A Disciplined Healing: The New Language of Indigenous Imprisonment in Canada

This study examines emerging positivist criminological and penal discourse shaping the appearance of Correctional Service Canada’s (CSC) ‘Aboriginal Corrections’ programme for Indigenous prisoners.The expansion of criminological research and penal policy has produced a ‘regime of truth’ governing notions of ‘criminality’ of Indigenous prisoners within federal prisons and suggests that ‘criminality’ is treatable through ‘healing’ models. One consequence of integrating elements of healing into penal policy is the extension of penal power to diagnose ‘criminality’ based on social positioning within colonial history. Following a Foucauldian framework, this thesis problematizes the arrival of healing-based discourses in penal practice. It is shown that CSC’s absorption and re-appropriation of historical colonial harms as ‘criminogenic’ risk/need precursors to ‘criminality’ indicates a recoding of history and ‘Aboriginality’ as targets for ‘correctional therapy’.The thesis proposes that ‘healing’ for Indigenous prisoners in Canadian penitentiaries represents a continuity of colonial projects and an intensification of disciplinary power.