Canada's prison system failing aboriginals, report says
Nov 13, 2009
By Laura Stone
OTTAWA — The Correctional Service of Canada has failed to take measures to reduce the number of aboriginals in Canada's prisons and to ensure they don't reoffend, according to a report from the independent ombudsman for federal offenders released Friday.
While CSC has identified numerous problems facing aboriginal offenders, it hasn't actually done anything to lower the current and rising number of 2,500 to 2,700 aboriginal federal inmates, said Howard Sapers, the Correctional Investigator of Canada.
"We see the outcomes of aboriginal offenders actually getting worse, and not better," said Sapers in a report called
Good Intentions, Disappointing Results.
It points to some glaring inequalities between aboriginal and non-aboriginal federal inmates, most notably that
aboriginals make up four per cent of Canada's population, but 20 per cent of its incarcerated population. Aboriginal women represent one third of female federal inmates.
In addition to higher incarceration rates, the report said aboriginal inmates are released later in their sentences; are over-represented in solitary confinement; are more likely to have previous sentences; are classified as higher risk and are more likely to reoffend.
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