Public Accounts Committee on April 17th, 2018

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Good afternoon, colleagues. This is meeting number 92 of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts for Tuesday, April 17, 2018. I would remind all colleagues today that we are being televised, so I would encourage you to take your mobile phones and put them on silent mode so that you don't disrupt our witnesses or other committee members.

Today we are here in consideration of “Report 5—Preparing Women Offenders for Releases—Correctional Service Canada”, of the fall 2017 reports of the Auditor General of Canada.

I welcome to our committee today the Auditor General of Canada, Mr. Michael Ferguson; and from the Office of the Auditor General, Carol McCalla, principal. Welcome.

From Correctional Service Canada, we welcome Ms. Anne Kelly, interim commissioner; Ms. Kelley Blanchette, deputy commissioner for women; and Mrs. Jennifer Wheatley, assistant commissioner, health services.

I would also say that if we do have extra time today, we would like to keep back five or 10 minutes just to do some committee business. You may have seen that circulated by our clerk earlier. It's basically looking ahead at the calendar and some of those things.

We welcome you today. We will begin with our Auditor General, Mr. Ferguson, please.

[Michael Ferguson, Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, thank you for this opportunity to speak about the results of our audit on how Correctional Service Canada, or CSC, prepares women offenders for release.

Our audit focused on the timely access to rehabilitation programs and services for almost 700 women offenders in federal custody. Indigenous women have grown to represent 36% of the women offender population. Although CSC cannot control the number of offenders who receive federal sentences, it can provide them with timely access to rehabilitation programs and culturally appropriate services to prepare them for release on parole.

We found that the tool CSC used to assign security levels was designed to assess men, not women. CSC also used this tool to refer women offenders to correctional programs, which is problematic because the tool wasn't designed for this purpose. As a result, some women offenders were held at a higher security level than necessary and were assigned to rehabilitation programs they didn't need.

We found that CSC did not provide women offenders with the rehabilitation programs they needed when they needed them. Most women offenders in federal custody were serving short-term sentences, which often meant that they became eligible for release within the first year of their sentences. However, the majority of women offenders had not completed the rehabilitation programs they needed when they first became eligible for parole because they did not get timely access to them. As a result, they had less time to benefit from a gradual and structured release into the community, which would support their successful reintegration.

However, we found that CSC increased the use of section 84 release plans for indigenous women offenders, under which indigenous organizations or communities are part of the reintegration process. Indigenous offenders with these release plans are more likely to be granted parole than other indigenous offenders.

However, we also found that access to culturally specific programs for indigenous women offenders was limited at some institutions. For example, healing lodges were available only in one region, and they operated at capacity. We found that offenders who participated in healing lodge programs had low rates of reoffending on release, yet CSC had not examined ways to provide greater access to more indigenous offenders.

We also found that CSC used segregation to manage some women offenders, and about half of the women offenders placed in segregation were indigenous. We found that, despite a reduction in the total number of offenders segregated each year, 20% of segregation placements were for longer than 15 days, the limit recommended by some prisoners' rights groups.

Two-thirds of sentenced women offenders have been identified as having mental health issues. We found that CSC did not have sufficient capacity to deliver the mental health services that women offenders needed. Mental health teams were not fully staffed across the women's institutions, and CSC's one psychiatric hospital has operated at or near capacity over the past two years.

CSC had not yet secured additional beds within provincial psychiatric hospitals to address identified shortcomings. We also found that CSC used cells on its segregation range to monitor women offenders at risk of self-harm or suicide, without 24-hour access to clinical treatment or support.

We are pleased to report that CSC has agreed with all of our recommendations and has committed to taking corrective action. In particular, CSC agreed to no longer place women offenders at risk of self-harm or suicide in cells on the segregation range.

Mr. Chair, this concludes my opening statement. We would be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Mr. Ferguson.

We'll now turn to Ms. Kelly. We look forward to your comments.

[Anne Kelly, Interim Commissioner, Correctional Service of Canada]

Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee, I want to thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the recommendations of the Auditor General's performance audit on preparing women offenders for release.

Among the many areas of women's corrections that were reviewed, the Auditor General produced numerous findings and recommendations related to the effectiveness, appropriateness, and availability of various aspects of the process of preparing women offenders for a safe and successful reintegration into society.

Women comprise a small but important subset of the total federal offender population, making up approximately 5.8% of the total federal offender population.

