The Over-Incarceration of Indigenous Women in Canadian Penitentiaries
- Girl Up Edmonton
- Jan 10, 2024
- 10 min read
Written by Tila Tran
Last semester, I had the opportunity to take a Global Critical Race Theory class, were we discussed a variety of international, national, and local issues concerning racism. Upon the topics discussed, was the topic regarding women and racism, racism and gender, and feminism and racism. As the title already notes, this blog includes excerpts of the research I've done about the over-incarceration of Indigenous women in Canadian penitentiaries.
The tenet of Critical Race Theory which suggests “that racism is ordinary and not aberrational” (Hartlep, 2014, 6) speaks to the ongoing colonial harms that disproportionately affect Indigenous women in Canada since first contact with European settlers. Since settler colonialism, Indigenous women have been victimized, criminalized, and over-incarcerated.
Colonialism is defined by Ronald J. Horvath (1972) as “a form of domination—the control by individuals or groups over the territory and/or behaviour of other individuals or groups…also been seen as a form of exploitation” (46). European settler goals for “control, assimilation, and de-humanization” (McGuire and Murdoch, 2022, 530) of Indigenous women are arguably evident in Canada’s imposed criminal justice system (CJS), where, according to Public Safety Canada (2023), “Indigenous women account for 50% of all federally incarcerated women.” Further, the “population of federally sentenced Indigenous women increased by 74% over the past decade” (McGuire and Murdoch, 2022, 530), referring to the years 2009 to 2019. Indeed, the fastest-growing prison population in Canada is Indigenous women.
Andrew Woolford and James Gacek’s (2016) notion of “genocidal carcerality,” defined as “spaces enlisted towards the elimination of a targeted group, either for purposes of extermination or transforming the group so that it no longer persists” (404) and J-A Mbembé and Libby Meintjes’ (2003) “necropolitics” as the “right to kill, or the politics of killing” (22) to demonstrate how carceral spaces treat Indigenous women as sub-human. The use of carceral spaces began early in the colonial project normalize racial and gender discrimination against Indigenous women. One historical carceral space before modern-day prisons were residential schools. McGuire and Murdoch (2022) assert that “from a young age, Indigenous women learn of their supposed un-worthiness and internalize societal racism through continual reinforcement and normalization” (534). The very colonial and assimilationist practices initially practiced through residential schools have not been eradicated following the closure of the last residential school in 1996 (The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2023), but modernized into prison institutions that reiterate “Indigenous [women’s] bodies as inherently criminal, victimizable, and requiring punishing and normalizing containment” (Marques and Mochalin, 2020, 82).
It is a regime of truth in hegemonic European society that posits Indigenous women as sub-human and undeserving of life, where the punishment for being both Indigenous and a woman is incarceration. Gerald Turkel (1990) takes from Michel Foucault to elaborate that a prison operates as a “apparatus of knowledge” (184) that punishes to alter behaviour of inmates where disciplinary methods focus on the “criminal potential” (184) of the inmate. Thus, contemporary penitentiaries are a continuation of the early colonial project that specifically order Indigenous women to the margins of Canadian society by illustrating them as criminals to maintain the image of white supremacy. When Indigenous women are incarcerated, McGuire and Murdoch explain that “[Correctional Service of Canada] (CSC’s) approach to assisting Indigenous women in their secure units has been criticized for being restrictive and harsh, with data revealing that [Indigenous women] are disproportionately the recipients of use of force measures” (536).
Critical race feminists are concerned with various forms of oppression that manifest in the lives of women (Carter, 2012). Hence, genocidal carcerality and necropolitics manifest in two forms: The incarceration of Indigenous women in penitentiaries far from their homes and communities and the fact that Indigenous women are “held longer and at higher security levels than prisoners with similar circumstances” (Marques and Mochalin, 2020, 95). In Canada, there are only “five regional facilities for incarcerated women across the country” (McGuire and Murdoch, 2022, 536). Having so few incarceration institutions for women compared to men who have fifty-three correctional institutions (Young and Cain, 2013) geographically position and detach Indigenous women far from their homes.
