Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Yellowknife ( Jun 09/00) - They'll heal with sweet grass and sweat lodges, drum making and singing.

It's the new face of Correctional Services Canada in the North.

On June 2, Corrections signed a one-year, $652,240 contract with the Sombe K'e Healing Lodge.

"It's the first of its kind in the North," said Frank Winkfein, area director of the NWT Parole Office.

The Sombe K'e Healing Lodge will be housing aboriginal federal offenders on conditional release.

The lodge took in their first four residents on Monday, June 5.

Under their recent contract they can house up to 10 offenders.

The lodge has a capacity for 28 people.

"The lodge is a great idea," said Sombe K'e executive director Norman Yakeleya.

"The generic programs didn't work.

"Aboriginal peoples have a different upbringing, culture and lifestyle. The programs here go back to the roots," he added.

The lodge operates on an eight-module system. Ex-offenders will receive programming in drug and alcohol abuse, anger management, family, sexual abuse, culture, grieving and loss, relationships with community and residential school issues.

The resident's life begins at 7 a.m. and ends at 11 p.m. Their days are packed with workshops and counselling sessions.

The average stay in the lodge will range between three and six months.

"This place is peaceful and quite," said Yakeleya.

"Here they can have time for themselves without distractions."

The lodge sits shrouded in evergreens, just off a side road, 11 kilometres outside of Dettah. It used to be the Northern Addictions Services' treatment centre. Their old weather-beaten, black-lettered sign still stands at the top of the road.

The treatment centre closed last November because it ran into debt.

It's recent reincarnation is the result of a push by the Dettah community elders.

"The community approached us to provide culturally-sensitive programming," said Winkfein.

"This is the first time a community has presented corrections with a structured proposal," he added.

"I've put my heart and soul into this program," said Yakeleya.

"I believe in its design," he added.