Good morning. Thank you for having us here today.
I started my career at Drumheller Institution in 1980 as a correctional officer. In 1983, I transferred to Edmonton Maximum Security Institution. In 2002, I transitioned to a program officer.
USG represents over 15,000 employees working in 16 government departments and agencies, including the RCMP, Correctional Service Canada, the Department of Justice, the Parole Board of Canada, Public Prosecutions, and several others.
Federal employees who are represented by USG do a wide range of jobs in both penitentiaries and policing environments. What is notable about the work is that many of our employees are constantly interacting with inmates and offenders within and outside federal penitentiaries. As you can appreciate, there is always some amount of risk working directly with offenders who can be dangerous, volatile, and unpredictable even after years in custody. At the same time, many of the federal employees that USG represents from the RCMP and other agencies are actively involved in supporting the investigation and prosecution of crimes and are monitoring potential and ongoing criminal activity.
As such, while they may never leave their desks, they frequently encounter violent and often traumatic stories and images. As you are no doubt aware, long-term exposure to direct and vicarious trauma puts our members at risk for operational stress injuries. What distinguishes the work that our federal employees undertake in the world of corrections and policing is they do it without the protection of bars, windows, and firearms.
With the exception of correctional guards, USG represents approximately 7,000 employees who work in Correctional Service Canada, both within and outside federal prisons. This includes thousands of parole officers, program officers, teachers, aboriginal liaison officers, tradespeople, clerks, case managers, and many others. USG also represents thousands of public servants within the RCMP and front-line staff in every RCMP detachment across the country, who undertake a wide range of tasks, including interacting with highly distressed members of the public.
In more rural and remote locations, our members answer 911 calls in detachments where no other 911 services exist. They oversee other aspects of crisis management in communities where the RCMP detachment is one of the few resources in that community. USG also represents several thousand other public servants, including the federal sex offender registry analysts who are exposed on a daily basis to details of the worst kinds of sexual abuse; transcription clerks, whose job it is to read and transcribe statements and files regarding offenders and their crimes on a daily basis; and Parole Board of Canada employees who prepare the cases of offenders seeking parole for the review of the parole board. Not surprisingly, the cumulative effect of this work can lead to experiences of vicarious trauma because of the ongoing exposure to devastating stories and the images related to sexual offences, child abuse, and violent crimes.
Clearly, working in corrections and other public safety institutions over an entire career can take a serious toll on workers' mental health. We are only now beginning to understand the extent of operational stress on our members working in corrections, the RCMP, and other departments. To this end, USG is doing its own internal inquiry into the effects of trauma and stress on our members who are public safety office holders. We applaud this committee for embarking on this study and going beyond the arena of first responders. We are very confident that this study will go a long way to breaking the stigmas surrounding mental health and put into place tangible measures to assist all public safety office holders.
I will now turn to my colleague, David Neufeld, who will speak on the specific realities of parole officers.