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OTTAWA -- Federal convicts are hurting themselves three times more than they did five years back, according to a report by the country's Corrections Investigator.

In the year ending last March, 912 cases of self-inflicted injury were recorded, the majority occurring at psychiatric centres, women's facilities and "in maximum security facilities where the conditions of confinement are particularly austere," Howard Sapers told reporters Tuesday.

Prison populations are rising, leading to overcrowding and double-bunking. Use of force - pepper spray, for example; physical restraints or segregation - has increased over the past five years, Saper said.

"[Use of force does] not, nor is it intended to deal with the underlying symptoms of mental illness that so often manifests itself in self-injury."

Inmates suffering from mental illness and who are at risk of self-harming should be transferred to "safe places to get the treatment they need", Sapers said.

Conservative MP Candice Bergen said rehabilitation is a priority, but prisons "are not supposed to be nice places".

"They're full of people who committed serious crimes. They're dangerous."

Liberal MP John McKay says the rise in self-harming is partly the result of the government imposing mandatory minimums.

"This is the logical outcome of removing discretion from the judges," he said. "This is the first concrete consequence of [the government's] policies. They are moving away from a system of justice to a system of revenge."

NDP MP Randall Garrison said the Conservatives' tough-on-crime agenda is compromising public safety.

"One of the ways is it interferes with rehabilitation so that when people come back into the community, they don't have the treatment or any of the anger management or other kinds of rehabilitation programs they need."