Incarceration in Canada

Incarceration in Canada is one of the main forms of punishment, rehabilitation, or both for the commission of felony and other offenses. The incarceration rate in Canada in 2012-2013 was 118 adults and youth incarcerated per 100,000 population.

According to Statistics Canada, in 2012-2013 there were a total of 41,049 offenders adults incarcerated in Canadian federal and provincial prisons on average per year. 39,678 offenders were adults, representing an incarceration rate of 142 per 100,000 population. 1,371 were youth, representing an incarceration rate of 73 per 100,000 population.

The correction system in Canada dates to French and British colonial settlement where punishment for crimes was often meted out in public. Whipping, branding, and pillorying as physical pain and humiliation were the preferred forms of punishment. In other cases, offenders were transported to other countries and abandoned to their fate. Execution was also used as punishment for serious crimes.

The first penitentiary was built in Upper Canada (present day Ontario) in 1835 when the Kingston Penitentiary opened. This facility was built by the colonial government and at the time of Confederation in 1867 it was under provincial jurisdiction (of the Province of Ontario). It came under federal responsibility with the passage of the Penitentiary Act in 1868.

The federal government opened additional penitentiaries in other parts of Canada in decades following Confederation. An increase in crime during the Great Depression saw a rapid increase in Canada's incarceration rate. The Prison for Women opened in 1934. The Royal Commission to Investigate the Penal System in Canada (the Archambault Commission) was established that year in response to riots, overcrowding and strikes in Canadian prisons. The final report was published in 1938 and was the first comprehensive report in Canada to emphasize crime prevention and offender rehabilitation.

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