Gladue rights

It is almost nine times more likely that an Aboriginal person will be incarcerated by the Canadian justice system than a non-Aboriginal person. Despite the potential of the landmark 1999 Gladue case to decrease the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system, it has been over a decade since the Supreme Court's ruling and rates have not declined. While the overall incarceration rate for both provincial and federal institutions across Canada is 130 per 100,000 adults, the incarceration rate for Aboriginal people is 1,024 per 100,000 adults. According to 2006 Census data, 2.7% of the Canadian population self-identified as Aboriginal. In stark contrast, the Office of the Correctional Investigator reported that Aboriginal offenders make up 18.5% of federally incarcerated inmates and estimates that, should these carceral trends continue, Aboriginal inmates could account for 25% of the federal inmate population in less than a decade. When controlling for gender, the incarceration rate has already far surpassed this threshold for women as currently 30% of all female inmates self-identify as Aboriginal. While Canada's federal incarceration rates experienced an overall decline of 12.5% from 1996-2004, the rate of First Nations inmates committed to federal institutions rose by 21.7%, and the rate of First Nations women inmates rose by 74.2% during this same time period. Tragically, the situation for Aboriginal youth in custody mirrors these trends and in 2000, 41.3% of incarcerated Aboriginal offenders were 25 years or younger. In Ontario, Aboriginal people account for 2% of the overall population, but make up 9% of the provincially incarcerated population according to 2006 census data. While these statistics are shocking, they are not new. Over representation in the justice system today is linked to Aboriginal people's long, entrenched history with the Canadian justice system through which colonial regimes including the reserve system, residential schools, and child welfare have been strictly reg