The Chair of the Senate human rights committee that is touring correctional facilities says she was astounded at she called the grotesque over representation of Indigenous prisoners, in particular in the Prairies. Senator Wanda Elaine Thomas Bernard says she had read reports before, but to see it in person really brought the point home. She has also noticed an under representation of Indigenous staff and management. In Saskatchewan, the committee toured the Prince Albert Penitentiary, the two healing lodges in Prince Albert and Maple Creek areas and the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon. One concern brought up fairly consistently across the country is the lack of educational programs beyond Grade 12. The committee is looking at prison conditions and studying whether Canada’s incarceration system is effective and whether people are successfully being rehabilitated, with a report expected in early 2019. Bernard says at the healing lodges, they heard there weren’t enough resources to get into work of figuring out what led a prisoner to incarceration in the first place. For instance, one prisoner had just begun to trust a psychologist and open up and then that person was gone and wasn’t replaced. It’s expected a report on the prison system will be presented in early 2019.
Senate Committee Tours Correctional Facilites in Saskatchewan
By Carol Thomson
Oct 9, 2018 | 4:34 AM
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