Capacity-building in Aboriginal communities to facilitate reintegration of Aboriginal women prisoners’ back into Aboriginal society. If Aboriginal women prisoners within the Canadian penitentiary system are to be decarcerated beginning in the near future and over a period of years—the shorter the better—Canada needs to invest financial resources at the Aboriginal community-level to build the capacities of those communities to reintegrate Aboriginal women prisoners with their communities and families. Such capacity building can use federal dollars already targeted for Aboriginal community use including job creation, training, employment, economic development, social services, health and so on. Crime prevention dollars and Department of Justice grants and contributions have also been made available to community projects. NWAC requests that some of these funds, and a new special fund aimed at Aboriginal female reintegration and community capacity-building, be aimed at Aboriginal women’s representative organizations to facilitate this process.

Facilitation and implementation of ss. 81 and 84 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act [the “CCRA”] for the benefit of Aboriginal women prisoners. NWAC has worked with CSC to implement section 81 and section 84 of the CCRA unsuccessfully. NWAC proposes the establishment of a joint “NWAC-CSC Planning Committee on Sections 81 and 84” to set target dates for a plan of action to implement these sections of CCRA aimed at bringing Aboriginal women prisoners under Aboriginal jurisdiction for healing and reintegration back to their community roots.