster entry into correctional programs and higher program completion rates, indigenous offenders are still being released later and revoked much more often than their counterparts.
The percentage of indigenous offenders receiving day or full parole on first release is declining, while the percentage of indigenous offenders released on statutory release is increasing. Last fiscal year, nearly 70% of all indigenous persons released from a federal penitentiary were by statutory release.
Parole hearings and decisions are much more likely to be withdrawn or waived for indigenous offenders.
Challenges continue to exist in the application of Aboriginal social history in significant decisions affecting indigenous offenders, including segregation, security classification, penitentiary placement and return to the community.