A new report reveals the Yukon has produced the highest national increase in adult incarceration rates.

The Statistics Canada report released Wednesday showed that there was a 23 per cent rise in adult incarceration rates per 100,000 population in the Yukon from 2014/2015 to 2015/2016 based on average daily counts.

The territory also had the biggest growth in community supervision admissions, at 21 per cent.

But Dan Cable, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, told the Star Thursday these rates are constantly fluctuating.

“It does vary a lot, but in terms of other jurisdictions where they have thousands of people, these are just handfuls of people that can alter the numbers,” he explained.

According to the report, on an average day in the Yukon, there were 94 adults in custody and 336 under supervision.

The total rate of adults being supervised by corrections in the territory has only risen by one per cent since 2011/2012 based on average daily counts.

The Yukon also had the third-highest rates of remand, sentenced custody and probation behind Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

Cable noted that the average stay at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre (WCC) is 40 days, and reoffenders account for multiple admissions.

“The count is a bit misleading in that regard because you can have one person that cycles in and out of that facility,” he said.

When the new $70-million WCC was first opened in 2012, 120 inmates were moved to the facility. Last week, there were approximately 71 inmates.

The centre can hold up to 192 inmates, and was built based on estimates for population growth over the next 40 years.

“It has much more space for programming than the old facility,” said Cable.

“The last jail (which opened in 1967) had to be changed many times, and by the end, we were using trailers and all kinds of stuff.”

The report also showed that aboriginal people continue to be overrepresented in admissions to correctional services.

In the Yukon, they accounted for 70 per cent of adults in custody and 58 per cent of those serving community sentences.

Comparatively, in 2011, aboriginal people made up only 23 per cent of the total population of the territory.

Cable says these rates have remained steady and are due in part to a higher percentage of the population being indigenous in the territory compared to other jurisdictions.

“Poverty, the residential schools fallout and substance abuse in those communities are all contributing factors,” he added.

On average, aboriginal people account for 26 per cent of provincial and territorial corrections admissions and 27 per cent federally.

In 2011, aboriginal people represented 2.6 per cent of the total Canadian population.

As well, the report released data on operating expenditures.

Across Canada, adult correctional services expenditures totalled more than $4.6 billion, a two per cent decrease from the previous year after adjusting for inflation.

In the Yukon, total spending was $13,575,000 – a four per cent increase from the previous year.

The territory had the second-lowest spending after Prince Edward Island, at $10,231,000, and accounted for less than 0.6 per cent of total territorial and provincial spending.

The average daily cost per inmate in the Yukon was $316.

Cable explained that as the population increases, the cost per inmate drops, and the WCC uses fewer staff to manage inmates than the previous facility.