At the end of fiscal year 2017-18, there were a total of 1,387 women under federal jurisdiction, about half of whom, or 679, were incarcerated in a correctional facility. At the end of the previous fiscal year, the institutional count was 680.

It would appear that, for now, growth in the number of women in custody has subsided, after years of growth. It should also be noted that last fiscal year marked the first year since 2011 when we had more women under supervision in the community, 708, than incarcerated, 679.

Broadly speaking, women offenders tend to be younger, experience higher rates of poverty and unemployment, have a higher incidence of substance misuse, and are more likely to have a history of physical and sexual abuse. In the case of indigenous women offenders, these issues are often amplified. It is therefore particularly important for CSC to consider their needs in the context of their aboriginal social history and to ensure that culturally appropriate interventions are available.

Mr. Chair, since I began my career in federal corrections in 1983, I have observed the evolution of our approach to federally sentenced women and the considerable progress we have made in addressing their particular needs.

In fact, Dr. Blanchette, Mrs. Wheatley, and I have all served as deputy commissioners for women, or DCW, with Dr. Blanchette being the current DCW.

CSC has adopted a holistic, women-centred approach for managing women offenders. We have developed gender-responsive and culturally and trauma-informed correctional environments, programs, and interventions designed specifically for women. Today, CSC receives international recognition as a leader in the area of women's corrections. This is a reputation that has been earned through years of research, innovation, and tireless effort by many dedicated staff across the country.

The evolution of women's corrections has also been the product of lessons learned through listening to concerns from diverse stakeholders and the women themselves, and from being open to change.

With this goal in mind, CSC fully accepts all the Auditor General's recommendations.

I would now like to highlight some specific areas of the action plan we have implemented.

First, with respect to improving the initial security classification process, CSC is conducting research to identify risk factors relevant to women. This will determine what revisions to our initial security classification tool, if any, may be required to increase its validity for women offenders.

Another recommendation was related to an appropriate referral tool to assign women offenders to correctional programs in line with their risk of reoffending and their needs.

In response to this, we have finalized the criminal risk index tool, placed it in policy, and commenced training staff to ensure that it is used to assign the right intensity programs to women offenders.

The Auditor General also recommended that CSC ensure indigenous women offenders have sufficient and timely access to correctional programs, according to each offender's needs and preferences.

Building on the design and implementation of aboriginal intervention centres at seven facilities for men, we have finalized a model of this initiative for women offenders. This summer, we will complete the implementation of aboriginal intervention centres at women's sites to strengthen a culturally responsive approach to case management that maximizes the involvement of the indigenous community.

Further, the report recommended that CSC “increase the use of employment as well as work releases to support the successful reintegration of women offenders into the community.” In response to this, our special operating agency, CORCAN, which provides employment training and employability skills to both men and women offenders, has worked closely with the operational sites to identify vocational certification and on-the-job training opportunities for women offenders. There has been progress in several areas, including culinary skills, horticulture, technology assembly, and construction trades.

Further, the Auditor General made a number of recommendations with respect to mental health treatment and intervention for women offenders. To address this, CSC is currently finalizing, in collaboration with community experts, a comprehensive study on the prevalence of mental disorders among women inmates.

This prevalence study will enable us to identify any mental health service capacity gaps for women, and more clearly develop pathways of care that are responsive to their needs. In support of this effort, budget 2018 allocated $20.4 million over five years, and $5.6 million per year ongoing to provide enhanced mental health supports for incarcerated women.

With respect to the use of administrative segregation, as of August 1, 2017, specific groups of inmates are no longer admissible to administrative segregation. Notably, inmates with a serious mental illness causing significant impairment, inmates actively engaging in self-injury, which is deemed likely to result in serious bodily harm, and those at elevated or imminent risk of suicide, will not be admitted to administrative segregation. Unless exceptional circumstances exist, pregnant women, for example, will not be admitted to administrative segregation.

In addition to these changes, CSC will continue to advance its work to decrease reliance on administrative segregation, improve conditions of confinement, and enhance mental health initiatives.

Finally, CSC has taken many actions to address the Auditor General's recommendations and ensure that offenders, especially low-risk women offenders, are safely released into the community at their earliest eligibility date. In fiscal year 2016-17, we had the greatest number of women offenders released on day parole and saw the highest number of women offenders reaching the end of their sentence successfully while on release in the community. Although we are pleased with the advancements CSC has made in the area of women's corrections, we are always pursuing improvements to our policies, processes, and outcomes.

