Manitoba has second-most incarcerated youths

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This article was published 19/06/2018 (2137 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The number of incarcerated Manitoban youth is the second-highest in Canada, and the rate of incarcerated Indigenous youth is the second-highest of any province, according to Statistics Canada data released Tuesday.

In 2016 and 2017, Manitoba had the second-highest number of youth in custody across Canada — 2,536 in Manitoba, compared to 3,290 in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. Ontario’s population is almost ten times that of Manitoba’s.

Michael Weinrath, a criminal justice researcher and University of Winnipeg professor, wasn’t surprised when he heard about the numbers released Tuesday.

“We tend to lead each year — we have an overrepresentation problem,” he said, referring to both Manitoba’s correctional population as a whole compared to the province’s population and Indigenous overrepresentation in the same system.

This year, the number of kids in correctional custody is down by four per cent compared to 2015 and 2016, which Weinrath noted as a marked improvement.

“A certain number of the youth have committed fairly serious offences,” he said. “You have to do something with them.”

However, he pointed to diversion programs meant to steer youth who commit minor offences away from committing more serious crimes as being important.

Weinrath pointed to the high number of children entangled in the child welfare system in Manitoba — about 11,000 — as part of the reason the province’s youth custody rate is so high.

“Part of the answer for the youth corrections system is a better youth social services system,” he said.

Provincially, Manitoba was second only to Saskatchewan in incarcerating Indigenous youth. In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Indigenous people made up about 15 per cent of the total population.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @erik_pindera