The Northwestern Ontario Multicultural Association's Youth Executive Director will attend a meeting with Fort William First Nation officials on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of establishing an alternative correctional facility in the Thunder Bay area.
Moffat Makuto, who also serves as chair of a citizens advisory committee for the federal government's parole office in Thunder Bay, said that healing lodges in other provinces have been effective in rehabilitating low-risk First Nation offenders.
"If you have a facility in the region locally there's a little more of a network and support ... when the offender is finally released they have already been maintaining ties with the supports that they will use once they get out of the system," he said.
Makuto feels it's a more effective and culturally-sensitive program than traditional incarceration.
"Low-risk offenders really become good members of productive society, and the whole concept is that Corrections Canada is still involved. They administer and manage most of the stuff ... that is a partnership now with First Nations who can really do a little assessment," he said, adding that the aim is to determine what's been lacking in the life of offenders, and what could be done to help them deal with their problems.
Makuto said healing lodges incorporate more traditions and cultural components into the healing process. Locking people up for committing minor offences, he said, can expose them to hard-core criminals who may end up getting them involved "in the whole cycle of serious crime."
According to Makuto, the meeting Wednesday on the Fort William First Nation is for all aboriginal leaders in the northwest. They will be asked to give input on what the alternative facility might look like and how it might be made to work efficiently.
Makuto stresses that the meeting is a preliminary step in the process.
