To be a woman and to be seen as violent is to be especially marked in the eyes of
the administration of the prisons where women do time, and in the eyes of the
staff who guard them. In a prison with a male population, our crimes would stand out much less. Among women, we do not fit the stereotypes, and we are
automatically feared, and labeled as in need of special handling. The label violent
begets a self-perpetuation and destructive cycle for Aboriginal women within
prisons. In P4W, everything follows from this label. But the prison regime that
follows serves to reinforce the violence that it is supposedly designed to manage.
Native Women’s Association of Canada. Fran Sugar and Lana Fox, “Survey of
Aboriginal Women in the Community, 1990, p. 5
The greater incidence of previous incarcerations and violence in their offences creates the
setting for a higher security classification and risk assessment for federally sentenced
aboriginal women. This is heightened by the tensions and misunderstandings between
Aboriginal cultures and that of the criminal justice and penal settings.
Arbour.
Report of the Commission of Inquiry Into Certain Events at the
Prison for Women in Kingston, 1996, p. 221.
c) Challenges to Achieving Conditional Release
Aboriginal women are also granted conditional release at a slower rate. Like their male
counterparts, Aboriginal women are generally released on conditional release at a later stage in
their sentences. In part, this is owing to the higher security levels imposed on them, as the
National Parole Board usually requires that prisoners achieve a lower level of security before
release.
In addition to being greatly over-represented in federal institutions, aboriginal
offenders also experience special problems in terms of their gradual release,
notably:
-
disproportionate slowness in obtaining various forms of parole;
-
higher rates of recidivism and revocation while conditionally released;
and
-
relative weaknesses of community support systems.
CSC.
Report of the Working Group on Human Rights: Human Rights in Community
Corrections, 1991, p. 32.
In his 1999-2000 Annual Report, the Correctional Investigator reiterated recommendations
from previous reports to address the slower release rate of Aboriginal prisoners on conditional
release and the failure of the Correctional Service of Canada to redress this disadvantage.
Submission
of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS) to the
Canadian Human Rights Commission for the Special Report on the Discrimination
on the Basis of Sex, Race and Disability Faced by Federally Sentenced
Women
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