GRSJ224/Colonialism&Incarceration

Race and incarceration in Canada

Like in the United States, where people of color are over-represented in the prison system, in Canada, aboriginal people seem to be specifically targeted by the prison and legal system. Canada’s prisons are “contemporary equivalents to residential schools notorious for their destructive effects on generations of Aboriginal peoples” (Bamarki, 2016, p. 2). Even though Canada’s crime rates been in decline, with 2016 seeing a 45 year low, the Indigenous incarceration numbers have skyrocketed. Aboriginal women are particularly overrepresented as they make up about 36% of the prison population, while being less than 4% of the national population (Van der Meulen et al., 2018, p. 82). The number tell a very compelling story, which, at first sight, would make aboriginal people into a very dangerous demographic. In reality, incarceration is the result of many social forces.

Why are Indigenous people over-represented in Canadian prisons?

There is no one explanation, but explanations lie in intersectional understandings of what has been happening to aboriginal people in Canada over the past two centuries. The neoliberalist explanations reduce incarceration to self-fault. Other explanations include:

• Cultural oppression

• Social inequality

• Loss of self-government

• Systemic racism and discrimination

• Racial profiling – which starts really early – most indigenous children will be stopped by the police from around 9 years of age

• “Carding” policies in some cities – Toronto, for example – which is a form of racial profiling

• Mandatory minimum sentences for small infractions – like stealing some food from Superstore – infractions which any white or middle class defendant would not go to jail for

• Pleading out is better than fighting the system because of lack of bail money

• Sentencing takes an average of 5 minutes – judges don’t take the time to understand the reasons behind a crime, and public defenders are overwhelmed by the caseload

• If accused people don’t plead guilty and can’t make bail, they can lose their jobs, housing or custody of children if they have to wait in jail for a trial date. But, once they plead guilty, they have a record which will work against them, affect their employment or travel capabilities, and will work against them if they get charged with something else in the future because then they will repeat offenders

• Some people have severe childhood trauma, PTSD or mental disabilities – it’s not clear if they can even understand the proceedings, but judges don’t take the time to assess a defendant’s ability to stand trial. For a long time, the Canadian system didn’t even question whether regular sentencing is suitable for Aboriginal offenders (Roberts & Reid, 2017, p. 314). Now it’s becoming obvious that mental disability and past trauma are important variables which push people into prisons.

• R. v Gladue – Supreme Court said that “sentencing judges must recognize an Indigenous offender’s history of dislocation, disadvantage addiction and abuse” at sentencing (Macdonald, 2016; Roberts & Reid, 2017, p. 315). Yet, judges are overwhelmingly white, males and middle to upper class, and have never stepped on a reserve, so it’s hard to see how they would be able to relate to or understand a defendant’s past trauma or the social conditions which led to his/her breaking the law.

• Many people break parole conditions because they are homeless – so, social class and homelessness are important variables

Effects of Imprisonment

Indigenous people see police and the law as enemies – they describe sthe police as “racist” and “scary” while white students see them as “helpful” or “authority” in a neutral sense (Macdonald, 2016). Indigenous children see their skin color as a curse and report feeling ashamed and worthless because that’s the message they get when they interact with authority figures. Once in jail, aboriginal people, and women in particular, are targeted and bullied; many are put in segregation and attempt suicide (Macdonald, 2016).

Women: Indigeneity and Gender

• Are “the most disadvantages and marginalized prison population in Canada” – their lives before prison are characterized by “poverty, abuse, violence, low self-esteem, stigmatization, prostitution, suicide, and addiction” – prison is not conducive or rehabilitation (Bamarki, 2016, p. 2)
• Dyck (2013) argues that women’s imprisonment is part of a “broader [social] crisis” in Canada (p. 2).
• Historic trauma and the effects of colonization have to be addressed, as well challenge the idea that Canadian legal system can be gender-neutral and still be effective. Criminality and the experience of criminalization are not, themselves, gender-neutral (Dyck, 2013, p. 3).
• Before prison, a 2010 study reports, the convicted women were living on social assistance, sex work, drug dealing and stealing – many cited addiction, mental illness/disability, lacking the education or skills to get a job; single mothers who stayed home for children (Van der Meulen et al., 2018, p. 87)
• Revitalization of culture and institutional reform need to happen keeping gender divides but also class and colonialism in mind (Bamarki, 2016, p. 3).
• The health risks associated with being in prison are also gender specific and include “physical and sexual violence, sex without condoms, sharing of needles,” along with loss of time, loss of life, depression and suicide (Owusu-Bempah et al., 2014).

References

Bamarki, R. (2016). Blocking their path to prison: Song and music as healing methods for Canada’s aboriginal women. Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 36(1), 1.

Dyck, J. (2013). Stories from the front: Realities of the over-incarceration of aboriginal women in Canada. Dissertation Thesis.

Macdonald, N. (2016, Feb. 18). Canada’s prisons are the ‘new residential schools. Maclean’s. Retrieved from http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/canadas-prisons-are-the-new- residential-schools/

Owusu-Bempah, A., Kanters, S., Druyts, E., Toor, K., Muldoon, K. A., Farquhar, J. W., & Mills, E. J. (2014). Years of life lost to incarceration: Inequities between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians. UBC Faculty Research and Publications.

Roberts J. V., & Reid, A. A. (2017). Aboriginal incarceration in Canada since 1978: Every picture tells the same story. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 59(3). 313-345.

Van der Meulen, E., De Shalit, A., & Ka Hon Chu, S. (2018). A legacy of harm: Punitive drug policies and women’s carceral experiences in Canada. Women & Criminal Justice, 28(2), 81.