But they are fully 30 per cent of the federal prison population. “The Indigenization of Canada’s prison population is nothing short of a national travesty,” says Zinger. And until governments start taking more aggressive steps to address those gaps, Indigenous overrepresentation in prisons will persist. Indigenous inmates are disproportionately placed in maximum security and have been held longer in solitary confinement. Two decades ago, when the federal prisons ombudsman recommended the equivalent of a deputy commissioner for Indigenous corrections, the tragic prison figures were half what they are now.

Source: thestar January 27, 2020 21:56 UTC