Office of the Correctional Investigator
Summary of 33rd Annual Report to Parliament
The Report highlights three pillars of sound correctional practice:
- The protection of human rights;
- The acceptance of accountability by the Correctional Service; and
- The requirement to assist offenders to ensure their safe, supported timely
reintegration into the community.
Public safety is enhanced when the three pillars are incorporated into correctional
operations.
The Report recommends the Correctional Service of Canada take action in a number
of key areas:
Health Services, Including Mental Health and Needle Exchange
- Demonstrate compliance with its legal obligation to provide every inmate with essential
health care according to professionally accepted standards, and ensure that all
institutional health care sites be accredited within one year.
- Demonstrate compliance with its legal obligation to provide every inmate with essential
mental health care and reasonable access to non-essential mental health care according
to professionally accepted standards, and ensure that all mental health care units
and regional treatment centres be accredited within one year.
- Take immediate steps to sensitize and train all front-line staff to identify disruptive
mental health behaviour and respond accordingly.
- Immediately implement a prison-based needle exchange program to ensure that inmates
and society at large are best protected from the spread of infectious diseases.
Women Offenders
5. Within one year, the Correctional Service should:
5.1 Significantly increase all women offenders' access to meaningful employment
and employability programming;
5.2 Continue to significantly increase community accommodations and support services
for women offenders in underserved areas;
5.3 Review the daily operations and staffing of the women's secure units with a
view to eliminating "dead time"1
and to significantly increasing timely access to treatment, spiritual, academic
and work programs;
5.4 Significantly increase the number of women offenders appearing before the National
Parole Board at their earliest eligibility dates;
5.5 Build capacity for and increase use of section 84 and section 81 agreements
with Aboriginal communities;
5.6 Significantly improve access to culturally sensitive programming and services
for Aboriginal women who are currently imprisoned in the Atlantic, Quebec and Ontario
regions;
5.7 Review use of force incidents at women's facilities to ensure consistent compliance
with policy;
5.8 Establish firm targets ensuring all front-line staff receive refresher training
in women-centred approaches in accordance with the recommendation of the Canadian
Human Rights Commission; and
5.9 Provide women-centred training to all community parole officers working with
women offenders.
Aboriginal Offenders
6. Within the next year, the Correctional Service should:
6.1 Implement a security classification process that ends the overclassification
of Aboriginal offenders;
6.2 Increase timely access to programs and services that will significantly reduce
time spent in medium- and maximum-security institutions;
6.3 Significantly increase the number of Aboriginal offenders housed at minimum-security
institutions;
6.4 Significantly increase the use of unescorted temporary absences and work releases;
6.5 Significantly increase the number of Aboriginal offenders appearing before the
National Parole Board at their earliest eligibility dates;
6.6 Build capacity for and increase use of section 84 and section 81 agreements
with Aboriginal communities; and
7. Significantly improve (above the required employment equity level) the overall
rate of its Aboriginal workforce at all levels in institutions
where a majority of offenders are of Aboriginal ancestry.
Institutional Violence and Investigations of Inmate Injury
8. Require that the Correctional Service establish a timely approval process by
its Executive Committee for the development of action plans in response to investigative
reports into incidents of inmate deaths or major injuries. In no case should this
process exceed six months from the date of the incident.
9. Require that the Correctional Service collect accurate information and conduct
comprehensive analyses of all inmate injuries to significantly improve its ability
to take appropriate action to limit inmate injuries and institutional violence,
and that this information be verified semi-annually as part of an ongoing internal
audit.
Inmate Grievances, Allegations of Harassment and Staff Misconduct
10. Immediately comply with its legal obligations and establish "a procedure for
fairly and expeditiously resolving all offenders' grievances."
11. Provide evidence that complaint and grievance statistics are being used to identify
and address areas of systemic offender concerns.
Case Preparation and Access to Programs
12. In the next year, the Correctional Service should:
12.1 Significantly increase the number of offenders appearing before the National
Parole Board at their earliest eligibility dates;
12.2 Significantly reduce waiting lists for programs included in correctional plans
to maximize safe and timely reintegration;
12.3 Increase timely access to programs and services that will significantly reduce
the time spent in medium- and maximum-security institutions; and
12.4 Significantly increase the number of unescorted temporary absences and work
releases, which have drastically declined in recent years and yet have a very high
success rate.
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1 "Dead time" refers to a situation
where offenders have little to do when they should be involved in programs or other
activities.