Unpacking Risk? Section 810 Peace Bonds in Prince Albert

Section 810 peace bonds have come to supplant other forms of community supervision (i.e. parole) for high-risk offenders in Canada. Although peace bonds are central to the lived experience of offenders in Canada; very few studies have taken them up within the literature. Based on a review of the literature, peace bonds function towards multiple and conflicting ends. Specifically, they are held to simultaneously facilitate the reintegration of the subject and manage the risk they pose to the community and its residents. Within this study, the assumptions of the literature and community concerns are tested against local policing data, demonstrating where risk, reintegration, and harm find expression in the work of police officers. This study examines 10 years of police records related to the administration and enforcement of peace bonds in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. The city of Prince Albert is a small western prairie city with a large Indigenous population. Data was collected through access to information requests to the local police service and contains officer notes related to the enforcement and surveillance of peace bonds and documents used in the court process. A discourse analysis of these documents was conducted through institutional ethnography to better understand how these texts enter into the work of local officers. Specifically, this project asks: i) how do rules and policy shape officer work related to peace bonds? ii) what values are embedded within these policies and how do they shape the work of officers? and iii) how do these values shape the officer/subject dynamic around risk management, reintegration, and harm? This project demonstrates the emphasis on risk management within peace bond police, resulting in conditional breaches and many returns to corrections. Further, the risk-centred nature of the current peace bond process serves to reduce focus on reintegration and the mitigation of harm. In the 10 years of data (2009-2019), only one (n=12) offender was able to work their way off of their bond and “graduate” from their conditions. Ultimately, this study demonstrates the need for further research that directly draws on the lived experience of police officers and peace bond subjects.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Grantor

University of Saskatchewan

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Pratchler, Devin Q

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Thompson, Scott N

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Dell, Colleen
• Kaye, Julie
• Cheng, Hongming

• Peace bonds
• 810
• Risk
• Criminology
• Policing
• Prince Albert
• Overrepresentation
• 810.2
• Corrections
• Discourse Analysis
• Institutional Ethnography

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10388/16069

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:harvest.usask.ca:10388/16069