With this in mind, we thank the Auditor General for his contribution to the evolution of women's corrections, and we look forward to completing the steps necessary to address his recommendations.

Thank you once again. We would be pleased to answer any questions that members may have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Ms. Kelly.

Now we will move on to questions from the government side. We'll start with Mrs. Mendès, for seven minutes.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you all for being here.

Ms. Kelly, congratulations on your appointment.

I would like to briefly come back to what you said about the progress that has been made for inmates with mental health issues and about the specific investments in mental health targeted in the latest budget. The investment for those types of programs is about $20 million.

You said you were currently finalizing programs that will be covered by that funding. Can you give us an idea of the results you would like those investments to yield? I see that significant progress has been made in terms of release dates and faster reintegration of inmates in their community.

Can you elaborate further on what Correctional Service Canada will do, or what it is currently doing, to improve the mental health services available to women inmates?

[Anne Kelly]

I will answer first. I will then yield the floor to Ms. Wheatley.

Budget 2017 granted us funding to improve the women's mental health. We mostly used that money to provide them with intermediate care.

As for the money granted to us in budget 2018, we will provide the women with care, especially those being held in more secure units—in other words, maximum security units. In addition, that money will help us secure contracts for beds outside prison walls, in psychiatric hospitals.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mrs. Wheatley, go ahead.

[Jennifer Wheatley, Assistant Commissioner, Health Services, Correctional Service of Canada]

In response to the Auditor General's report, and to continually improve services for women under our care, we revamped our computerized mental health screening system so that we can ensure that we are flagging the women with the most significant needs. This includes women who were hospitalized just before incarceration, who were recently diagnosed, or who have lifetime history of suicide attempts or self-injury. We've just recently rolled out a new scoring approach to the computerized mental health screening model so that we can target early interventions, because we know that identifying and treating mental illness early leads to better results, both from a health perspective and from a correctional outcome perspective.

In addition, we are in the early stages of identifying pathways of care for various offenders, men and women, so that we can ensure we are matching the right service with the intensity that the individual requires. This would ensure a continuity of care between institutions for men and women.

To add to Commissioner Kelly's response, the additional capacity for intermediate mental health care for maximum security women will allow us to better address their mental health needs, close to their communities, close to their family supports, and without disrupting their correctional plan for a transfer to either an outside hospital or to the Regional Psychiatric Centre in the Prairies. Certainly, if you need hospital care, that hospital care is available. However, being able to provide intensive outpatient care, which is essentially what intermediate mental health care is, at the women's home facility really does allow for that continuity with their community relations and with their correctional plan.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC]

Forgive me for being a bit confused, but how are you able to do that while they are incarcerated if their communities are 2,000 or 3,000 kilometres away? There aren't women's facilities all over the country. Sorry, I'm just a bit confused there.

[Jennifer Wheatley]

Certainly, distances are a challenge for the women under our care. Trying to keep the women within their region is, for some women, certainly important. If you are from Atlantic Canada, it's better to be at Nova than to be at our psychiatric hospital in the Prairies.

In addition, the women offenders sector has worked to improve the use of technology to facilitate contact between families and their incarcerated family members.

Did you want to speak to that, Kelley?

[Dr. Kelley Blanchette, Deputy Commissioner for Women, Correctional Service of Canada]

We have a mother-child program, and we've really expanded on that. There was a residential component where, if the woman is eligible to participate, and it's deemed to be in the best interests of the child, the child can come and live with mom if she is classified as medium or minimum security in our facility, until the child's fifth birthday. There is also a part-time program that allows for older children.

We have also instituted video visitation for families, called child link. This is where the child's caretaker can bring the child to a community site; I can't recall exactly where. The healing lodge, for example, is a very remote site. The mom at the healing lodge can have a video visit with her child. There are other programs to reinforce the mother-child bond or the mother-family bond, such as the mother-child read aloud program.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC]

I am more concerned about the treatment part of it, not necessarily the links with family. You talk about outpatient care. How do you manage the link that is made after they are out?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Mrs. Wheatley, go ahead.

[Jennifer Wheatley]

My apologies. I probably wasn't clear in my terminology. We've based our mental health service delivery model on the World Health Organization's optimal model of mental health care. That model speaks to providing self-care, primary care, and then what we call “intermediate” care. However, outside of corrections, it would be considered outpatient care. Intermediate care is what budget 2018 has provided us money to do, for maximum security women in particular.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC]

Okay, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Ms. Mendès.

