Thank you.
My name is Lowell Carroll, and I'm the Manager for the Legal Services Centres in Calgary, Red Deer, and Siksika Nation. I'm a former member of the FASD network in Red Deer, Alberta, and I'm also a current member of the Justice Sector Constellation, which is a committee that's composed of various stakeholders in the community and in the province to work towards improving the justice system. Today I'm speaking just on behalf of myself about my individual experiences and observations working within the justice system.
I was asked to speak about specific issues regarding indigenous women's access to justice in Canada and to provide my feedback on specific issues around incarceration rates and penalties imposed on indigenous women in Canada.
While I acknowledge that it is absolutely important to discuss these topics, it's reasonable to assume that this committee knows the statistics regarding the incarceration rates for indigenous women and understands that they're extremely problematic. Hence the reason for this study today.
We know indigenous women are the fastest-growing prisoner population. We know they're overrepresented in nearly every facet of the justice system, so for me, it's much more valuable if we focus on the various interconnected social and legal issues that perpetuate this problem and focus on cause and prevention.
Before I start with my observations or any of my feedback, I'd like to start out by making a statement.
It is my contention that in order for us to make any sort of positive impact on these social and legal issues, there needs to be a drastic shift in how we think about justice. We need to figure out or decide whether the justice system exists as a conduit for punishment or retribution, or whether the focus of the justice system is on prevention, rehabilitation, and creating a society that is just for all. We need to acknowledge that in its current state, our justice system doesn't function to prevent crime, it doesn't rehabilitate inmates, and it doesn't create a just society. In fact, in my experience, I find the system in many ways perpetuates poverty and creates various social issues and social inequality.
It's important to acknowledge that historically there are systemic issues that have a negative impact on the way aboriginal women perceive the justice system. Many do not see the justice system as a place where they can get well or improve themselves. They see it largely as a system of punishment and a place where they get lost and forgotten.
This is why I'm a strong supporter of community courts, which is what I'd like to advocate for today. There is a pilot project in Vancouver, which is why I bring this up, and we are working on a pilot project in Calgary through the committee I'm working on. How that would work is basically by having a crown that's willing to work with the defence in order to come up with some sort of strategic plan and support system for the accused. To me, this is probably the most impactful system we could have. When the accused comes before the court, we often do not take a look at the reasons they ended up in court in the first place. The justice system functions by looking at what was done. When it looks at the “why” factor, it usually looks at it in relation to sentencing, not prevention.
Community courts aim to tackle these issues of poverty, domestic violence, homelessness, displacement, and historical issues by identifying the systemic issues that led to the accused being in court, and then setting them up with community supports that can assist them in resolving these issues.
Additionally, in theory the crown would hold the accused accountable throughout the process by not withdrawing the charges until these programs are completed. This helps not only aboriginal women, but every Albertan who's experiencing issues in the justice system. As I mentioned, there are programs similar to this that work very well. Actually, there's another family program in Siksika, which I'm a manager of, that is a family program dealing with domestic violence. It operates like a community court, and it's very successful.
One of the major issues I see in our justice system is a lack of holistic practices and insight into the interconnectedness of social and legal issues faced by aboriginal women and aboriginal people in general. I acknowledge that there are various programs in the correctional system that are intended to be aboriginal-focused, and they indeed try to focus on prevention and healing. The problem, however, is that many of these programs are only available once a person becomes a federal or provincial inmate in an institution. To me, these programs are available far too late to be as impactful as they need to be. There's also obviously an issue with these being less available to aboriginal women, which is also problematic and unfair.
When I was on the board for the FASD network in Red Deer, we came across a report on the Edmonton Institution for Women, and we discovered that 100% of women in the institution were aboriginal, and we suspected that a large portion of them suffered from FASD. Aboriginal women make up the fastest-growing prison population, as I mentioned, and they're overrepresented in segregation. Actually, they're almost twice as likely to be overrepresented in maximum security units in segregation.
If you examine these numbers, you can see the abhorrent cycle of injustice. You have a population that suffers from poverty, domestic violence, mental health issues, and displacement, and because of these issues we end up seeing these people in the justice system. They become incarcerated, they are placed in segregation, they aren't treated for their brain injuries or mental health issues, their families become separated, and they get pushed further into poverty and isolation. To put it bluntly, there is no healing, and there is no focus on prevention that I can see.
I am running out of time, so I'm going to skip a little bit, but I mention in my notes that community courts are seen as ineffective because they are seen as a way for the accused to somehow avoid their prison sentences. When we look at victims, however—the ones I have interviewed and talked with—the perception of the public is that the justice system exists for retribution, yet no matter how long the sentence is, no matter how harsh the punishment, the victims often feel unsatisfied. They are unsatisfied with the justice system.
For me, it's because they recognize the perpetual failure of the system. They realize that longer sentences are not statistically linked to deterrence in crime. They also realize that the accused often leaves prison without being rehabilitated and in fact sometimes in a worse state than before going to prison.
To my mind, the best way for the victim to heal is to know that whatever happened to them and whatever harm the accused caused them will not happen to another person again. They need to be able to see that the justice system is actually fruitful and that some good will come out of it. Again I would say that community courts are the best way to administer this type of justice.
In closing, I'll just say that we really need to take a hard look at the justice system and decide what its purpose is, and we need to be accountable for that statement. If it's about rehabilitation, if it's about making a just society, these changes really need to be made.
Thank you.