Nunavut cells overflowing as remands grow

It’s no wonder that prisoners at the Nunavut’s overcrowded Baffin Correctional Centre sleep in shifts: the number of Nunavummiut sent to jail is rising.

A new report from Statistics Canada, Adult Correctional Services in Canada, 2004/2005, found there are now more Nunavummiut held in jail while awaiting trial.

The raw increase in the numbers of prisoners at BCC may appear small – only about four – but even this appears to be straining the already-cramped jail.

In 2004-05, there were, at any given time, an average of 93 Nunavummiut doing time in territorial correctional facilities, up from 89 five years earlier.

BCC is built to hold about 65 inmates. The Illavut healing facility in Kugluktuk is designed to hold about 15 inmates. A few end up at Yellowknife Correctional Centre.

There’s also more turnover in the jails because of the large number of remand prisoners – people who have yet to be convicted and who are waiting for their charges to be dealt with in court.

The remand rate in Nunavut rose nearly 80 per cent from 10 years ago, a big contribution to the increase at BCC.

The overall rate of incarceration in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories rose 5.3 per cent from 2000-01 to 2004-05. In the provinces, that rate decreased, the report found.

Overall, the report says admissions from Nunavut to federal and territorial jails were up 10.7 per cent in 2004-05 after a dip in 2003-04, where they dropped by 16.9 per cent.

At the same time, conditional sentences in Nunavut also went down: from 328 in 2003-04, to 235 in 2004-05.

This drop in the number of conditional sentences may reflect either a change in policy on conditional sentences, which are normally served in the community, or reflect the sentencing patterns of a particular judge.

“It’s definitely indicative of something,” said Karen Beattie, who compiled the report for Statistics Canada.

The smaller numbers of conditional sentences may be a reflection of the seriousness of crimes committed in Nunavut. Nunavut has the highest rate of crimes in Canada, and the highest rate of incarceration for violent crime.

If a tough amendment proposed for Canada’s Criminal Code is made law, the number of Nunavummiut in jail may rise and more Nunavummiut may find themselves in jail for longer stretches.

Last week, the Tories introduced a bill that would make it easier to designate repeat criminals as dangerous offenders.

Under the bill, convicted criminals would bear the burden of proving they should not be declared dangerous offenders. Right now, it’s the Crown that bears the onus of proving that a person should be declared a dangerous offender.

Dangerous offenders are given an indeterminate jail sentence, with no eligibility for parole for seven years, effectively a life sentence.

The bill also calls for tougher sentences and stricter conditions on repeat offenders convicted of a third sexual or violent offence.