{"id":8905,"date":"2025-11-13T01:20:38","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T04:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/11\/13\/prison-watchdog-cites-lack-of-action-on-indigenous-over-representation-in-prison-one-of-reasons-for-early-departure\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T01:20:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T04:20:38","slug":"prison-watchdog-cites-lack-of-action-on-indigenous-over-representation-in-prison-one-of-reasons-for-early-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/11\/13\/prison-watchdog-cites-lack-of-action-on-indigenous-over-representation-in-prison-one-of-reasons-for-early-departure\/","title":{"rendered":"Prison watchdog cites lack of action on Indigenous over representation in prison one of reasons for early departure"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Prison watchdog cites lack of action on Indigenous over representation in prison one of reasons for early departure<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Canada\u2019s correctional investigator is leaving two years before his second term ends and says one of the reasons is the government\u2019s failure to address the gross over-representation of Indigenous people in the federal prison system. \u201cIndigenous prisoners that are serving time in Canadian penitentiaries are more likely to be classified as maximum-security prisoners, they\u2019re more likely to serve a greater proportion of their sentence in custody than non-Indigenous people, they\u2019re more likely to attempt suicide, self-harm, to be transferred involuntarily outside their community,\u201d 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\u2019s latest and final report, which focuses on access to mental health services within the federal system. Zinger was appointed to the role as Canada\u2019s prison watchdog in 2017 and his current term wasn\u2019t set to expire until 2027. His main task is to review the situation inside Canada\u2019s 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. \u201cOnly about two per cent of Indigenous prisoners are held in Section 81 healing lodges,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a little bit more occupancies in some of those healing lodges, but to date, the service [CSC] hasn\u2019t come up with concrete increases in healing lodge beds.\u201d 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. \u201cThe classification system has been identified by the Canadian Human Rights Commission as racist, as discriminatory on the basis of race, sex and disability,\u201d Pate told APTN News. \u201cPeople 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.\u201d 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\u2019s prison system for Indigenous inmates? Some people aren\u2019t 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. \u201cThey\u2019ve basically been saying to me and many others, including the correctional investigator, \u2018Oh, no service wants to contract with us,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWell you can imagine, over-subscribed health services being approached by Correctional Services Canada and them saying, \u2018Would you like to take these folks?\u2019\u201d 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 <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prison watchdog cites lack of action on Indigenous over representation in prison one of reasons for early departure Canada\u2019s correctional investigator is leaving two years before his second term ends and says one of the reasons is the government\u2019s failure to address the gross over-representation of Indigenous people in the federal prison system. \u201cIndigenous prisoners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":8906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,1,119],"tags":[116,117],"class_list":["post-8905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-uncategorized","category-windspeaker","tag-indigenous","tag-windspeaker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}