McGuire and Murdoch (2022) note that “distance from one’s family, and particularly children, may intensify the isolation that [incarcerated] Indigenous women experience” (536). Additionally, institutional facilities far from homes provide Indigenous women with minimal access to cultural programming, according to the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (2017). Cultural programming, familial and community relationships are vital for Indigenous women to retain parts of Indigenous culture. However, McGuire and Murdoch (2022) found that Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) does not offer “resources and teachings in close proximity to [Indigenous women’s] home nations that would reconnect them to their nations [but rather] a generic Indigeneity that pushes their cultural identities to the sidelines” (536).
Canadian prison institutions further utilize spaces to destroy Indigenous women through the over-classification of Indigenous women as maximum security. Indigenous women are over-incarcerated according to their risk. Risk factors include “poverty, mental illness, being victims of abuse largely because of historical, social and economic disadvantage” (McGuire and Murdoch, 2022, 538) that correlate with the consequences of colonialism. In their 2022-2023 annual report, the Office of the Correctional Investigator (2023) noted that Indigenous women are placed at “maximum security at more than three times the rate of their non-indigenous counterparts and made up nearly 70% of maximum-security placements” (60). McGuire and Murdoch (2022) reveal that risk assessment are one-size fits all tools “designed for and tested on a predominantly white male population” (538). The failure to implement appropriate risk assessment specific to Indigenous women increases incarcerated Indigenous women's risk classifications as “maximum security” (538). Reluctance to administer assessments tools specifically for Indigenous women is the consequence of colonialism that fails to interact with the risk factors experienced by Indigenous women and intersectionality of Indigenous women identities to create further dimensions of disempowerment.
As the Office of the Correctional Investigator (2023) reports, “[Indigenous women] end up doing their full sentence, not cascading down because of mental health issues, often undiagnosed, they get released at end of sentenced, end up homeless, fail to report and come back [to prison]” (78).
Indigenous women are additionally “pathologized as angry, unstable, and inherently violent” (McGuire and Murdoch, 2022, 536), and this identification is the failure of Correctional Service of Canada staff’s deficiency to acknowledge the effects of trauma on Indigenous women’s lives, compounding the effects of genocidal carcerality and necropolitics.
Additionally, The Indian Act made legitimate for the eradication of Indigenous women status. To illustrate, “Indigenous women lost their legal status as Indians when they married non-status men” (McGuire and Murdoch, 2022, 533). Of course, a loss of status equates to a loss of identity, where Indigenous women experienced “alienat[ion], dislocat[ion], and isolat[ion] from their family, community, and cultures” (McGuire and Murdoch, 2022, 533). This experience is replicated within incarceration facilities through the prevention of Indigenous women in accessing cultural programming and minimal numbers of penitentiaries.
Schiffer (2014) additionally posits that a “stereotype threat” (1213) exists in the allocation of power in prison systems, where a person is subjected to act in conformity with such stereotypes; if not act, then viewed as such through the gazes of the dominant group. For example, the Squaw stereotype portrays Indigenous women as “dirty [and] subservient” (Schiffer, 2014, 1218). Such identity provisions led to the disempowering of Indigenous women which encompass a multitude of issues including “shame, identity issues, [and] cultural losses” (McGuire and Murdoch, 2022, 533) exacerbating their already precarious position in Canadian society.
Critical race feminism outlines that Indigenous women have a multifaceted identity and history that must be considered (Carter, 2012). However, Gladue reports do not have the desired effects for alternatives to incarceration. M. Keller (2021) notes that “funding shortages… [fail] to provide timely Gladue reports and cause sentencing delays” (47). Delays not only contribute to the increase in costs of production for Gladue reports but can also increase the number of court appearances (Keller, 2021). Keller (2021) also notes that the unavailability of Gladue reports makes it difficult for judges to accurately and comprehensively consider systemic circumstances and colonial histories that continue to disproportionately affect Indigenous women offenders.
