Province says 75 per cent of inmates in Sask. jails are Indigenous

New information from the Ministry of Corrections and Policing show that three-quarters of people incarcerated in Saskatchewan correctional facilities are Indigenous.

Although the government recently released that statistic, it’s not news to Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand, who works with correctional centres to establish programs designed to rehabilitate and educate incarcerated First Nations people.

“I’ve been aware of it now for probably the last few years,” he said.

“I’m working with the correctional centres to establish some programs to basically try to rehabilitate them while they are incarcerated to really work on the cultural programming, education, employment and family case plans to help the individual have a chance of succeeding when they are released.”

According to Arcand, the high number of Indigenous people in Saskatchewan jails is directly related to past trauma that many of them experienced.

“I believe it is because of the residential schools. I believe it is because of the ’60s scoop. I also believe it is because of the poverty in our First Nations communities,” he said.

“Housing is poor (and) education is poor. People migrate to the city (and) then they are looking for those same opportunities but they get involved in negative things like drugs and alcohol.”

Arcand believes that more programs are needed involving care for people after they come out of correctional facilities, and that those programs need to be run by First Nations people.

“For us, there has to be an investment of education and employment, especially to our young people so they don’t become involved in those same situations. We have to break the cycle of intergenerational trauma that caused this,” he said.

“I also believe that programs like this have to be run by First Nations people because we are dealing with a majority of First Nations people. We know what our people need.”

The Government of Saskatchewan currently uses a restorative justice program that brings victims and offenders together to talk about what harm was done and come up with a way to hold the offender accountable without them seeing jail time.

In a statement, the Ministry of Corrections and Policing said restorative justice programs “play a key role in reducing the over-representation of marginalized, vulnerable people in the criminal justice system, and support Government’s commitment to reconciliation.”

But even though these restorative justice programs “resolve about 3,300 adult and youth criminal matters every year,” Arcand believes more still needs to be done and First Nations organizations need to be more involved in the process.

“What are the outcomes and the goals that we are trying to achieve when we talk about restorative justice? My outcomes and my goals as the tribal chief of Saskatoon Tribal Council is to try to get as many people educated or have a job so that they can provide to the economy,” he said.

“The more people that are incarcerated does nothing for the economy. We’re dumping money into programs that are not being successful because if they have been successful, then we would see the numbers going down. So that tells me that the system is not working.”