[IPSM] Jail conditions for Canadian aboriginals a 'disgrace': ombudsman

[Dru Oja Jay]

[Hardly news, but... --d]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/10/16/native-prisoners.html

Jail conditions for Canadian aboriginals a 'disgrace': ombudsman
Last Updated: Monday, October 16, 2006 | 6:46 PM ET
CBC News

Aboriginal offenders are routinely discriminated against by the  
corrections system and are far less likely to get parole or be  
rehabilitated by their experiences in jail, the ombudsman for federal  
prisons says.

Releasing his annual report into conditions in federal prisons,  
Correctional Investigator Howard Sapers said the challenges faced by  
aboriginal people in Canadian jails amounts to "a national disgrace".

He said the overall incarceration rate for aboriginal Canadians was  
nine times higher than for the population at large and the situation  
was even worse for aboriginal women.

One in three inmates in federally-run women's prisons were  
aboriginal, he said, with almost half of them in maximum security  
institutions.

Aboriginals often sent to maximum security prison

He said there was "routine overclassification" of native prisoners,  
who were far more likely to be sent to maximum security prison than  
offenders from other backgrounds.

"That means they [aboriginal offenders] often serve their sentences  
away from family, community, their friends and elders," Sapers said,  
"They are sent into segregation more often...severely limiting access  
to rehabilitative programs and services that are intended to prepare  
them for their release."

Parole is routinely denied or revoked, often on technical grounds, he  
said.

Sapers called on the federal government to address the situation  
urgently with new programs, more resources and consultations with  
aboriginal leaders and communities.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has said he will consider the  
findings of Sapers' report but there is no evidence of systemic  
discrimination against native offenders in the prison system.