SA国际影视传媒

The North Slave Correctional Centre (NSCC) is seeing fewer Indigenous inmates, while the number of inmates from outside the NWT is increasing.

The population at NSCC has risen by nearly 40 per cent since the start of the year, up to 138 from 100 in January. Of those 138 people, 73 per cent identify as Indigenous, according to Department of Justice spokesperson Ngan Trinh.

In contrast, that figure was 83 per cent in 2019.

Now, nearly a quarter of all inmates at NSCC have an address outside the NWT. Last year, that number was just 16 per cent, also according to Trinh.

Johnny Ongahak, a traditional counsellor and liaison officer who works at NSCC, spoke with SA国际影视传媒 this past June. 

One thing he could share from his six months of experience on the job was that he has noticed some young offenders are not from the North.

"It's kind of weird that it happens that way," he said.

Asked where specifically these young offenders were from, Ongahak said he couldn't tell, but when asked what brings these people up here, Ongahak gave a simple answer.

He said other drug dealers will take advantage of youth and send them up North to deal drugs.

"I wouldn't go as far as anybody under 14," said Ongahak in talking about the general age of these young offenders.

Thomas Ethier, communications officer for the Department of Justice, also told SA国际影视传媒 that Corrections Service Canada will not say how many young offenders are currently at NSCC, but he did say the number of young offenders in the NWT is low.

Compared to previous years, the population at NSCC has seen a sharp increase. Last fiscal year, for example, the population was 86, according to the Department of Justice. The year before that, it was 63, though those numbers need to be viewed in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the NWT Bureau of Statistics, Indigenous people make up about half of the NWT's population.

SA国际影视传媒 asked if they have any recent data or experiences to share that correlates with the trends NSCC is seeing but did not hear back before press time.