COVID-19 impacts on decarceration for Indigenous, Black, and other racialized people in Ontario, Canada: an interrupted time series study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic response in many jurisdictions included efforts to depopulate correctional facilities. In the context of the overrepresentation of Indigenous and Black people in Canadian correctional facilities, we aimed to assess COVID-19 impacts on decarceration by race and Indigenous identity in Ontario, Canada.

Methods

We accessed correctional administrative data for all people incarcerated in provincial correctional facilities in Ontario, Canada between 2015 and 2022. We categorized people using self-reported data into one of five identity groups: Indigenous, non-Indigenous Black, non-Indigenous non-Black racialized, non-Indigenous white, or missing. We conducted interrupted time series analyses, treating COVID-19 as an event on April 1, 2020, for each

SUBMITTER: Owusu-Bempah A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11999671 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature