Indigenous people now comprise almost a third of Canada's prison population: Report

The proportion of indigenous people in Canada's prison population has risen five percent over the past four years to 30 percent, as methods to curb the over-representation of indigenous people in Canada's jails are failing, a new government report stated.

On Tuesday, the correctional investigator of Canada Ivan Zinger published a report outlining the growth of the indigenous inmate population in the country.

According to the findings, the indigenous inmate population has increased by 43.4 percent since April 2010, while the non-indigenous population has decreased by 13.7 percent in the same time.

"On this trajectory, the pace is now set for Indigenous people to comprise 33% of the total federal inmate population in the next three years ? No government of any stripe has managed to reverse the trend of Indigenous over-representation in Canadian jails and prisons. The Indigenization of Canada's prison population is nothing short of a national travesty," Zinger wrote in the report.

The investigator also noted that indigenous over-representation was even more prominent among the female inmate population. According to the findings, indigenous women account for 42 percent of all women in Canada behind bars.

Zinger added that indigenous people are disproportionately placed in high-security institutions and often serve longer terms before being granted parole.

Canadian Human Rights Commission Chief Commissioner Marie-Claude Landry said on Twitter that the findings of the new report were "deeply disturbing."

According to the 2016 Canadian census, 1.67 million indigenous people live in Canada.  Almost half of the population of the Northwest Territories and over 85 percent of Nunavut's population identify as indigenous.