Madam Louise Arbour, now the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, did a study on the prison system when she was a commissioner. In a recent interview, some ten years after the inquiry, she said that reforms to the prison system have fallen substantially short of her expectations. She cited three critiques, and I'd like you to respond to them.
One was the growing number of aboriginal women behind bars, to which I referred, which she referenced as being “a disturbing element of a prison system that has failed to act imaginatively or to address fundamental discrimination”.
The second point she mentioned was that “aboriginal offenders are more likely than others to be lodged in maximum-security prisons”.
Third, she is quoted as expressing “disappointment that instead of experimenting with innovative programs for female inmates, Correctional Service Canada programming and treatment remain dominated by male concerns and a male perspective”.
Do you have any response to these critiques?