The 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Committee’s Call to Action #30 reads as follows: “We call upon the federal, provincial and territorial governments to commit to eliminating the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in custody over the next decade, and to issue detailed annual reports that monitor and evaluate progress in doing so.”
Stemming from a long and harmful history of colonialism, Canada’s justice system has long contained an overrepresentation of Indigenous people. In the four years since the report was published, Stats Canada data shows that the proportion of Indigenous youth in custody has actually increased. By 2016-17 numbers, they make up 8% of the youth population but 46% of youth in custody. Saskatchewan has the highest rate of all provinces, with 92% of youth in custody being Indigenous. As for Indigenous adults, they represent about 5% of the national population but 28% of men in custody and, even worse, 43% of women.
Evidently, ineffective and insufficient government policies are resulting in a worsening of the issue. Talking about reconciliation is well and good, but the government needs to put more money where their mouth is and dedicate more resources to address the problem. The thing is, Indigenous-centred restorative justice-type programs are already in place across the country – they simply don’t receive enough resources to keep up with demand.
Created in 1991, the Aboriginal Justice Strategy was designed to push back against Indigenous overincarceration by providing funding for culturally-based and community-focussed restorative justice programs as alternatives to the mainstream justice system. Currently, the Strategy funds around 200 Indigenous justice programs across Canada.
In their 2014-15 Annual Report, the Office of the Correctional Investigator cited research that shows that holistic and culturally-specific programs helped Indigenous offenders deal with past trauma and achieve better post-release outcomes, and recommended that correctional services adapt their programming to address specific Indigenous needs. The types of services offered by AJS-funded programs help advance reconciliation by increasing Indigenous self-administration of their own justice.
Many groups operate within frameworks that combine Indigenous legal traditions and teachings with restorative justice to help offenders learn and rehabilitate effectively. Seven Indigenous teachings are often emphasized: courage, respect, truth, honesty, love, wisdom, and humility. Restorative justice emphasizes accountability and self-development for the offender as well as collective healing overall (as opposed to our mainstream Western criminal justice system which focuses heavily on retribution and punishment).
As many Indigenous groups are now working to reclaim their rightful sovereignty and right to self-govern that were stolen during the processes of colonization, these community-based justice programs puts some judicial power back in their hands – and they’ve been quite effective.
According to the Department of Justice’s 2016 report Evaluation of the Aboriginal Justice Strategy, about 9,000 referrals are made to these alternative justice programs annually. In addition to personal/mental health improvements, positive lifestyle changes, and a deeper and healthier connection to culture, one big result of these programs is the reduction in recidivism rate. After one year, participants were 43% less likely to re-offend than non-participants, according to the report. Furthermore, this effect persisted up to 8 years after release (that being the upper time limit of the research site), where participants were 37% less likely to re-offend. Obviously, such programs successfully decrease the numbers of Indigenous people in the mainstream criminal justice system.
They are also extremely cost-effective, especially in the long run. In the 2016 report, detailed cost comparisons found AJS-funded programs to be more cost-effective than the mainstream courts system. Between 2014 and 2015, there were around 9,000 participants in AJS programs; the year-long cohort translated to almost $14.5 million in immediate savings for the mainstream courts. When you consider annual future cost savings due to lower likelihoods of reoffending, that number rises to nearly $20.5 million in present and future savings coming out of just that one year. Increased funding for these programs will result in increased savings in the future.
An example of a manifestation of an AJS-funded program is the Southern Chiefs Organization’s First Nations Justice Strategy program in Manitoba. In a 2018 CBC article, Grand Chief Jerry Daniels states that “it tries to address some of the issues that they are facing as individuals, and look at the support that they need… the more this program is successful, the more it’s supported by government, the more we’re going to save.”
To be accepted into SCO’s program, the offender must take responsibility for their actions and be willing to make amends as needed. When they do, a community justice worker meets with them for an assessment on the support they need, and community members are also invited to work on healing relationships. In 2014, 94% of their participants successfully completed the program. The SCO’s program saw a 40% increase in referrals of potential participants last year.
About 9,000 referrals (offenders, victims, and other community members) are made to these alternative justice programs annually. However, demand is growing as more turn to substitutes for the mainstream justice system, and the 2016 report found conclusively that current funding levels are not enough.
Based on the results and continued usage of restorative justice models, it’s evident that applying those principles through an Indigenous- and community-based lens is an effective method that yields positive and productive results for affected parties and their communities by helping build and heal relationships as well as keeping people out of the mainstream justice system.
There is no doubt that the benefits of the AJS exceed the costs. Increasing funding for it will help better serve communities by facilitating rehabilitation and healing, as well as result in increased financial savings for the government in the long run.
