National Network for Equitable Library Service

"The horrors of the Indian Residential Schools (IRS) are by now well-known historical facts. And they have certainly found purchase in the Canadian consciousness in recent years. The history of violence and the struggles of survivors for redress resulted in a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which chronicled the harms inflicted by the residential schools and explored ways to address the social fallouts that have been left behind. One of those fallouts is the crisis of Indigenous over-incarceration. The residential schools may not be the only harmful process of colonization that fuels Indigenous over-incarceration. But it has been and continues to be a critical cause behind Indigenous incarceration, and arguably the most critical factor of all. It is likely that for almost every Indigenous person who ends up incarcerated, the residential schools will form an important part of the background, even for those who did not attend the schools. The legacy of harm the schools caused provide vivid and crucial links between Canadian colonialism and Indigenous over-incarceration. This book provides an account of the ongoing ties between the enduring traumas caused by the residential schools and Indigenous over-incarceration."