We'll now move to Mr. Deltell.

Mr. Deltell, you have seven minutes.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. I was wondering if your French was still improving, and I can confirm that.

Auditor General, ladies, welcome to your House of Commons.

I want to begin by congratulating you, Ms. Kelly, on your 35 years of service with the same organization. I did not know that 10-year-olds were being hired at the time, but so much the better. Welcome.

Through you, I want to recognize and congratulate the thousands of Canadians working in the prison system. If there is a difficult sector, be it in terms of daily life or family life, it is that of prisons. We have to pay a great deal of respect to those thousands of Canadians who ensure the safety of our cities and communities. I thank those people. Allow me also to recognize a deceased childhood friend, Michel Gagnon, who spent nearly 20 years with Correctional Service Canada, in Cowansville. I take this opportunity to salute Michel, his widow Lucie and their daughter, Marie-Pierre.

Mr. Ferguson, your document highlights the fact that 36% of female inmates are indigenous. That phenomenon is drawing a great deal of interest. We won't talk about the reasons why those people end up in prison, since that lies upstream of Correctional Service's mandate. That said, I would like to know what goes on inside. Things are not just black or white, but some issues are deserving of our attention. Earlier, you said the following:

However, we found that CSC increased the use of section 84 release plans for indigenous women offenders, under which indigenous organizations or communities are part of the reintegration process. Indigenous offenders with these release plans are more likely to be granted parole than other indigenous offenders.

As I understand your analysis, for the system to work, the correctional centre must be located close to an aboriginal community. Is that so?

[Carol McCalla, Principal, Office of the Auditor General]

Section 84 release plans are release plans through which CSC works with the community to supervise the release of offenders. Community organizations can be on reserve or in urban centres. We found they have been increasingly used for indigenous offenders, and generally they are very successful. More indigenous offenders who are under a section 84 release plan successfully complete their supervision than those who are not. We encourage Correctional Services to continue using this option.

There is another option, section 81 agreements, where healing lodges are available to indigenous offenders. There have been calls for CSC to increase the availability of healing lodges. Currently, there are only two healing lodges available for aboriginal women, in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and there are none in the eastern part of the country.

We have also made a recommendation that CSC increase the availability of options to provide either a healing lodge or those types of services to aboriginal offenders. We found generally that if there were small numbers of aboriginal women within an institution, they had very limited access to culturally specific programming, programming that has proven to be very successful in facilitating their reintegration.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Does that mean that the person who is in jail would have to have access to her home community? As we know, with first nations, we are talking about hundreds of communities. Does that mean that the women must be close to their personal community, or are we talking about any first nation community?

[Carol McCalla]

The section 84 release plans can be made with either a home community or a community organization. We found a mix of the two. Certainly, if you want to go to a healing lodge, your only options are the healing lodges that exist now in Saskatchewan or Alberta, but certainly the section 84 release plans can be anywhere in the country, with any community or community organization.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Based on what you said, is it correct to say that the people who are in jail can move from province to province? Do they stay in their own centre for all their time, or can they move to another centre if we can't provide good service to them?

[Carol McCalla]

Certainly, that was the finding of “Creating Choices” in 1990, when they decided to close the Kingston penitentiary for women. They wanted to set up penitentiaries across the country so that they could have some more regionalization and women could be closer to their home communities and their family support systems.

Section 84 is a form of parole, so it would be the granting of the parole and some of the supervision of the parole within a community. You can't go out on a section 84 release plan until you are released on parole.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

When we talk about the specific situation of the first nations people, would it be good to have a jail where all the services are provided to them? If we concentrate all the services on them, would it be interesting to have a jail with only first nations people, based on your experience? I am not saying I would support it; I'm just asking the question.

[Carol McCalla]

The issues and concerns that were raised in our report were that where there were small numbers of indigenous offenders within one of the five institutions, there was limited access to services, so we put the option to Correctional Services to figure out how to do that.

I know that, for their male offenders, they are looking at offering a clustering of the services available within different regions. With the way the services work, you need a critical mass, and the indigenous populations for women are small and fluctuate from maybe two in one year to eight in another year. I think there is room for CSC to meet the needs of aboriginal offenders within its institutions; it just needs to put its shoulder to the wheel on that.