Native Incarceration in Canada

People who live here in the Prairies know that its future landmarks are more likely to be jails than grain elevators. Here, it has become fact that a male aboriginal has a better chance of going to jail than graduating from high school. It is an area, aside from the territories, that incarcerates at the highest rate in Canada. It is a place where prisons could likely become the primary industry. And, it is true that this 'industry' of a sort is booming. Its total offender population reached an all-time high in one recent year of 12,000 Native incarcerates out of an overall total of 30,000. A study of Canada's correctional facilities done in 1996 showed it was operating over-capacity at a stifling 113 per cent.
Each province has its own rate of incarceration, but the Prairie provinces all have the highest numbers. In Manitoba the total number of inmates is 1,393.
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