Prison watchdog cites lack of action on Indigenous over representation in prison one of reasons for early departure

Canada’s correctional investigator is leaving two years before his second term ends and says one of the reasons is the government’s failure to address the gross over-representation of Indigenous people in the federal prison system. “Indigenous prisoners that are serving time in Canadian penitentiaries are more likely to be classified as maximum-security prisoners, they’re more likely to serve a greater proportion of their sentence in custody than non-Indigenous people, they’re more likely to attempt suicide, self-harm, to be transferred involuntarily outside their community,” Ivan Zinger said at a Wednesday morning press conference in Ottawa. The press conference was held as part of the release of the correctional investigator’s latest and final report, which focuses on access to mental health services within the federal system. Zinger was appointed to the role as Canada’s prison watchdog in 2017 and his current term wasn’t set to expire until 2027. His main task is to review the situation inside Canada’s prisons, much like an auditor. He noted that when he started, Indigenous people made up 15 per cent of federal prison system inmates and this has since risen to 33 per cent and a shocking 50 per cent when it comes to women in the system. The report finds several problems when it comes to the ability of Indigenous inmates to obtain mental health services, including ongoing discrimination continuing to hamper access, a lack of culturally-based supports and poor continuity of mental health services upon release. It recommends that the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) put more resources into community-based healing lodges, a service, Zinger said, that has historically been underutilized. “Only about two per cent of Indigenous prisoners are held in Section 81 healing lodges,” he said. “There’s a little bit more occupancies in some of those healing lodges, but to date, the service [CSC] hasn’t come up with concrete increases in healing lodge beds.” Pate, seen here in her Ottawa office in 2023, says Indigenous offenders are more often to be classifed as high security. Photo: Mark Blackburn/APTN. Sen. Kim Pate (Ontario) has long advocated for the rights of Indigenous inmates. She said one of the reasons for the low numbers is that CSC continues to misclassify Indigenous inmates, making many ineligible for the lower security healing lodges. “The classification system has been identified by the Canadian Human Rights Commission as racist, as discriminatory on the basis of race, sex and disability,” Pate told APTN News. “People with mental health issues, racialized people and women. And so disproportionately Indigenous women and men, but particularly women, are more likely to be classified as higher security.” The report also recommends that mental health services should be provided at the community level rather than only within correctional institutions themselves. Read More:  Can Kathy Neil fix Canada’s prison system for Indigenous inmates? Some people aren’t so sure Pate said it is an option that CSC has never seriously explored because while they may have approached these providers, they have never been willing to divert any of their own budget along with the request. “They’ve basically been saying to me and many others, including the correctional investigator, ‘Oh, no service wants to contract with us,’” she said. “Well you can imagine, over-subscribed health services being approached by Correctional Services Canada and them saying, ‘Would you like to take these folks?’” In a press release, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said he continues to work closely with the office of the correctional investigator and this includes addressing the over representation of Indigenous people in the federal correctional system. Continue Reading