Aboriginal Criminal Justice System

In my opinion, I do not believe the criminal justice system is intentionally discriminating against Aboriginal youth but I do believe they are over represented in the system and are at an extreme disadvantage in comparison to other ethnic groups. According to Lithopoulos & Ruddell (2016), "Aboriginal peoples have the highest involvement in offences, arrests, and incarceration rates of any ethnic group in Canada" (p. 186). I do feel overrepresentation of Aboriginal peoples in the CJS is a result of the governments attempts to assimilate them into European culture. Furthermore, Lithopoulos & Ruddell (2016) explain that "historic factors have contributed to poverty, unemployment, alcohol abuse, and domestic violence found in Aboriginal communities"

There needs to be support systems for Aboriginal people, as urban Aboriginal residents often live in high rates of poverty, are unemployed, poor housing and little participation in education systems (Lithopoulos & Ruddell, 2016, p. 189). I feel that responses such as the First Nations Policing Program and the Aboriginal Justice Strategy are effective ways to involve Aboriginal people in the CJS and to have role models for aboriginal youth in the justice system. Unfortunately as shown by Lithopoulos & Ruddell (2016) there has been a failure by the federal government to make a long term finical commitment to the FNPP (p.194). Specifically for Aboriginal youth in the the CJS, I think there should be less incarceration since youth struggle to cope with prison and can be very effected by the inmate subculture (Bala & Carrington, 2016, p. 266). Youth are also susceptible to bullying within the prison system, according to Bala & Carrington (2016), "between 20 and 45 percent of prisoners in young offender institutions report they have been victimized during the course of their sentence" (p. 280). I think locking young offenders up is not a solution and that instead they should be participating in support/rehabilitation