Decolonization and Restorative Justice: Addressing Canada’s Indigenous Incarceration

Abstract

Mass incarceration of Indigenous people has been well documented in Canadian prisons. It represents a national crisis resulting from the government's failure to eradicate the ongoing colonization problem and poses a threat to the sustainability of Indigenous people and their communities. The government's response includes the landmark Gladue decision, which essentially recognized mass incarceration as a crisis and required judges to consider the background of Indigenous offenders when sentencing, as well as the process of decolonizing the prison by introducing programs that teach Indigenous culture and history. However, both these responses have not effectively addressed the problem. In this paper, I argue that the Canadian government's response to the over-incarceration of Indigenous people represents a human rights issue that the Gladue Report has not alleviated because the report has not been implemented in a meaningful manner during bail hearing or sentencing. Therefore, the government should consider an alternative measure that returns to the traditional Indigenous law through the implementation of restorative justice, which has been proven to be effective.