This is something I’ve been saying quite a lot lately with the recent Harper apology for residential schools. Sure, government regulated residential schools might have closed, but they’ve been replaced with the systematic apprehension of our people forced to become prisoners yet again for reacting to centuries of abuse.
As part of their eight-part series on Crime and Punishment, this Sunday’s Toronto Star had a full front-page spread on Prisons Poisoning Natives.
Just to review the statistics:
3.8% of the Canadian population is Aboriginal
We make up almost 20% of the prison population
33% of our youth are currently incarcerated
I recently took part in a county jail and state prison panel in the United States where, for some reason, when we were discussing “minority” representation, no one knew that Native American youth are incarcerated 2.5 times more than White youth (some studies show as many as 40% of our youth are ending up in jail).
How much more can we handle? We’re still reeling from 500 years of colonization, and people expect that we should have bucked up and solved it all ourselves in the last 50 (not to mention the fact that colonization is still ongoing, you can look at the abhorrent resource extraction going on in Inuit territory for that).
We need our culture back, and we need our youth back. They are our future and if we don’t have them, then we’ve lost the most sacred part of who we are as a people. (Oh but they’ll try and take it away from us every chance they get, as proven by the recent removal of tobacco, one of the most important rituals to many Native cultures, in prisons).
Watch this inspiring video by the Red Tail Lodge youth prison in Chino, California to see how young people are changing these statistics, using the power of our our culture, for the next generation.
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10 comments
Wow.
Posted by Katie
July 20, 2008, 3:35 PM
I had no idea about the ban on tobacco in prisons. Thank you for the video and the post. I just heard about this blog and find it fantastic! Keep up the great work!
Posted by Katy
July 20, 2008, 6:08 PM
Those are appalling statistics and there's a lot to discuss here -- thanks Jessica.
Being honest though, the statement "prisons are the new residential schools" makes me pretty uncomfortable.
It seems to parallel the prison population, who are incarcerated because they have committed (sometimes vicious) crimes, with the victims of residential schools, who had done nothing. To me that diminishes the atrociousness of what happened in residential schools.
At the end of the embedded video, it's unfortunate to hear that the two things to avoid are cars and women. Sucks that the "women are temptation" thread so often gets snuck into rehabilitation efforts. Not exactly encouraging healthy relationships (when maybe spending more time in the company of women would be a very good thing).
Posted by Catherine
July 20, 2008, 10:58 PM
Hi Catherine
You are making some interesting points and thanks for raising them, but I think if you could live in any of the shoes or communities of the people profiled in any of these stories, you might know some of the answers why.
For starters, I titled it "Prisons are the new residential schools" because each of their goal is very similar: punish people and anilhilate culture for being Native. To even begin to fathom or know why people (and so many Aboriginal people in this case) end up in prison, is to understand the realities a lot of us are coming from. Over 90% of Aboriginal people today are affected by residential schools on some level, so many of us are descendants of survivors, or have family members, or simply face modern-day colonization to the extreme day in and day out. This includes poverty, sexual abuse, racism, and the list goes on. Only if you look at the stats on a per capita basis, it's even more frightening since there aren't that many of us in comparison to the rest of the Canadian population to begin with. It is still incredibly painful.
The same things happened in residential school, mind you.
We've had money thrown at us to supposedly form some sort of healing process for all of this, but what it has turned into is this re-hurting and re-victimization process, only this time it's against each other.
So is the answer really to throw us in jail continuously after all is said and done? Myself personally having worked in youth detention centres this very year and trying to answer back to these youth who wonder how they even ended up here, I just don't believe that harsher punishment is the answer. Are we also not forgetting the innate racism and prejudice that permeates the law enforcement system and judicial systems? In Minneapolis for example, Native Americans are pulled over 9 times more than any other race. For what?! Driving while "Indian"?
And let's also remember the number of political and activist prisoners there are in jail, who rightfully stood up to protect the land that is being threatened away from us every day (Shawn Brant, Bob Lovelace anyone?)
I look at the end of the thread of the YOUTUBE video you reference very differently. Many of us who go through traditional healing are told to remain on a solo route until we figure ourselves out and give ourselves the time we probably never did and absolutely deserve, just for us. Perhaps this guy's two things that kept him from working on himself and lead to being harmful were being involved with women or going after cars.
No doubt after he goes through his whole healing process, he can join the company of women who deserve to have a man that has done this.
Posted by Jessica Yee
July 20, 2008, 11:34 PM
We can absolutely agree that the law enforcement and criminal justice systems on both sides of the border are deeply flawed.
You make a fair point re: the comment about women being specific to that young man. Thanks for putting some context around it.
Posted by Catherine
July 21, 2008, 12:09 AM
What an excellent post. You are absolutely correct that we as a nation have a great deal to be ashamed about. I recently re-heard an old Spirit of the West song and the lyrics are so accurate:
We took their land
dilute their nations
force them on to reservations
corporate interests don't stop there
take the trees and leave this homeland bare
In parliament we praise
minorities in other countries
and fight for their land and freedoms
here we lock them up and cut them down
down, down, down.
Posted by Chris T
July 21, 2008, 12:20 AM
Here's a novel idea: If you don't want to go to prison, don't commit crimes. Personally, I am so sick of hearing people's choices and actions being blamed on everything except themselves. What about the 66% of native youth who aren't in prison; nobody ever hears about what the positive things they are doing.
As for no tobacco in prison: Oh My God, what are the prisoners going to do, how will they cope? I have news for people; there's supposed to be no drugs or alcohol in prisons either, but it's pretty easy for most prisoners to have access to them. Perhaps while they are in prison, they can learn more constructive ways to deal with life than leaning on crutches.
Posted by Grrrace
July 21, 2008, 3:44 AM
It's unfortunate you feel this way Grrrace. I myself realize that could be me in prison, in a few mere seconds, and am not willing to elevate myself to an urealistic level, forgetting that we're all human. Again, how things would be different if only you could walk in the shoes of any one in these communities.
And I guess you don't know about our sacred spiritual practice with tobacco either, since we don't smoke it in this way. This has been going on for centuries, long before the colonizers created laws to package it up and sell it. I hope one day you get to spend time with people in our communities, and your outlook might change.
Posted by Jessica Yee
July 21, 2008, 9:36 AM
This a great post. Thanks, Jessica.
Grrrace, what you need to think about in terms of personal responsibility, is that individual actions always exist within a system of racism, colonialism and oppression. While everyone has choices, sometimes those choices become very limited.
It seems like what that video was showing was a way of helping these men gain that personal responsibility back. They are being empowered to have more control over their lives and their actions, both in and out of prison.
Posted by Tiina
July 21, 2008, 12:56 PM
If you do not commit crimes, how could you end up in prison? Granted, there are some cases of people incarcerated for crimes they did not commit, but this does not happen that often.
My problem is that society has become so focused on freedom of choice in action, but when a person commits a crime, it's always attributed to something other than choice. Time for people to take some responsibility for themselves instead of blaming others. There are two ways to achieve equality: stop being a victim and stop victimizing others.
Posted by Grrrace
July 21, 2008, 1:44 PM
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