“We have a lot of intergenerational trauma ourselves, but we bring it to the table”: The challenges and emotional toll of delivering Indigenous correctional programs in Canada

Canada's federal correctional service has, since the 1970s, undertaken a variety of initiatives intended to redress the overrepresentation of people who identify as Indigenous within the criminal justice system. While researchers examine such policies and programs, the voices of those responsible for delivering “on-the-ground” interventions are largely absent. The current article addresses this gap by analyzing the occupational experience of Indigenous Correctional Program Officers (ICPOs), who deliver mandated correctional programming to incarcerated individuals identifying as Indigenous. We present and analyze three themes emerging from interviews with 28 ICPOs: the emotional toll of delivering Indigenous programs given their personal connection to the materials; understaffing, particularly the limited availability of required Elder co-facilitators; and a lack of support for or understanding of Indigenous programming within the service. Like other workers in “caring professions,” ICPOs experience additional stresses due to the empathetic nature of their work; for ICPOs, these stresses are compounded by personal histories, Indigenous identities, and organizational factors. Moreover, ICPOs embody the tensions between the prison as a harmful space of control and the possibility for Indigenous programs to be meaningful opportunities for cultural expression and healing. We conclude by offering several suggestions for redressing the stresses experienced by ICPOs.