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The Department of Justice Canada thoughts 

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The Department of Justice Canada thoughts 

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Transforming the Criminal Justice System: Indigenous Over-representation - Jorgina

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Why Indigenous Peoples Are Over-Incarcerated in Canada | NDN POV | TVO Today

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The Over-Representation of Indigenous People in Prison

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The Over-Representation of Indigenous People in Prison

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It say that there are many reasons why Indigenous people today are dramatically over-represented in Canada’s prisons.Non-Indigenous offender numbers of imprisonment have decreased each year; Indigenous offenders, on the other hand, have increased annually.Today, while Indigenous people represent about 4% of the Canadian population, they represent about 37% of the prison population.

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This article talks about how Indigenous persons in Canada were incarcerated at a much higher rate than non-Indigenous persons.

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In 2019/2020 and 2020/2021, Indigenous persons in Canada were incarcerated at a much higher rate than non-Indigenous persons. According to the new Over-Representation Index, the Indigenous incarceration rate was 8.9 times higher than the non-Indigenous incarceration rate in 2020/2021 in the five provinces participating in this Juristat (Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia).

The Over-Representation Index provides the relative difference between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous incarceration rates (expressed as the number of times higher the incarceration rate is for the Indigenous population, compared with the rate for the non-Indigenous population) after adjusting for age and sex differences between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. Indigenous populations in Canada are younger than non-Indigenous populations, and research has shown that the highest rate of offending and incarceration is among young adults, in particular young men. To consider these factors, Statistics Canada has developed the Over-Representation Index, with the first results released today in the Juristat article titled " Over-representation of Indigenous persons in adult provincial custody, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021."

There are numerous circumstances and explanations as to why Indigenous persons are significantly over-represented in correctional facilities. Colonialism, displacement, socio-economic and cultural marginalization, and systemic discrimination are a few of the factors that have frequently been implicated in public discourse and research as possible explanations for the over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system overall-as well as in the correctional system.

Incarceration rates for Indigenous persons in 2020/2021 for the five provinces was 42.6 persons in provincial custody on any given day per 10,000 Indigenous adults. For non-Indigenous persons, the incarceration rate was 4.0 persons per 10,000 non-Indigenous adults. Note that unlike the Over-Representation Index, these rates are unadjusted for age and sex differences.

Incarceration rate for Indigenous persons decreased in 2020/2021 from the previous year

The incarceration rate for Indigenous persons decreased by 18% in 2020/2021 from 2019/2020, largely because of factors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors include temporary or early release of persons in custody who are considered low-risk to re-offend, extended periods for parole appeals deadlines and access to medical leave privileges, and alternatives to custody while awaiting trials, sentencing and bail hearings. However, as the decline in the incarceration rate for non-Indigenous persons was even greater, at 27%, the over-representation of Indigenous persons increased by 14% from 2019/2020, when the Over-Representation Index was 7.8.

Over-representation is greatest in Saskatchewan and Alberta

In 2020/2021, the Over-Representation Index for Indigenous persons was highest in Saskatchewan, where it reached 17.7. This means the Indigenous incarceration rate was about 18 times higher than the non-Indigenous rate after adjusting for age and sex differences between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. Saskatchewan was followed by Alberta (10.8 on the Over-Representation Index for Indigenous persons), British Columbia (7.9), Ontario (6.3) and Nova Scotia (1.9).

Indigenous women are more over-represented in provincial correctional facilities than Indigenous men

The over-representation in provincial correctional facilities was greater among women than among men. In 2020/2021, Indigenous women were incarcerated at a rate 15.4 times higher than non-Indigenous women, while Indigenous men were incarcerated at a rate 8.4 times higher than non-Indigenous men.

This pattern of over-representation in provincial correctional facilities was found in all five provincial correctional programs involved in this study. Over-representation of Indigenous women was highest in Saskatchewan (where the incarceration rate for Indigenous women was 28.5 times higher than for non-Indigenous women), followed by Alberta (15.5 times higher), Ontario (12.5), British Columbia (11.2) and Nova Scotia (3.3).

Although over-representation is greater for Indigenous women, incarceration rates are higher for Indigenous men (77.8 Indigenous men incarcerated per 10,000 Indigenous men on an average day in 2020/2021) than Indigenous women (9.4).

Indigenous young men are most likely to experience custody

Almost 1 in 10 (8.4%) Indigenous men aged 25 to 34 years (the age group with the highest incarceration rates in provincial custody) in the five provinces experienced incarceration during the period from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2021. These findings are based on the new Custodial Involvement Rate ( CIR), which measures the proportion of a population experiencing at least one night of incarceration in a provincial correctional centre on any given day. The CIR provides an indicator of the number of individuals who enter the correctional system and of the extent incarceration impacts specific populations. Unlike the Over-Representation Index, the CIR was not designed to be a measure of over-representation, as it does not control for population difference and does not incorporate the amount of time an individual spends in custody. By comparison, 1.1% of non-Indigenous young men experienced incarceration over the same period.

Indigenous women aged 25 to 34 years also experienced incarceration at a higher rate than non-Indigenous women. During the two-year period, 2.3% of Indigenous young women experienced incarceration, compared with 0.2% of non-Indigenous young women.

During this two-year period, 2.9% of the total adult Indigenous population experienced incarceration in a provincial adult correctional centre, compared with 0.4% of non-Indigenous adults.

Bail is used more frequently than remand for non-Indigenous persons than for Indigenous persons

Most of those in the custodial population under provincial correctional supervision are not convicted of any offence but are being held in remand while they are awaiting a process or decision by the courts. In 2020/2021, over two-thirds (67%) of the average daily custody count for adult provincial correctional programs were in remand. As an alternative to remand, individuals awaiting trial can be supervised in the community under a bail order, subject to certain conditions.

In the three correctional services programs for which data are available (Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia), bail was used more frequently than remand in 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 for non-Indigenous persons. For Indigenous persons, the ratio between average daily counts (ADCs) for bail and remand was 2.6 (in other words, for every person in remand, there were 2.6 persons on bail). For non-Indigenous persons, the ratio was 4.9 (for one person in remand there were 4.9 persons on bail).

Greater use of bail with non-Indigenous persons than Indigenous persons at the start of the pandemic

Before the start of the pandemic, the use of bail, relative to remand, was stable in the three reporting provinces (Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia) with almost no month-to-month change. With the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, the bail-to-remand ADC quickly increased, peaking in June 2020, as custodial populations were reduced to protect against the spread of COVID-19. During this time, the bail-to-remand ADC increased more for non-Indigenous persons. From March 2020 to June 2020, the bail-to-remand ADC ratio increased by 60% for non-Indigenous persons. In contrast, for Indigenous persons, the bail-to-remand ADC ratio rose by 53%, a slower rate of increase than for non-Indigenous persons. The early difference in the use of bail relative to remand, however, diminished throughout the rest of the year. By March 2021, the bail-to-remand ADC ratios for the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations were nearly identical to the ratios of March 2020.

Products

The article " Over-representation of Indigenous persons in adult provincial custody, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021" is now available as part of the publication Juristat ( 85-002-X).

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations ( statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).

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The Daily — Over-Representation of Indigenous Persons in Adult Provincial Custody, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021

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This Juristat article presents data and information on the extent of Indigenous over-representation in correctional systems across Canada in 2019/2020 and 2020/2021, using three new corrections indicators recently developed: incarceration rates for Indigenous and non-Indigenous persons, the Over-Rep…