50% of Women in Federal Prisons are Indigenous

Wellness Within marks with horror that the proportion of women in federal prisons who identify as Indigenous has now reached 50%. Less than 5% of the population in Canada is Indigenous; the disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous women is a scandalous marker of racist hatred, colonialism and violence against Indigenous women.

The disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous women is the contemporary manifestation of Canada’s genocidal Residential School regime. Prison separates families, steals people’s culture and language, and subjects people to violence, illness, isolation, and trauma. People in prison are denied the opportunity to build their families and to parent the children they already have. Prison is reproductive injustice.

Wellness Within has long called for the end of incarceration of pregnant people and primary caregivers. Canadian research shows over 80% of incarcerated women have given birth and have an average of four children. The disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous women has generations of impact on Indigenous children, and their children. In violation of the United Nations Bangkok Rules governing the minimum standards for treatment of women prisoners, prisons in Canada fail to collect information about the children of incarcerated women.

Prison does not address social harm, it perpetuates it. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry both called for an end to the disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous people. In the few short years since these reports, the numbers have only gotten worse.

Immediate action is needed to end the incarceration of Indigenous people as a first step towards reconciliation.

Wellness Within is a registered non-profit organization working for reproductive justice, prison abolition, and health equity in K'jipuktuk, Mi'kma'ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia).

Contact: Martha Paynter, Chair. 9022927082, martha.paynter@gmail.com