Indigenous population of incarcerated women still rising despite calls to action

The percentage of Indigenous inmates in federal women’s prisons has risen steadily over the last 20 years, hitting about 50 per cent overall and at least 72.3 per cent in Edmonton, the IJF has found.

“With our federal prisons designated for women having 50 per cent of the people incarcerated identifying as Indigenous, that represents to us a problem of mass incarceration,” said Emilie Coyle, executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies.

“It’s really a continuation of the colonization project that is Canada,” she added.

Breaking down the numbers

The numbers come from data released by Correctional Service Canada (CSC) through an access to information request and catalogued in the IJF’s Open By Default database.

It tracks inmate demographics at Canada’s five federal institutions designated for women offenders, as well as the Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge and the Regional Psychiatric Centre, both all-gender federal institutions in Saskatchewan. The inmates are categorized as First Nations, Inuit, Metis or non-Indigenous based on self-identification.

Numerous redactions of figures have been made throughout the document, which means that in many cases it’s not possible to estimate the exact percentage of Indigenous inmates at a particular institution or across Canada. 

In some cases, however, there is enough information to calculate minimum percentages of Indigenous women in the prisons. For example, it’s possible to say that at least 72.3 per cent of women at the Edmonton prison identified as Indigenous last year because figures for First Nations, Metis and non-Indigenous inmates are given, while the number of Inuit women has been redacted.

The same institution had fewer than 50 per cent Indigenous women in the 2002-03 fiscal year.

Indigenous people account for just five per cent of the total population in Canada, according to the 2021 census.

When it released its final report in 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called on federal, provincial and territorial governments to commit to eliminating the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in custody over the next decade. The situation has only deteriorated since then.

In 2013, the Office of the Correctional Investigator released a report expressing deep concern about the growing overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the prison system. It showed that Indigenous offenders of all genders represented 21.5 per cent of the prison population, 

The report cited numbers from 2010-11 showing that 31.9 per cent of women in federal institutions were Indigenous.

The situation has only worsened since then. In May 2022, Correctional Investigator of Canada Ivan Zinger announced with dismay that Indigenous offenders accounted for exactly half of the inmates in women’s prisons across the country. The data obtained by the IJF for this story shows that the percentage had fallen slightly to 47.4 per cent by the end of the next fiscal year.

The same numbers show that Indigenous women have accounted for more than 50 per cent of the population at the Edmonton Institution for Women since at least 2003-04, and at the Fraser Valley Institution in B.C. since 2017-18.

Why have the numbers been increasing?

“The overall prison population in Canada is in decline,” said Coyle. “This crisis is founded on the idea of settler colonialism but is also perpetuated by the socio-economic marginalization of Indigenous women and gender diverse people.”

“We have a pattern of over policing but under protecting Indigenous women and gender diverse people.”

Justin Tetrault, a sociology professor at the University of Alberta’s Augustana campus, agreed that the cause of overrepresentation is societal and stems from deep-rooted colonialization.

“We need to really overhaul things and give Indigenous people power over justice and healing,” said Tetrault in an interview. “Punishment is not a good way to respond to harm and crime in society.”

“These people will return to society and we want them to be strong, healthy people. You can’t do that without robust supports and healing opportunities inside and outside of prison.”

What the government has done to address overrepresentation

CSC declined requests for an interview but said in an emailed statement they provide many different programs for Indigenous offenders to address overrepresentation including reintegration initiatives, the Indigenous Offender Employment Initiative and hiring a Deputy Commissioner for Indigenous Corrections in 2023, amongst other strategies.

“Fundamentally, the over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system and correctional institutions is a reflection of the systemic disparities that all levels of government must work to fix, and CSC is committed to taking further actions to address those systemic factors,” said the statement.

CSC added that Ottawa invested $51.3 million in Budget 2017 to “help reduce Indigenous overrepresentation in the criminal justice system.”

Efforts to reduce barriers to the full utilization of existing Section 81 agreements and the creation of new agreements have also been made, said CSC.

Section 81 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act allows for Indigenous inmates in federal prisons to serve their sentence in an Indigenous community, providing that the community consents. This includes community-based facilities and healing lodges.

According to numbers from CSC, in 2022-23 there was a 144 per cent increase from the previous year in the total number of Indigenous offenders transferred to Section 81 and CSC Healing Lodge facilities. In 2023-24, they saw a further 45 per cent increase.

Jessica Buffalo, assistant professor and academic director of the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic at the University of British Columbia, said that remedies in the past have been attempted, such as section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code. Colloquially known as the Gladue Principle, it requires that judges consider the background of offenders with particular attention to the circumstances of Indigenous offenders in an effort to put a halt to the over-incarceration of Indigenous people.

“As we can see from the statistics, that still hasn’t been done. The remedy isn’t working,” said Buffalo.

When it comes to really addressing the problem, Buffalo said it’s time to bring Indigenous people to the table.

“It’s going to be slow and we have to think outside the box,” said Buffalo, adding that while there is common law and civil law, there is also Indigenous law.

“A lot of Indigenous cultures and communities have their own ways of dealing with these types of issues and we need to start inviting them to the table,” said Buffalo. “Unless that is done, these statistics are going to continue to rise.”