Saskatchewan’s community safety minister is defending the success of the province’s corrections and justice systems amid criticism over the wrongful release of inmates.
Five inmates have been wrongfully released due to errors in 2026 so far, according to the Saskatchewan government. Some experts say it underlines concerns around greater systemic cracks in the system.
Community Safety Minister Michael Weger says the mistakes are small compared with the successes of the ministry.
“I have to be pretty happy with that, actually, but I’ll recognize it’s not perfect and let’s strive for 100 per cent,” Weger said.
“It fluctuates, but it’s under 10 inmates out of over 10,000. So that’s a pretty small amount of errors and I would say that each time an error does happen, and typically it’s human error.”
Weger says last year there was one error, and the paper-based system in use is causing errors in exchanging information.
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“It is common knowledge that the amount of resources we have to offer does not equate to the amount of inmates or whoever it may be that needs them,” John Howard Society public legal counsel Grace Gardner says.
Gardner says she has seen a pattern of issues with communication and collaboration cause more than just release errors.
“There is a general, broad issue with communication, but I think it’s more of a systemic thing, if I can use that phrase, just because it’s nobody’s fault except just the reality of the situation,” Gardner says.
University of Regina criminology department head James Gacek also believes there are larger issues at play.
“There’s many challenges, many ongoing challenges with our justice system federally and provincially we are still trying to grapple with at all levels of government,” Gacek says.
“I think when there are administrative errors like this, it speaks to some of the challenges that we still see within these custodial spaces, mental health concerns, addictions, substance abuse, not only of those who are in custody, but also the challenges that the staff are going through as well.”
NDP justice critic Nicole Sarauer is calling for an independent investigation to find the root cause of the errors.
“When we were talking about five inmates, there’s something systemic happening here and the government should be transparent about who these people were, what danger did they pose to the public,” Sarsauer says.
Wenger says the province does investigations into each instance and does not see the justification for an independent investigation.
He also says an electronic system for communication between court services and corrections is being looked into.
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