A One-Day Snapshot of Aboriginal Youth in Custody Across Canada
Chapter 5 - Ontario (continued)
5.2 Results
In Ontario , there were 272 Aboriginal youth in custody (open, secure or remand) on Snapshot Day. Among the provinces/territories, Ontario had the largest proportion of Aboriginal youth in custody (24%).
Statistics Canada census data (1996) reveals there are 15,890 Aboriginal youth between 12-17 years of age living in Ontario . The Aboriginal youth in the Ontario Snapshot represent 2% of this total population.
On Snapshot Day, there were 109 open and secure facilities in Ontario with Aboriginal youth on register. This represents 38% of the total number of Snapshot facilities across Canada (N=228).
The total operational capacity (the number of permanent youth beds in each facility) of the Ontario facilities was 1,981. Ontario accounted for more than one-third (34%) of the total operational capacity of the Snapshot facilities across Canada (N=5,797). Aboriginal youth from the Ontario Snapshot occupied 14% of the total number of beds within the participating facilities in that province. [1]
The custodial facilities in Ontario varied with respect to types of custody provided (e.g. secure, open, or remand), description (e.g. group home, treatment centre, and boot camp) and whether they housed male and/or female youth. In Ontario , the largest proportion of youth was in secure custody (41%), followed by open (37%) and remand (27%). [2] Of the 272 youth included in the Ontario Snapshot, 6% (N=17) were serving a combination sentence (e.g. secure and remand, open and remand, or open and secure). Of the remaining 255 youth, relatively similar proportions were serving a secure or open sentence only (38% and 32%, respectively), while 26% were serving remand only.
Figure 5.1 describes the type of facilities in which Aboriginal youth were registered on Snapshot day. The most common description of facilities was secure/open detention/custody centre (59%), followed by foster/community home and group home (14% each) and community residential care (8%). [3]
Data was missing for 4 facilities.
Source: One-Day Snapshot of Aboriginal Youth in Custody (2001).
Prepared by: Research and Statistics Division, Department of Justice Canada .
The largest proportion of facilities was considered co-ed/male and female (60%), followed by male only (37%), and female only (3%).
[1] We were unable to calculate the total number of permanent beds in each jurisdiction because facilities without Aboriginal youth on Snapshot day did not participate in the study.
[2] Total equals more than 100% because some youth were serving a combination sentence (e.g. secure custody and remand).
[3]Figure 5.1 combines certain facility types within the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Service and the Ontario Ministry of Corrections. As a result, the figure does not fully describe the variety of facilities found in Ontario and it does not differentiate between facilities found within each Ministry.
- Date modified: