Thank you very much.
Thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee to discuss this important issue of drugs and alcohol and the impact on rehabilitation of offenders.
Before addressing this issue, I would first like to give you a brief overview of the work of my office. And I'd like to introduce Paul Abbass, who is executive director of Talbot House, an addiction rehabilitation facility for men in Nova Scotia. He is also director and vice-chair of the board of directors and chair of governance of Prison Fellowship Canada. Also present in the public gallery is Michael Van Dusen, director and chair of public policy of Prison Fellowship Canada.
I am Eleanor Clitheroe, the executive director of Prison Fellowship Canada.
We are a national, non-denominational organization working with men, women, and youth of all faiths in every province across Canada. We work with caregivers, the children of offenders, and we work in about two-thirds of the federal and provincial correctional facilities through thousands of volunteers. Our in-prison volunteer hours alone, based on a normal valuation of hours, is close to $1 million per year. We're funded from a broad base of community support across Canada of over 1,800 individuals, foundations, and grants.
We're also one of 130 national organizations around the world affiliated with Prison Fellowship International, with offices in Singapore, Geneva, and Washington. Prison Fellowship Canada has access to the resources of this network, in particular, the Centre for Justice and Reconciliation, headed by Dan Van Ness, who is well known in Canada in this area. We also partner with other Canadian institutions, including universities, in their areas of expertise and research.
We work with inmates, ex-offenders, and their families, offering directly and through partners a variety of programs and supports focused on the needs of the offender and the family.
We agree that substance abuse, addiction, and rehabilitation must be addressed while the offender is in prison and that the elimination of the supply of drugs and alcohol from the prisons is important in that goal. At the same time, this elimination leads to a healthier environment, ultimately, we would hope, in the prison for staff and offenders.
We believe that offenders must take responsibility for their decision to engage in crime; that the needs of victims, community, and offenders must be part of reducing the harm caused by criminal behaviour and in the rehabilitation of offenders; and that with assistance and support, offenders can address their addiction issues, increasing their chances of being viable members of their families and their communities.
Prison Fellowship's focus is to “serve life” of the offenders, their families, and the communities they live in. Our goal is rehabilitation and prevention, to assist the offender to successfully reintegrate into the community, and address intergenerational crime by working to prevent the children of offenders’ engagement in criminal and addictive behaviour.
The impact of our work is to create safer families and communities. We measure our performance to determine the effectiveness of our activities on an ongoing basis.
Our approach to rehabilitation is holistic. We focus on the intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of the offender as an individual, with multiple but integrated issues to address.
Drug and alcohol addiction is one of the primary symptoms of offender mental health and resultant criminal behaviour. We support the focus being put on eliminating drugs and alcohol from the prisons.
Corrections Canada has the mandate to address an offender's risk of reoffending and their successful reintegration. It is our understanding that the correctional programs are good value for money. Offenders who complete their programs benefit from them, including, in particular, in the area of substance abuse.
However, offenders do face long waiting lists for programs, which may be cancelled or not completed due to many issues, including transfers. While Corrections Canada has indicated that waiting time has been reduced, such delays reduce an offender’s ability to complete their correctional plans. We understand that this is a concern. Many offenders are being released without treatment, which reduces their chances of successful reintegration.
Corrections Canada agrees that there is a high completion rate--I think Mr. Head said it's 83% to 85% of the people who have the opportunity to take the program--and that offenders who participate in the program are 45% less likely to return with a new offence and 63% less likely to return with a violent offence. Most inmates are released back into the community, so this is not only an individual issue but it's also a community safety issue. In addition, of course, substance abuse contributes to high levels of hepatitis C among inmates, now around 40%, and HIV/AIDS, now more than 10 times that among the general population.
We applaud Corrections Canada’s focus on the offender as an individual with interrelated issues requiring holistic treatment. Offenders who need rehabilitative programs in federal prison will have earlier and more access to these programs while incarcerated than they currently do. This would include addressing drug and alcohol abuse concurrently with mental health issues.
However, most recent initiatives and funding are focused on interdiction: drug-detector dogs, security intelligence capacity, scanners, and X-ray machines. It appears that there is a comprehensive plan to address the prisons from being infiltrated by alcohol and drugs. However, drug interdiction does not address the addiction issues and related infectious diseases, neither does it address the associated mental health issues. We remain concerned for those who live with addiction, and their families and communities.
Between 50% to 80% of crime is alcohol and drug related. Up to 80% of inmates arrive at correctional institutions with a serious substance abuse problem. Anywhere between 10% and 40% of inmates arrive at correctional institutions with diagnosed mental health issues. Significant numbers of inmates suffer from both mental health challenges and drug addictions, and these percentages are significantly higher than the statistics for the general population.
More and more of those engaged in addictions programming are concluding that mental health issues and addiction issues need to be treated concurrently and that there is little success in simply attempting to address the issue of substance abuse in isolation. Many in the field see recovery from addiction as requiring a holistic approach to treatment--psychological, emotional, physical, and spiritual. In fact the 12-step movement has always flowed from the need for a type of spirituality of recovery.
The elimination of substance abuse during the period of incarceration, then, may not address the offender’s long-term addiction to these substances, although it may make the prison itself a safer place during incarceration. But there is a larger issue. While we encourage the elimination of substance abuse in prisons, abstinence from these drugs during incarceration is not necessarily restorative, bringing healing, recovery, or hope into the process. The offender with multiple issues feels inadequate to address being mentally ill, drug addicted, and criminally responsible. Bringing these issues together so that the offender is able to address the interrelated nature of them gives offenders a more realistic hope of re-establishing themselves in their family and in their community.
We believe it is difficult to address the question of the presence of drugs and alcohol in prison and the rehabilitation of offenders without addressing the root causes of addiction to these substances. Addressing addictions is critical to the rehabilitation of the offender. As mental health issues and substance use are linked, the relationship between substance abuse and mental health, then, must also be addressed at the same time. The supply of drugs in prison cannot be examined and addressed successfully without also addressing the issues of demand for these substances in the prisons.
The large number of inmates diagnosed with mental health problems places a huge challenge on correctional authorities. Correctional Services is aware of these challenges and has strategies to deal with this area, including investments in intake assessment, support for regional treatment centres, intermediate health care units within institutions, and community health for ex-offenders.
I understand, though, that the main issues Correctional Services faces to address mental health issues and addiction in prisons are capacity and recruitment of trained medical health professionals. Most of those with mental health issues do not meet the criteria to receive treatment from the regional treatment centres and may be classified as having behavioural problems rather than mental health and addiction issues.
Segregation and institutional charges for those with ADHD or FAS, or other learning disabilities, delusional thinking, paranoia, or severe mood swings can lead to a vicious circle within the correctional institution.
I'll give you an example. Let me call him Matt. As I understand his situation--