Intertribal Life Newspaper -

YUKON TERRITORY-The incarceration rate is dropping in Yukon, and officials are citing Indigenous efforts as part of the reason. Between 2016 and 2018 Yukon's adult incarceration rate, and its number of admissions, dropped more than in any other province or territory.

According to Statistics Canada, Yukon's adult incarceration rate of inmates in any kind of custody per day dropped by 30 per cent between 2016 and 2017. The total number of admissions to adult correctional services dropped by 13 per cent. These are both the lowest rates in five years.

Though the actual number of people in custody in Yukon is small, officials feel the incarceration rate is a useful tool for creating an overall picture of correctional services across the country.

"We see this as an encouraging trend, and it's one that I hope, maybe not on such magnitude, but that we can continue to demonstrate," said Al Lussier, Yukon's assistant deputy minister of community justice and public safety.

Another factor is that 62 percent of those incarcerated in Yukon are First Nations citizens, which is twice the national average.

Lussier gives much of the credit for the trend to a six percent reduction in overall reported crime in Yukon, but also to recent efforts by multiple government departments, First Nations and non-profits to embrace a different approach to public safety and community wellness. He highlights Yukon's community wellness courts, homelessness initiatives and community mental health hubs as contributing factors. One of the initiatives has been the standardization of Gladue reports, which provide a judge with in-depth information on an offender's personal background-for example, a history of substance abuse, poverty, victimization, or experience in residential schools or the child welfare system. The reports arose to address the over-representation of Indigenous people in jails. The purpose is to show in-depth information on the offender's personal history to help the court determine the most effective and appropriate response, including restorative and rehabilitative options.

"We want to see a holistic approach to justice that factors in physical and mental health, education and housing strategies," said Kwanlin Dün First Nation Chief Doris Bill has pressed in the past to address the problem. "We need to address the root causes of justice issues in Yukon. Putting people in jail and assuming they will get better on their own doesn't work."