STC partners with province to support First Nations inmates

Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand says the agreement to enhance support for First Nations inmates leaving prison is more than a memorandum, it’s a partnership.

That partnership will see the Saskatchewan Ministry of Corrections and the STC working together to provide Indigenous-led leadership and support for Indigenous people leaving prison to assist them in transitioning back into a normal day-to-day life.

Arcand called the move “historic,” with the goal of improving people’s lives.

In the hopes of creating a more equitable process for First Nations people leaving Saskatoon correctional facilities, the STC wants to enhance the work already being accomplished by the Ministry of Corrections. That includes education, employment and cultural services.

“We’re not saying those are bad situations; it’s time to make those better,” Arcand said.

He said the STC will be looking at how it can get more of its own staff involved in the programs offered by the ministry.

“Now it’s time to get Indigenous-led for Indigenous people working collectively together,” Arcand said.

“We want to enhance them to the next level, to really bring in some quality outcomes and some results of showing people to get employment and education so they don’t go back into the Saskatoon correctional system.”

That might mean more elders to enhance cultural programs, improving support for mental health or offering more employment training services or case managers.

Minister of Corrections Christine Tell is hopeful the success of this Saskatoon partnership could lead to similar agreements in places like Regina and Prince Albert.

Tell said it will show what can happen when the government and the STC, in this case, partner together.

“I think as we move this forward (and) more action is taken that other tribal councils will also see the benefit,” Tell said. “We will see success.”

The corrections minister added “support is there” for the work they are doing and the partnership is being done with the right person — she motioned to Arcand — heading up the work.

The goal is to see a “paradigm shift” in the justice system, Arcand said, helping people leave the system and see success in their lives through work and family.

“We want people to be with their families and their children and give them some hope so they can have quality of life through education and employment,” he said.

For those leaving prison without a family, Arcand said the STC wants to fill that need.

“Individuals that don’t have family because of residential schools and everything else, they’re not going to trust the system, so if the Saskatoon Tribal Council can be that system when they leave the facility, to be the opportunity to be their family and help them navigate through the systems, we can do that. We want to do that,” he said.

“STC will be that family.”

Arcand said one of his family members has been incarcerated twice. After his first time through the system, Arcand said the man received his Grade 12 diploma.

“Now, because of negative circumstances, he went back (into) negative circumstances and then ended up back in there,” Arcand said.

After his second release, he was able to get full-time work with a company that partners with the STC and is committed to hiring Indigenous people to its workforce, Arcand said. His family member is now working full time and working to get his children back.

Arcand said it’s evidence that proper supports can make these situations work.

With First Nations people overrepresented in prison populations across the country, Arcand said it’s time to intervene and help people find ways to stay out of jail — and, in some cases, get them supports in lieu of a prison punishment.

Arcand says the STC has also been approved to hire people to assist in writing Gladue reports for Indigenous people whose cases are to come before the courts as early as April.

He says that’s a more proactive approach towards the same goal; Getting people help outside prison walls.

“I think that’s really going to enhance the productivity of changing the system slowly, but at least we’re going to try to change the system to benefit people,” Arcand said.

Opportunities to address the problems that are getting people into negative situations, like addictions and mental health, are ways to do that as well. Arcand referenced Drug Court for people with minor offences where jail might seem to offer more harm than good as a punishment.

Offering sentencing options like requiring someone to receive help from a treatment centre or outpatient treatment in the case of addictions can help address some issues that contribute to crime at their root, Arcand said, adding the STC can work with people through these sentences.

“Whatever it was that got them into that situation, (we can) show them that there’s support out there to actually make a difference,” Arcand said.

Even when people are in remand awaiting trial, Arcand wants to offer hope to people.

“Why can’t we get them their education, their counselling that is really going to benefit their lives?” he said.

While COVID-19 has been a barrier over the past two years to the STC’s work in these areas, Arcand is hopeful this partnership will signal a new opportunity to intervene and make a difference.

“It does work if we have the proper supports in place,” he said.