Watchdogs, MPs slam Canada’s prison officials on treatment of Black, Indigenous inmates
Global News
Two House of Commons committees honed in on the state of Canadian prisons this week, with MPs from all parties offering a scathing rebuke of the prison system.
Federal watchdogs and members of Parliament are pressing Canada’s top corrections officials to improve conditions for Black and Indigenous offenders who are serving time in federal prisons.
Two House of Commons committees honed in on the state of Canadian prisons this week, with MPs from all parties offering a scathing rebuke of the prison system.
During one of the hearings, New Democrat MP Blake Desjarlais accused Correctional Service Canada officials of allowing systems to fail.
“The auditor general is yelling at the top of her lungs about the conditions that are often facing Indigenous and Black people in Canada,” he said at a Thursday meeting of the public accounts committee, wiping away tears as he spoke.
“And the systems continuously stay the same.”
Auditor general Karen Hogan, who also appeared at the committee, found in a report earlier this year that the service “failed to identify and eliminate systemic barriers that persistently disadvantaged certain groups of offenders.”
“The over-representation of Indigenous and Black offenders in custody has worsened with higher security classifications, the late delivery of correctional programs and the delayed access to release on parole,” her May report said.
Hogan’s office had raised similar issues in reports delivered in 2015, 2016 and 2017.