I last did a quick census on program access for the Correctional Service of Canada on May 10. That day, there were 13,353 men and women inside the 58 facilities. Of those 13,353, only 3,190 were currently assigned to core correctional programs. This means that in every region of the country there were dozens and dozens of offenders waiting for program assignment, with unmet needs in terms of their correctional plan.
A correctional plan is something that is prescribed at admission to deal with the criminogenic factors that have been identified by the Correctional Service and that need to be addressed before they can be safely released into the community. These would be programs such as those dealing with drugs, violence, and sexual offences. What this results in is offenders increasingly spending more and more time in higher security levels before they are eventually released into the community. When they are released at statutory release or at warrant expiry, typically they have not had the benefit of the correctional programs they were prescribed.
On May 10 of this year, of those 13,353 incarcerated offenders, 8,526 were past their day parole eligibility dates and 6,704 of those were also past their full parole eligibility dates. This all speaks to a lack of access for correctional programs.
The health and welfare of our federal inmates is a very important public policy issue. The vast majority of offenders are, one day, released into society. It's beneficial for us all if these offenders return to their communities having received adequate mental health services and rehabilitative programming. All of us have a vested interest in treating offenders with humanity and responding to their clinical and program needs to help them lead productive and law-abiding lives upon their release.
Thank you very much for extending our opening time. I look forward to your questions.