An Aboriginal group says the federal government is courting disaster if it ignores calls from Corrections Canada to spend $2 billion to build new jails.
Kim Beaudin is the president of the Aboriginal Affairs Coalition of Saskatchewan.
Beaudin says Aboriginal people make up the bulk of prisoners and are jailed at a rate 35 times higher than non-Aboriginals.
He says prisons are overcrowded, there is increased violence and tension — yet rehabilitation programs are limited.
Beaudin calls it a dangerous situation:
“We haven’t begun to feel the effects yet with respect to the new crime bill that the federal government has impemented. It’s going to be (dangerous) — I mean, if you don’t have enough beds . . . “
Eighty per cent of inmates in Saskatchewan jails are of Aboriginal ancestry.