Yes, I think I do understand your point, and here is the difficulty in terms of the limitations of the language around this.
The Correctional Service of Canada might tell you that they don't have a waiting list in the way you and I may think of a waiting list, like a waiting list to get hip replacement surgery. The reason is that you're not actually placed on a waiting list because in your program plan, given the length of your sentence, you may be prescribed to not start a program until very late in your sentence. So technically, you're not on a waiting list.
The difficulty is that by that point in your sentence, you may not be in an institution that offers that particular program, so at that point you're now denied access to that program unless you transfer. If you do transfer, you might go to an institution that offers the program but not during the intake cycle of that program, which means that you're going to have to wait until there is another intake cycle for that program. When you do get into that program, you then may have your program delivery interrupted because there is a vacancy in terms of the personnel who are supposed to deliver that program, or somebody might go on a leave—people take vacations—so the time you're in that program may be interrupted because the program is simply not being delivered.