OTTAWA — Canada's prison watchdog is sounding the alarm over the plight of aboriginal prisoners, warning that without urgent action the situation will soon become a crisis.

Howard Sapers, the correctional investigator of Canada, released a progress report Friday on aboriginals in the federal corrections system. It states bluntly that the federal government has failed to live up to many of its commitments on improving the system.

"Today my message is clear -- given the urgency of the situation, I call upon the service to do the right thing and immediately appoint a deputy commissioner for aboriginal corrections," Sapers said in a statement.

Aboriginals are severely overrepresented in federal jails: they account for 17.3 per cent of inmates but make up only four per cent of the Canadian adult population.

Predictions are that the numbers will go on as they have over the past decade -- 131 per cent in the case of aboriginal women.

"Previous attempts to reduce the gap in outcomes between aboriginal and non-aboriginal offenders have largely failed," wrote Michelle Mann, the independent researcher who prepared the report.

"Given the young and growing aboriginal population, a ... failure to be forward thinking and expeditiously mobilize good intentions in aboriginal corrections will reverberate throughout the youth and criminal justice system, aboriginal communities and Canadian society for years to come."

The report comes at a time when the Conservatives are tightening sentencing and parole laws, acknowledging that incarceration rates will rise.

NDP Public Safety critic Don Davies called the report an indictment of the Conservative approach.

"I'd rather that they get tough on results for a change, instead of bringing in bills that are all for show, when actual concrete measures that are needed to improve recidivism ... are not taken," she said.

The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) developed a five-year strategic plan for aboriginal corrections in 2006.

Some of the reports findings on that and other plans include:

• The government has not provided adequate funding to roll out its various initiatives for aboriginals. Only two per cent of the annual budget goes to programming, although new measures continue to be created.
• Programs are not universally available to aboriginals. Prisoners who transfer from one institution to another are not guaranteed the ability to complete their programs, sometimes resulting in delayed parole. "These initiatives are often localized and not rolled out on a consistent national basis and therefore had limited impact on narrowing the gap in correctional outcomes between aboriginal and other offenders."
• There is not enough accountability within the CSC to determine whether initiatives are working or being implemented properly.
• Aboriginals continue to be overclassified in jails, more often going to maximum security prisons than non-aboriginals.
• There is a shortage of aboriginal resources offered to people upon their release from prison.

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan did not comment on any specific finding, but said a deputy commissioner at the department is not necessary.

"The government agrees, in general, that factors that lead to incarceration can often go beyond the scope of what the correctional service can address on its own," Van Loan said in a statement.

"Appointing a different commissioner is not going to solve the problem. What's going to solve the problem are changes in approach. We, as a society, have a lot to do."

Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, urged the government to act on the new report.

"We, as a society, are responsible for the future of our children and we must give them opportunities to make good choices for positive life outcomes," she said.

"This starts at the beginning of life, not through punishment in the justice system."