Nonetheless, the key to decolonization is truth-telling to center the voices and experiences of Indigenous women in Canadian society, which can be loosely described as what Richard Delgado (1989) defines as “outgroups”, “[those] whose marginality defines the boundaries of the mainstream, whose voice and perspective—whose consciousness—has been suppressed, devalued, and abnormalized” (2412). To this end, Indigenous women’s voices, when heard, will create a “counter-reality” (2412) against the traditional narrative of Indigenous women as “naturally inferior, lacking self-respect, self-control, dignity, and morality” (Schiffer, 2014, 1217) and “undeserving of personhood” (McGill, 2008, 94). While statistics generated by the Office of the Correctional Investigator, Public Safety Canada and Statistics Canada make it possible to chart the over-incarceration of Indigenous women on an empirical level, there has been minimal discursive space reserved for Indigenous women’s personalized stories regarding incarceration facilities heard. Statistics on the over-incarceration of Indigenous women is a narrative told by the hegemonic European group, in which Indigenous women are inherently criminals. This narrative in Canadian society continues to increase. Marques and Mochalin (2020) explain that “Indigenous women are not committing more crimes than non-Indigenous women, but rather the system is structurally racist” (87).
Jennifer Dyck’s (2013) qualitative research study analyzes the lived experiences of previously convicted Indigenous women in Vancouver in 2012, who vary in age from twenty-two to forty-nine. Though Dyck’s research occurred over a decade ago, the common themes found correlated with the over-incarceration of Indigenous women, thus positioning them in a cycle of re-offending are of vital importance today. Dyck (2013) discovers that Indigenous women face inter-generational struggles with substance abuse which can increase the likelihood for young Indigenous women to struggle with addiction and criminalization. Additionally, experiences of sexual abuse can contribute to an Indigenous woman taking the life of their abusers, often in self-defence. Drug dependency is also prominent for a life of re-offending. For instance, Tammy, one of the interviewees, was continually convicted of offences related to drugs, and though she managed to go through withdrawal, she explains that “she and other [Indigenous] prisoners have not recorded the same treatment as non-Indigenous inmates” (94). Consequently, the lack of support and treatments increases difficulties for Indigenous women to heal and thus re-offend or be re-convicted. Such cruel experiences have been primary contributors to Indigenous women's criminalization, and a catalyst for their appearance and conflict with the criminal justice system.
Participants of Dyck’s (2013) study further noted that they took issue with criminal justice interventions that failed to respond to their needs. Dyck (2013) writes, “Programming was delivered by CSC staff rather than former addicts. This was said to contribute to the…assessment that the substance abuse programming was unhelpful” (157). Indigenous women’s histories and traumas are not accurately addressed in prison and pre-incarceration, for Dyck (2013) revealed that “not a single one of the ten participants recalled having a Gladue report prepared nor her [Indigenous history] addressed” (163). However, such evidence of racial and gender violence towards Indigenous women in Canadian prisons is not to imply that Indigenous women are mere victims who lack agency. Rather, they are the victims of a European hegemonic society that illustrates them as inferior in all aspects imaginable. With colonialism, however, comes the impetus of resistance. As Marques and Mochalin (2020) write, “[Indigenous] women have struggled to make their own voices heard” (96). Dyck’s study amplifies the voices of Indigenous women and their resistance to a systemically racist society that continues to marginalize and silence them.
The literal and social death of Indigenous women is forevermore elaborated by the Canadian criminal justice system’s incapability to understand Indigenous women’s lived experiences and histories, to which carceral spaces contribute to a contemporary genocide of Indigenous women and where pre-carceral societal disadvantages prevail. The lack of effective remedies nevertheless traps Indigenous women in a cycle of offending and conviction to which violence, abuse, and trauma that Indigenous women suffer from Correctional Service of Canada staff, the ineffectiveness of the Gladue report, and the lasting traumas of settler colonialism, remain institutionally fortified. Thus, the cyclical relationship between Indigenous women and being institutionalized remains a continuation of patriarchal colonialism seen in the early colonial project. The treatment of Indigenous women cannot be recognized and dealt with in incarceration facilities given Canadian prison systems’ indifference and blatant racism. Further research on this topic may elaborate on ways in which Indigenous women and Canadian society confront Canada’s criminal justice system to create suitable and accessible programming for Indigenous women to aid in rehabilitation and reintegration efforts. Moreover, the realities of Indigenous women prisoners provide additional opportunities to listen to their voices rather than silence their voices. In the voices of Indigenous women in where Canadian society can begin to transform racial and gender violence into healing and acceptance.
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