Canada’s prison system will no longer use color swatches to determine how harshly to treat Indigenous inmates, after the Supreme Court ruled the practice is discriminatory on Wednesday.
The color swatch, a strip of paper with increasingly darker shades of brown, would be held up to new prisoners — the darker the color, the harsher the treatment. It is known as a ‘risk assessment test.’
“Yeah, no, I guess we have to find a new way to determine how Indigenous inmates are treated,” said Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.
“We’re thinking a color wheel might be more culturally appropriate.”
Meanwhile, police agencies are breathing a sigh of relief since the color swatch is commonly used when carding brown pedestrians or pulling over brown drivers at a proportionately higher rate.