The president of the Aboriginal Affairs Coalition of Saskatchewan says rather than try to save money by privatizing food services at correctional centres, the justice department should do a major overhaul of the remand system.
Kim Beaudin says far too many people are sitting in remand for no good reason, costing the system millions of dollars and overcrowding jails. He says while the government is saving about $1.5 million a year by privatizing food services, it could be saving tens of millions by updating its remand practices.
Beaudin says the remand prisoner population went up three per cent in Saskatchewan last year and it was the only province to report an increase. He says it costs taxpayers about $600 million a year to fund justice and corrections. He says a lot of money is being wasted by locking people up for things like violating release conditions, and arresting people on weak charges that eventually get tossed.
“Saskatchewan needs a complete review,” he says. “I believe the system is fundamentally broken.”
He would like to see Saskatchewan adopt a system similar to a pre-charge screening system in place in B.C, which has saved tens of millions of dollars. The screening weeds out weak cases and has dramatically dropped the number of inmates on remand.
Beaudin is disappointed that aboriginal justice issues are not part of the provincial election campaign. He is hoping it will be a priority for the new government after the April 4 vote.
“They are saying ‘we are the new Saskatchewan, we don’t think the same way, let’s not go back to the old way of thinking,’ that kind of stuff, “he says. “OK, well does that include indigenous people?”
According to Corrections Canada, aboriginal people are jailed at a rate 35 times higher than the mainstream population, and make up about 70 per cent of the inmates in Saskatchewan jails. That is the highest rate of all the provinces.