The horrors of the Indian
residential schools 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 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which
chronicled the harms inflicted by the residential schools and
explored ways to address the resulting social fallouts. One of those
fallouts is the crisis of Indigenous over-incarceration. While the
residential school system may not be the only harmful process of
colonization that fuels Indigenous over-incarceration, it is arguably
the most critical factor. It is likely that the residential school
system forms an important part of the background of almost every
Indigenous person who ends up incarcerated, even those who did not
attend the schools. The legacy of harm caused by the schools is a
vivid and crucial link between Canadian colonialism and Indigenous
over-incarceration. Reconciliation and Indigenous Justice
provides an account of the ongoing ties between the enduring trauma
caused by the residential schools and Indigenous over-incarceration.
