Quebec correctional services data | A racial classification of prisoners deemed “denigrating”

Does an inmate have a “pale”, “light”, “medium” or “dark” complexion?

Nicolas Berube
Press

Used internally by the Services correctionnels du Québec (SCQ), under the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Security, these terms confuse researchers.

“It’s very strange, I had never seen this before,” explains Pierre Tircher, researcher at the Institute for Socioeconomic Research and Information (IRIS). There are ways to categorize people based on their ethnicity, their skin color, without using those terms. It’s quite special to see that. ”

Mr. Tircher is the co-author of the brand new report entitled The profile of people who have been taken to court in Quebec. Thanks to an access to information request, he obtained a series of data on inmates from the SCQ.

“When I received the data, I was somewhat uncomfortable using it, just because I didn’t feel like counting ‘darks’,” he says. There is a bit of a denigrating side to this way of classifying people. First, what do we mean by “average”? What is the difference between “pale” and “clear”? “

The Institut de la statistique du Québec and Statistics Canada use methods of classifying visible minorities and skin color which are more precise, and which offer the advantage of being able to be compared with data from other provinces, notes t -he.

For identification purposes

Marie-Josée Montminy, public relations officer at the communications department of the Ministry of Public Security, explains that this indication is not used by the SCQ for the purposes of classifying or classifying incarcerated persons, or even for statistical purposes or ‘to analyse.

“This is an indicator present in the computerized offender management system, the DACOR (Correctional Administrative File) system, since it was put into operation in 1987.”

The information collected is recorded for the purposes of identification of persons entrusted to correctional services, as well as distinctive signs (e.g. description of a tattoo, presence of scars, a piercing or a stain of birth, etc.) and other physical characteristics such as eye and hair color, the Ministry notes.

Pierre Tircher notes that the SCQs have “very reliable” data with regard to indigenous populations. “Nations are categorized very precisely. So in some cases they follow official practices, and in others they don’t, ”he says.

Over-represented people of color

In the report The profile of people who have been taken to court in Quebec, the researchers also found that people of color were “disturbingly” over-represented among inmates.

For example, Aboriginals represent nearly 7% of people admitted by the Quebec Correctional Services in 2019-2020, while they are only around 2% of the Quebec population.

Among the Indigenous people admitted, 41% were Inuit, yet they account for only 19% of the total Indigenous population in the communities, the researchers note.

“The overwhelming majority (+ 84.5%) of new admissions have little education, that is to say that they and they mention having a secondary or primary education”, they write.

These already marginalized populations suffer more from the effects of judicialization, in particular on their prospects for hiring – while getting a job has been shown to lower the rate of recidivism, says Tircher.

“Discriminating on the basis of a criminal record is prohibited unless there is a link between the position for which we are applying and the fault committed, but when we are in a job interview and we are asked if we can checking our criminal record is still very difficult to say no, ”he said.

Working upstream and reducing the judicialization of people living in poverty or marginalized could ensure that they remain employable. “However, in Montreal, changes in municipal regulations have increased the judicialization of these people. Legal means are used to try to resolve social issues. ”