Evidence of meeting #37 for Public Safety and National Security in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was inmates.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
I'm sorry about that. You've got to love this job.
You have four minutes, Mr. Lightbound.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
Thank you.
One of the things that I found really frustrating as COVID first hit was that inmates in the institutions were being vaccinated by the federal government, but those who worked there were subject to provincial decisions, and unfortunately the provinces made the decision not to prioritize those who work in the institutions. I think it was frustrating for all of us, Mr. Wilkins, that you and all the others who work there weren't prioritized by the province.
I have a question for Dr. Doob. Have you had an opportunity to visit an SIU, and if so, what were...? I mean, COVID has obviously put restrictions on visitation. It was something that I had hoped to do and haven't been able to do, but I'm wondering if you have had an opportunity to visit them in person.
Professor Emeritus, Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto, As an Individual
The simple answer to that question is no, I haven't, and part of it was that I took seriously the plan that the panel I chaired had in place, which was that we were going to be looking at the data in the early days of the operation of the SIUs. Our plan was to look at it in early 2020. The Correctional Service of Canada was supposed to be giving us data in February 2020, and then we would learn from that administrative data the questions that we should be looking at within the institutions, because we, as a panel, always felt that the administrative data that Jane Sprott and I have been working on for the last 10 months or so was the starting point, not the end point; the starting point was that we would go into the institutions knowing what to look for and what we should be questioning people about.
We had two problems. One, obviously, was the COVID problem. The second problem was that we were delayed many, many months by Correctional Service of Canada's decision not to give us data until they were pressured to do so by the minister in the late summer of 2020.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
I see Ms. Latimer has her hand up.
Just before we go there, I know one of the concerns we heard was that inmates don't necessarily want to leave their SIU. One of the flags I had when we looked at Bill C‑83 was that it indicates a problem that needs to be reviewed, because there's a reason they don't want to leave, whether it's safety or mental health or whatever the reasons are. It doesn't indicate that it's right that they don't want to leave, and it may very well be true, but we need to get to the bottom of the reason.
You've only got about a minute, Catherine.
Catherine Latimer Executive Director, John Howard Society of Canada
I had an opportunity to visit the structured intervention units in January. They had been up and running for a couple of months anyway, and they were pretty disorganized. I went to the one at Millhaven.
I'm happy to send you my notes. I'll send those to the clerk.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
That was in January 2020. That was right after they'd been implemented, though, right?
Executive Director, John Howard Society of Canada
Right.
I'd be happy to send my notes to you. You can see my initial observations.
Liberal
Executive Director, John Howard Society of Canada
Sure. I'd be happy to do that.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Thank you.
It's 4:32. We have the commissioner up next, and we have a hard stop at 5:30.
I want to thank the witnesses over and over again for their patience in coming back. This is an extremely important subject, so again, thank you.
With that, we'll suspend while we empanel the commissioner.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
This meeting is called back to order.
We have with us Madame Kelly, the commissioner of CSC.
We are under the gun, so I'm going to ask you to make your seven-minute statement, and unfortunately I'll have to cut you off when we have to leave.
With that, we will hear from Madame Kelly.
Anne Kelly Commissioner, Correctional Service of Canada
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
I would like to begin by highlighting that today is the National Indigenous Peoples Day. I like to take this opportunity to celebrate the contributions and rich culture of indigenous peoples, including those of our numerous indigenous employees who play an essential role in inmate rehabilitation.
With respect to COVID-19, I want to offer thanks to CSC staff for their tireless and dedicated efforts and recognize the ongoing collaboration of offenders in helping us manage the pandemic. I am pleased to report that we currently have zero active COVID-19 inmate cases across the country.
Before speaking about our vaccination program, I want to highlight what has worked in getting to that result.
Our partnership with our public health experts, our unions, and our stakeholders, including the Red Cross; completing infection prevention and control reviews at all of our 43 sites; developing an integrated risk management framework, with the help of our public health partners, unions and stakeholders; early on, developing a comprehensive testing strategy, and the adoption of rapid testing—to date, we have performed close to 52,000 tests; training over 250 of our own staff to do contact tracing; communicating weekly with staff and inmates and monthly with our partners; and having CORCAN quickly pivot during the pandemic and, along with a number of inmates, produce 850,000 masks.
I will turn to vaccines, which provide light at the end of this long tunnel.
As of June 17, over 75% of the inmate population had received at least one dose and 42% were fully vaccinated. We continue to run clinics and engage with inmates who have declined, in order to understand their concerns and work to address them.
Managing COVID, although not easy on anyone, has truly been a team effort. We are currently starting to plan for when we can safely resume activities and lift restrictions. This will continue to be a collaborative effort with public health and with what the data is telling us.
I would now like to turn to structured intervention units, or SIUs. As you know, SIUs were implemented on November 30, 2019, and represented a transformative change for CSC. Although COVID-19 has created unique challenges for everything we do, including SIUs, I am extremely committed to their successful operation.
SIUs are not about punishment or causing harm; it is quite the opposite. SIUs are meant as a temporary measure, and are about helping inmates by providing them with the opportunity to engage in targeted interventions and programs to support their safe return to a mainstream inmate population as soon as possible.
There are currently 186 inmates in SIUs, which represents roughly 1.5% of federal inmates in Canada. I should point out that there are 33 indigenous inmates, so 17%. This is in contrast to the former model, under which close to 800 inmates, or over 5%, were in administrative segregation in 2009-10. This points to a shift in mindset, whereby SIUs are being used as a last resort, with more being done proactively to manage situations within the mainstream population.
This 1.5% needs to be put in context. Inmates in SIUs present a profile that clearly distinguishes them from the mainstream population. A recent analysis shows that they are more impulsive, have low frustration tolerance, frequently act in an aggressive manner and are 14% more likely to hold attitudes that support goal-oriented violence.
SIUs are in place at 15 of our 43 institutions. Inmates can only be transferred to an SIU if they meet one of the three criteria in the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and there are no other reasonable alternatives to placement in an SIU.
Before transferring an inmate to an SIU, every possible alternative is explored, such as mediation or conflict resolution, transfer to a different unit or range in the institution, and involvement of the inmate committee or staff who have influence over the inmate, such as an elder, chaplain or volunteer.
It's important to note that support for inmates is not a one-size-fits-all approach. We deal with some difficult and complex situations. For example, we have over 250 separate gangs in our institutions, which makes it a challenge to find a safe space for some inmates. While some cases can resolve quickly, others take time and require ongoing care and steady work.
The law is clear that inmates who are transferred to an SIU must be provided with the opportunity to spend a minimum of four hours a day outside their cell, including two hours of meaningful interaction. The legislation recognizes that there are situations in which inmates may be held in their cell for longer—for example, if they refuse to leave. While it is their right, we continue to make active offers.
A key safeguard—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Excuse me. Sorry, Commissioner Kelly. I apologize. It's all I do in this committee.
I have the permission of members to continue until five minutes before the vote. It's just under five minutes now.
Could I get guidance from the clerk as to whether we have one vote or two coming up?
The Clerk of the Committee Mr. Mark D'Amore
There are votes on the report stage of Bill C-30, so I believe there are two.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Then there's no chance that we can come back and hear the rest of the commissioner's statement?
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
If we come back for the in camera portion, Chair, I think we can.
