New data suggests incarceration rates in Canada’s three territories are significantly higher than they are anywhere else in the country.
In fact, an annual report on the Canadian corrections system found that Canada’s North presented higher rates than most G20 countries.
The report, compiled by Statistics Canada, found that only the United States jails a higher rate of its population than Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
If Yukon was its own country, it too would crack the top five in terms of incarceration rates by G20 nation.
Last year, 136 people in Nunavut, 189 people in the Northwest Territories and 94 in Yukon were either serving a sentence for a conviction, in remand while their trial played out or in other temporary detention.
Those translate to rates of 575 people in custody per 100,000 residents in Nunavut, 570 in the NWT and 317 in Yukon.
Only the United States presented higher incarceration rates last year at 698 per 100,000 residents. The Canadian average meanwhile, was 115.
