Home      Login

Abstract: 

This paper reviews the history of the Canadian Office of the Correctional Investigator (OCI) and the complex issues surrounding the disproportionate rates of aboriginal incarceration in Canada. On March 7, 2013, the OCI released a special report to parliament on aboriginal corrections entitled Spirit Matters: Aboriginal Peoples and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. The Spirit Matters report concluded that aboriginal-specific provisions of the 1992 Corrections and Conditional Release Act have not been fully implemented as parliament intended. The tabling of this investigative report as a special report to parliament reflects the urgency and immediacy of the issues facing aboriginal people in Canadian penitentiaries.

Keywords: Aboriginal incarceration in Canada, Spirit Matters report, Office of the Correctional Investigator, R v. Gladue (1999), Corrections and Conditional Release Act

Affiliations:  1: Office of the Correctional Investigator.