Staggering number of Indigenous people in jail is a Canadian crisis

Not long ago, First Nations people “caught” leaving their reserve would be arrested and thrown in jail. More recently, Indigenous children were stolen from their parents by the Canadian government, to attend residential schools, in what has been described as cultural genocide. A justice system that targets Indigenous peoples is nothing new in Canada.

Given that history, one might expect Canadians would be particularly sensitive to the systematic and disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous people. Canadians should be shocked to learn that nearly half of youth in our jails are Indigenous. We should be gobsmacked to learn that 98 per cent of girls in Saskatchewan jails are Indigenous. In Manitoba, about 80 per cent of both girls and boys in custody are Indigenous.