Justice in Aboriginal Communities: Sentencing Alternatives

Christine Hughes is a policy analyst at the Ontario Native Affairs
Secretariat.

This scholarly work skilfully integrates the author’s findings from
his experience as a defence lawyer in Saskatchewan and interviews
conducted with judges, prosecutors, Native leaders, and participants in
mediation committees, sentencing circles, and panels. Focusing on
community participation in the sentencing of aboriginal offenders in
Native communities, the author highlights approaches to criminal
sentencing and mediation in six Cree and Ojibwa communities in
Saskatchewan and Manitoba. A map and several black-and-white photographs
help orient the reader to the locations.

Green points out the significant overrepresentation of Native people in
Canadian prisons and suggests that new approaches to sentencing and
diversion of offenders from the court system to community mediation
committees may assist in addressing the problems faced by aboriginal
offenders and their families.

The book contains three parts. Part 1 examines the relationship between
Native communities and the conventional Canadian criminal justice
system, with an emphasis on the sentencing of aboriginal offenders. A
historical overview of Native perspectives on justice shows that Native
people often place a greater emphasis on healing and reconciliation than
incarceration. Part 2 consists of case studies drawn from Green’s
1994–95 fieldwork. He proposes four models: the sentencing circle, the
elders’ or community sentencing panel, the sentence advisory
committee, and the community mediation committee. Green discusses the
advantages and disadvantages of increased participation by offenders,
victims, and local community members in sentencing and mediation. Part 3
evaluates the approaches discussed in the case studies and considers how
they may lead to reforms in the justice system.

Community sentencing and mediation initiatives in Native communities
are still relatively new, but support the approaches advocated by the
Royal Commission on Native Peoples. Justice in Aboriginal Communities is
an important contribution to this field of research and should assist
lawyers, policy makers, and those involved in the Canadian criminal
justice system. There is an index, and the endnotes provide a wealth of
starting points for those interested in doing further research.