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Increasing number of prisoners are female, Aboriginal
January 2009
Stark Raven Media Collective
An increasing number of prisoners in Canada are female and Aboriginal.
A recent StatsCan report found that while women still make up only a small percentage of the largely male prison population, the number of female prisoners continues to increase.
For example, in the last five years there has been a 30 per cent increased in the number of women admitted to remand, meaning those jailed while awaiting trial.The increase of women in prison is a worldwide trend. The majority of women continue to be incarcerated for non-violent crimes related to poverty and addiction.
There is also an increasing number of women who are being sentenced, not for a criminal charge, but for breach of probation.The StatsCan report also found that twenty percent of adults in prison are Aboriginal. This while, Aboriginal people make up only four percent of the overall population.
The number of prisoners at federal prisons, where those convicted of sentences two years or longer are incarcerated, has grown steadily in the past decade.
The report also found that overall more adults are incarcerated in the provincial system while awaiting a trial or sentencing, but fewer are being housed there to serve a sentence.Source articles:
Rise in female, aboriginal inmates alters prison population: StatsCan (cbc.ca)
Less than half of federal inmates committed violent crime (canada.com)
StatsCan Article and Report
Further info on prisonjustice.ca:
Fact and Stats