Youths jailed more often than non-Native offenders

Page R12

The voices of Native youth in the prison system don't come out in a recent report on youth justice in Saskatchewan, just cold, hard facts, much like the cold, hard prison walls which surround them.

Aboriginal youth are over-represented in the courts, remanded in custody more often than non-Aboriginal youth, and sentenced to custody more frequently, according to the report.

Using data gathered by The John Howard Society and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indians in Saskatchewan, the disturbing document outlines how Aboriginal offenders are seemingly forgotten when alternative sentencing is offered to young offenders.

With data collected in Saskatoon youth courts during a six-month study from Oct. 1991 and April 1992, the John Howard Society presented a report called "A Social Legal Analysis of Youth Justice in Saskatoon - The Behavior of the System Toward Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Youth."

Although the observational data shows no great surprises to those familiar with the plight of Aboriginal people and the justice system in Canada, it is important to focus on the characteristics of these reports in order to develop strategies to solve and prevent statistics such as these.

The report 'examines the nature of the charges faced by youth, the presence, and court outcome.'

The study seeks to determine the use of alternative measures, remand and custody for Aboriginal youth as compared to non-Aboriginal youth. Violence offences were ranked highest, including assaults, sexual offences, weapons charges, and robbery.

Property offences, with the exception of robbery were ranked next. Fraud, mischief and offences against the administration of justice, were ranked last.

Of the 1,759 court appearances of all youth charged with various offences, half were Aboriginal.

Disturbingly, 63.6 per cent of all females appearing were Aboriginal while only 35.9 per cent were Caucasian.

The full impact of these particular figures are realized when realizing only 8.2 per cent of the total youth population in Saskatoon (under 25) are Aboriginal (Stascan 1993)

There are other facts besides those attributed to Aboriginal youth. Caucasian male youth are more likely than Aboriginal to appear in court for violent offences, including sexual assaults.

With regard to violent crimes, a comparison of the data among male youth reveals that Caucasian males are more frequently charged with violent offences than Aboriginal youth.

Economics and parental involvement also come into play.

Caucasian males hire private counsel for violent charges at a rate of 20.4 per cent while Aboriginals males do so at a rate of one per cent.

With Caucasian females convicted in youth court, they are referred to alternative measures 29.6 per cent (sentences other than custody) almost 10 times as frequently as Aboriginal females (3.6 per cent).

Aboriginal males (5.6 per cent) fare slightly better than Aboriginal females.

Also, in the 16-17 age category, Caucasian females were referred to alternative measures 29.2 per cent of the time as compared to zero per cent for Aboriginal females.

Other findings from the study relating directly to Aboriginal youth reveal that Aboriginal youth are remanded in custody at an alarming rate 56.4 per cent, compared with Caucasian youth 24.4 per cent.

Overall, Aboriginal youth are least likely to be released on an undertaking to appear or on bail.

In regard to plea bargaining, the report is that Aboriginal and other youth enter guilty pleas in youth docket court four times as often as they enter not guilty pleas.

In custody matters, approximately 75 per cent of youth receiving custodial terms are Aboriginal. Again, Aboriginal females account for only 10.8 per cent.

Lastly, the conviction rate for Aboriginal youth exceeds 90 per cent, compared to approximately 75 per cent for Caucasian and 67 per cent for other visible minority youth.