Indigenous inmates testing positive for COVID-19 at higher rates in federal prisons

Of the 207 active COVID-19 cases among inmates in federal penitentiaries, 39 are among inmates who identify as Indigenous, making up almost 19 per cent of the overall caseload.

Indigenous federal inmates are infected with COVID-19 at disproportionately high rates.

Correctional Service Canada said Wednesday that as of Jan. 10, there are 207 active COVID-19 cases among inmates in federal penitentiaries.

Of those cases, 39 are among inmates who identify as Indigenous, which makes up almost 19 per cent of the overall caseload.

Indigenous Peoples make up five per cent of Canada’s population but accounted for just under one-third of the country’s federal prison population as of January 2020, which Canada’s correctional investigator said at the time had reached a historic high.

That trend represents “disturbing and entrenched imbalances,” and a deepening “Indigenization” of Canada’s correctional system, Ivan Zinger, the correctional investigator, said at the time.

Justin Piche, associate professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa, said although the rate of positive cases among federal Indigenous inmates is lower than the number of Indigenous people in the federal prison system, it’s still markedly higher than their share of Canada’s overall population.

This discrepancy shows that Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately impacted by institutions that produce these kinds of health outcomes, said Piche, who is also a researcher for the Prison Pandemic Partnership, an academic research group that tracks the effect of COVID-19 on the lives of Canada’s inmates.

He said he thinks this dynamic can be partially explained by historical patterns of genocidal violence and state neglect that Indigenous Peoples have endured by institutions in Canada.