Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Members, thank you very much for your invitation to appear before this committee and for the opportunity to provide the views of my office on the impact of Bill C-25, the Truth in Sentencing Act, on federal corrections.
Let me begin by first telling you a little bit about the mandate of my office and then making it clear why I agreed to be here today.
Last year the Office of the Correctional Investigator celebrated its 35th anniversary. The office was established in 1973 to strengthen the accountability and oversight of federal corrections. The office was given a legislative mandate in November of 1992 with the enactment of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.
My office investigates and resolves individual federal offender complaints. As well, it has a responsibility to review and make recommendations on the Correctional Service of Canada's policies and procedures associated with these individual complaints. In this way, systemic areas of concern can be identified and appropriately addressed.
My office has 24 staff and receives between 5,000 and 7,000 offender inquiries and complaints each year. Last year our investigative staff spent approximately 300 days inside federal penitentiaries, conducted interviews with more than 2,000 offenders, and met with many individuals in those penitentiaries, from wardens down to their staff, their health care workers, their front-line workers, and inmate committee representatives, including native brotherhoods and sisterhoods.
As the ombudsman for federal corrections, my mandate expresses important elements of the criminal justice system in Canada. The office reflects Canadian values of respect for the law and for human rights, and the public's expectation that correctional staff and senior managers are accountable for the administration of law and policy on the public's behalf. It's with this mandate firmly in mind that I offer my thoughts on the impact that Bill C-25 may have on federal corrections.
I believe it's within my role to comment on the proposed reforms with respect to how an increase in the federal inmate population may affect the safety and security of that population as well as the individual inmate's ability to receive programs and services that will assist their safe and timely reintegration into the community.
It's my belief that Bill C-25 will likely lead to a significant increase in the offender population managed by the Correctional Service of Canada. My office is concerned with the impact that a rapid influx of new admissions to federal custody will have on an already burdened correctional system.
In my 2007-08 annual report, I noted that prison overcrowding has negative impacts on the system's ability to provide humane, safe, and secure custody. It is well documented that overcrowding in prison can increase levels of tension and violence and can jeopardize the safety of staff, inmates, and visitors.
As witnessed in the early 1990s, when correctional populations dramatically increased, the timely and comprehensive access to offender programs, treatment, and meaningful employment opportunities measurably diminished. This resulted in delays of safe reintegration into the community and increased both overcrowding and cost pressures.
It bears noting that the pervasive effects of prison crowding reach far beyond the provision of a comfortable living environment for federal inmates. It stretches the system beyond its capacity to move offenders through their correctional plans in a timely fashion. It has negative impacts on the protection of society itself, as offenders are incarcerated for a greater portion of their sentence, only to be released into the community ill-prepared and then supervised for shorter periods of time.
As it stands now, offenders have to contend with long waiting lists for programs; cancelled programs because of insufficient funding or lack of trained facilitators; delayed conditional release, because the lack of capacity to provide programs means offenders cannot complete their correctional plans; and more time served behind walls without correctional benefit. This situation is becoming critical. More and more offenders are released later in their sentences too often not having received the necessary programs and treatment to increase their chance of success once in a community.
I asked my staff last week to gather a few numbers to illustrate some of these challenges that are faced by the correctional service every day. Here's a sample of their responses.
At Drumheller Institution, 84 offenders are currently on a waiting list, waiting for core programming.
At Saskatchewan Penitentiary, five of the fourteen funded program officer positions are vacant. Of the six health care and psychology positions, two are vacant, including the position of chief psychologist.
Eighty-three aboriginal offenders are on a waiting list for aboriginal core programming, which would include the family violence program, the “In Search of Your Warrior” program, and the aboriginal substance abuse program.
At Warkworth Institution here in Ontario, 103 sex offenders are on a current waiting list for the national sex offender maintenance program.
These are but a few examples of the current barriers that prevent offenders from accessing programs and services that will assist them in their chances of early release and safe reintegration into the community.
In terms of accommodation, in the last five years, the rate of double-bunking--that means the housing of two offenders in a cell designed for one--in federal corrections has significantly increased, by about 50%, and now directly affects almost 10% of the total federal inmate population. According to its own policy, the Correctional Service of Canada identifies single accommodation as “the most desirable and correctionally appropriate method of housing offenders”.
Of note, this policy reflects international human rights standards. For example, rule 9 of the “Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners”, which Canada endorsed in 1977, specifically requires that “each prisoner shall occupy by night a cell or room by himself”.
The most recent available data, from February 15, 2009, indicates that nationally a total of 1,313 offenders were double-bunked in 657 cells. Any significant influx of new admissions without additional resources for accommodation, programs, health care, improved sanitation, hygiene, and control for communicable and infectious diseases, as well as a reasonable timeframe to put into place these initiatives, will exacerbate an already difficult situation.
My office is also concerned about the differential impacts that the proposals for pre-sentence custody will have on an already vulnerable and growing correctional population in Canada, specifically, aboriginal people and the mentally ill. As data from 2001 to 2007 indicates, the number of aboriginal adults admitted to remand custody increased by 23%, compared to a 14% increase in the total remand population.
Research suggests that aboriginal people in pre-sentence custody are more likely to be denied bail and more likely to be held in higher security conditions and serve longer periods of time in remand. Because of their disadvantaged socio-economic position, these same disparities in aboriginal pre-trial detention are patterns repeated at the federal level, where aboriginal offenders now account for 20% of the inmate population--that's one in every five admissions to sentence custody in federal penitentiaries in Canada.
It is my office's contention that these trends in pretrial custody need to be carefully understood and evaluated, as proposed changes will have a significant effect on the rate, cost, and distribution of incarceration in this country. It is my opinion that the federal correctional system currently does not have the capacity to easily absorb this impact.
Thank you.