A new study shows that four in ten inmates in the province’s adult correctional facilities are Indigenous.

First Light, which is based in St. John’s, says that is similar to the rates of over-representation seen in other provinces from which research has been published.

The study showed that 43 per cent of all people incarcerated in the province are Indigenous – that’s more than 8 times the rate of non-Indigenous inmates.

Over-representation was higher among women with 53 per cent of incarcerated women being Indigenous.

Indigenous inmates were, on average, younger than their non-Indigenous counterparts, which aligns with general population trends.

Marc Humber of First Light was not surprised that the numbers were higher, but he didn’t expect to see just how big the difference was.

“I’m a little surprised at how high it was, but we knew that it was significantly higher than what the currently available data suggested,” said Humber, “just based on running programs in the jails ourselves and some data that we collect through community members. We were fairly certain that the numbers were going to be high.”