Public Safety committee  I will take a stab at this one. First, I want to make sure it's clear that we don't represent the correctional officers within the prisons. We represent the program people and parole officers. Within the prison system, one of the problems we had in the past when offenders came i

Public Safety committee  I'll pass this off to David Neufeld, who is a parole officer.

Public Safety committee  Thank you. USJE represents all parole officers, program officers, teachers and other federal correctional employees who work in non-active security functions in Canada's 43 federal prisons, 92 community parole offices and sub-parole offices, 14 community correctional centres and

Health committee  Good afternoon. My name is Stan Stapleton. I am the national president of the Union of Safety and Justice Employees, also known as USJE. As a national organization representing employees working on the front lines of the pandemic, I am immensely appreciative of the opportunity to

Public Safety committee  Yes, I think so. I come from an era where I was a correctional officer and we didn't have vests or anything such as that. We had the clothes on our backs. That how most of the people I represent interact with the offenders in the institutions. I don't see many of our people thi

Public Safety committee  Yes, I certainly do. Having worked quite a bit in administrative segregation and the hole, if you have sufficient staff you can certainly manage the risk reasonably well.

Public Safety committee  Absolutely. I think it'll be much better than the current system where there is very little meaningful interaction.

Public Safety committee  Provided the resources are there...absolutely, yes.

Public Safety committee  Thank you. Yes, there is certainly always a need. There are always individuals who are too violent or too disturbed to take quickly and move them back into the general population or even to allow them to mingle with two or three. There are those times when you need to do that.

Public Safety committee  I haven't been on core training for almost 40 years. I would say no, at this point in time we are not. I speak from my experience of seeing new correctional officers come off core training and start interacting, and they do seem to lack those skills. The people I represent, pr

Public Safety committee  They're more experienced in that type of thing. Yes, they could use more training.

Public Safety committee  I think that would help, whether it goes in the regulations or not, because you're absolutely correct that talking through a meal hatch or through a crack in the door is not meaningful interaction at all. You need to have a much more normal interaction with these men and women, i

Public Safety committee  If there's a lack of funding, we're very concerned that the cycle will continue. You're absolutely correct. The number of psychologists and psychiatrists, particularly psychiatrists who are working with these men and women, are very few and we absolutely need to increase that.

Public Safety committee  Certainly solitary confinement, administrative segregation, have been used in order to manage offenders who they struggle to manage using other tools. That is very disappointing because putting people in solitary confinement does not help.

Public Safety committee  Absolutely. Just imagine putting somebody in a cell for 22 hours a day. If they already struggle with mental health issues, that's just going to exacerbate those issues. As they continue their journey towards reintegrating into the community, if those are not dealt with at the ap