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It’s not the first time a victim’s family has raised concerns about an inmate being sent to a healing lodge. Here’s what you need to know about why the lodges exist and how effective they are.

Healing lodges are intended to address the high rate of Indigenous incarceration in Canada

In 1992, Canada passed new legislation to allow Aboriginal communities to provide correctional services, part of an attempt to improve the over-representation of Indigenous people in Canada’s correctional system. In 2017, more than 25 per cent of men and 36 per cent of women behind bars were Indigenous. About five per cent of Canadians are Indigenous.

Okimaw Ohci, the Saskatchewan healing lodge where McClintic has been transferred, was the first such healing lodge to open, in 1995. It has 30 beds for minimum and medium security women offenders and, according to the Correctional Service Canada (CSC) website, offers programs that “address vocational training, family and children, Aboriginal language, and nature. The women learn how to live independently by cooking, doing laundry, cleaning, and doing outdoor maintenance chores.”

Today, there are nine such healing lodges across Canada — most in the three prairie provinces — with a total of 367 beds.

Photo by Facebook/File

However, non-Indigenous offenders can also go to the lodges

It’s unclear whether McClintic is Indigenous — but even if she isn’t, that doesn’t make her ineligible to live at a healing lodge. According to a CSC statement, non-Indigenous offenders can live at the lodges if they “choose to follow Aboriginal programming and spirituality.” The agency told the Post that it assesses an offender’s risk to public safety before deciding to move him or her to a healing lodge. “The inmate must also require a low degree of supervision and control within the institution,” the statement says. “A transfer to lower security allows the inmate to experience responsibilities to prepare for reintegration into the community.”