Human Resources Committee on Oct. 26th, 2010

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

And you would be continuing that program. This Bill C-31 is not going to change your practice in that regard.

[Don Head]

No, it will not change the room and board provisions.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

One more quick statistic for the people who are currently incarcerated and the crimes they have been incarcerated for. Is it 46% for murder one and two, and 32% for sex offenders who have sentences of four to five years? Do I assume that the balance of the inmates are in for ten years plus?

[Don Head]

Oh, no. Sorry, I should clarify that. The 46% are murder one and two, which are life sentences, as you know, and 32% are sex offenders. The majority of them have sentences that are around four to five years. But there are sex offenders who are doing indeterminate sentences, including life, in that number as well. There are about 13% who are in for robbery offences, and about 10% for drug offences.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

In the robbery and drug offences, the term of incarceration would be...?

[Don Head]

Anything from two years to several years.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Okay.

I want to go back to Mr. Lessard's questions about section 78 of the corrections act. In subsection 78(2) there's a term used, “a prescribed source”. I understand there are regulations that define what a prescribed source of revenue is. Can you tell us what that regulation encompasses?

[Don Head]

Yes. The prescribed sources include income from private and government pensions, operating an offender-based business, the sale of hobby craft, income from.... There are two other sources. I can give you that. They are prescribed in the regulations, section 104.1.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

That's the regulation?

[Don Head]

Yes. So employment in the community while on work release or conditional release, and the employment in a penitentiary provided by a third party. We've had a few examples of that in the past where we've had third-party operations within our facilities. They actually employ the offenders to do the service and they pay them, so then that income is deemed to be part of the five prescribed sources of income.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

In terms of section 78 and of that $650,000 last year, how much of that was these small amounts, and was any of it from these other sources?

[Don Head]

That I don't know. I don't have the breakdown as to what the sources were; all I have is the total number of room and board collected. We'd have to go back and do a manual file review of all the cases to determine what the prescribed source of income was that led us to the deduction for room and board.

[The Chair, Conservative, Candice Bergen]

Thank you very much.

We'll go to Mr. Komarnicki now.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Head.

Reading your initial comments and the notes, you talk about the fact that commissioner's directive 860 on inmate money allows, at the discretion of the institutional head, a deduction of up to 25% of the inmate's total income for the cost of room and board. Is that discretion exercised very often, and to what extent?

[Don Head]

I'll just quickly explain the process. Normally what happens is that if an offender passes that $69 threshold, there is an automatic deduction made on the moneys above the $69 per two-week period. That's unless the offender makes written application to the institutional head, to the warden, for consideration for hardship reasons or whatever the case may be. So it is an automatic deduction. The number of--

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

The discretion would be exercised exceptionally.

[Don Head]

That's right, yes.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Thank you.

Now, I know Madame Gagnon referenced section 78 considerably in terms of saying that this is a way of deducting the cost of room and board, but there are a couple of things that section 78 doesn't do. I want to get into those, if I could.

First of all, when we talk about the vendor having to pay the crown an amount not exceeding 30% of the amounts being received for offenders' participation in a program, would that relate to 30% of what they get for participating in a program that does not relate to pension in itself?

[Don Head]

Yes, the 30% applies to those five prescribed sources that I just mentioned.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Okay, the sources of income. The sources of income are set out in section 104 of the regulations.

[Don Head]

Section 104.1 of the regulations.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

In fact that is a sort of the governing portion about what gets deducted.

[Don Head]

Yes, in terms of what we could determine as sources of income for the purpose of applying section 78 of the act.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Okay, so how a source of income is defined is important.

Let me go down to paragraph 104.1(c), which talks about room and board. It says that this deduction will amount to 25%--and it qualifies that--of the inmate's total income, which exceeds the top offender's pay rate of $69 per pay period. Now, what does that mean? What does the $69 per pay period mean in a month?

[Don Head]

The $69 per pay period, so there are two. Their pay periods are every two weeks. So if you were at the top inmate remuneration, or at the top level of the inmate remuneration scale, which is $6.90 a day times 10 days per pay period, that's how we come up with the $69. In terms of calculating moneys above that....

So those are moneys that an offender can earn by following through with their correctional plans if they're at the top level of pay in the institution.