Pandemic era impacts on the federal custody population profile: indigenous women
Research Highlights: There were substantial pandemic era shifts among Indigenous women in the federal custody population.
Publication
No RIB-22-11
2022
Research in Brief- PDF
Why we are doing this study
Over the course of pandemic period, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) experienced an overall decrease for women in federal custody, however, for Indigenous women there was an increase +7 (or 2.5%) from 284 at mid-year in 2019-20 to 291 at year-end in 2021-22. It is noteworthy that there was an initial decline in Indigenous women in the first year of the pandemic. There was an increase in year two.
What we did
Federal institutional population counts and individualized case characteristics are recorded as standardized reports in CSC's Offender Management System (OMS). Data were extracted (April 14, 2022) to establish a three-year trend (Mid-year 2019-20, to Year-end 2020-21 and 2021-22) of the in-custody counts for federally sentenced (two years or more) Indigenous women and for selected characteristics: age, diversity, sentence length, major offence, criminal risk (index), and dynamic factors (rating at intake).
What we found
The shift in the population of Indigenous women is notable in the following ways (see Table 1):
- slightly older as Indigenous women are more likely to be in the 35 to 64 age group then they were prior to the pandemic (40% to 42%);
- First Nations and Inuit women have decreased whereas Metis women have increased;
- sentence lengths have become shorter over this time period with the majority serving sentences of less than 4 years;
- there has been a profound change in offence type composition with more serving sentences for a Murder or Schedule 1 offense and combined this percentage has climbed to 71% by March 2022;
- albeit the sentence length is shorter and offence type have changed to more Schedule I offences over time, there appears to be a slight increase in criminal risk; and
- dynamic need in this population continues to be very high and the proportion of those with a high need rating is now 88% - up from 85%.
| Characteristic | 2019-20 N=284 % (n) | 2020-21 N=267 % (n) | 2021-22 N=291 % (n) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age | |||
| < 35 | 59.2 (168) | 65.2 (174) | 57.0 (166) |
| 35 to 64 | 40.1 (114) | 34.1 (91) | 42.3 (123) |
| 65+ | 0.7 (2) | 0.7 (2) | 0.7 (2) |
| Diversity | |||
| First Nations | 79.6 (226) | 75.7 (202) | 75.0 (218) |
| Metis | 19.0 (54) | 24.3 (63) | 29.7 (72) |
| Inuit | 1.4 (4) | 0 | 0.3 (1) |
| Sentence Length | |||
| < 4 years | 51.1 (145) | 52.4 (140) | 52.6 (153) |
| 4 years+ | 31.0 (88) | 31.8 (85) | 30.6 (89) |
| Indeterminate | 18.0 (51) | 15.7 (42) | 16.8 (49) |
| Major Offence | |||
| Murder (I or II) | 16.5 (47) | 15.0 (40) | 15.8 (46) |
| Violent (Schedule I) | 51.4 (146) | 54.7 (146) | 55.0 (160) |
| Drug (Schedule II) | 20.1 (57) | 18.4 (49) | 18.2 (53) |
| Non-Violent (Others) | 12.0 (34) | 12.0 (32) | 11.0 (32) |
| Criminal Risk Index | |||
| Very Good (1-4) | 17.0 (43) | 15.2 (40) | 16.4 (44) |
| Good (5-8) | 11.8 (30) | 8.0 (21) | 8.2 (22) |
| Fair (9-13) | 27.3 (69) | 26.8 (71) | 25.7 (69) |
| Poor (14-18) | 20.2 (51) | 25.4 (67) | 26.6 (71) |
| Very Poor (19+) | 23.7 (60) | 24.6 (65) | 23.1 (62) |
| Dynamic Factors Rating | |||
| Low | 2.7 (7) | 0 | 1.2 (3) |
| Moderate | 12.7 (33) | 7.6 (19) | 10.6 (28) |
| High | 84.6 (220) | 92.4 (232) | 88.2 (232) |
What it means
Overall, there has been a significant shift in the federal custody profile of Indigenous women over the pandemic era into a shorter sentenced population that have previous histories with the criminal justice system and an increased need for culture-informed programs and services.
For more information
Please e-mail the Research Branch. You can also visit the Research Publications section for a full list of reports and one-page summaries.
Prepared by: Larry Motiuk and Leslie Anne Keown
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