Parole and Community Corrections
Definitions of Terms
Administrative Segregation
Confinement to keep the inmate from associating with other inmates in order to maintain the security of the penitentiary.
Case Management
A basic means by which all sentences are managed. The process is designed to ensure that all relevant information about individual offenders is coordinated and focused, to produce a clear understanding of a case at any given time during a sentence. A Parole Officer is a staff member whose duties involve the rehabilitation of the offender in the institution and in the community.
Community Assessment
A document designed to request and record relevant contacts and information in the community, based on field investigations by a parole officer or private agency under contract.
Community-Based Residential Facility
A halfway house owned and operated either by a non-governmental agency or by CSC. Each agency-owned facility contracts with CSC to provide accommodation for, and counselling and supervision of, 15 to 30 offenders who are usually on day parole. The contract sets out detailed requirements regarding levels of control and assistance.
Conditional Release
The release of an offender into the community is based on specific terms and conditions outlined in the Correctional Plan that applies to that case. Conditional releases may take the form of full parole or day parole.
Full parole is a form of conditional release that allows an offender to serve part of a prison sentence in the community. The offender is placed under supervision and is required to abide by conditions designed to reduce the risk of re-offending and to foster reintegration of the inmate into the community. Under full parole, the person does not have to return nightly to an institution, but must report regularly to a parole supervisor, and in certain cases, to the police.
Day parole provides offenders with the opportunity to participate in on-going community-based activities. Ordinarily, the offender resides at a correctional institution or community residence. Offenders are also granted day parole in order to prepare for full parole and statutory release.
Correctional Plan
A document that outlines a risk management strategy while an offender is on conditional release.
Homicide and Murder
Homicide is the general term applied to all situations in which one person causes the death of another. Justifiable or accidental homicide is not a crime; culpable homicide is a crime (first or second-degree murder or manslaughter). Eligibility dates for offenders' sentences for life imprisonment as a minimum sentence before July 26, 1976, vary considerably. The legislation has since been amended: the two categories of murder (first and second degree) now carry specific parole eligibility dates.
First-degree murder includes all planned and deliberate murders, as well as the murder of a police officer, prison employee or any other person authorized to work in a prison while on duty.
Second-degree murder is any murder that is not first-degree murder.
Manslaughter is any culpable homicide that is neither first nor second-degree murder. The judge may sentence a person convicted of manslaughter to any term deemed appropriate, from a number of months to life.
Institutions
Maximum security institutions house offenders who pose a serious risk to staff, other offenders and the community. The perimeter of a maximum security institution is well defined, highly secure and controlled. Offender movement and association are strictly regulated and directly supervised.
Medium security institutions house offenders who pose a risk to the safety of the community. The perimeter of a medium security institution is well-defined, secure, and controlled. Offender movement and association are regulated and generally supervised.
Minimum security institutions house offenders who pose a limited risk to the safety of the community. The perimeter of a minimum security institution is defined but not directly controlled. Offender movement and association within the institution are regulated under minimal supervision.
Judicial Review
In the case of a first-degree or second-degree murder, where the convicted offender is not eligible for parole for more than 15 years, an application may be made by the offender for a judicial review by a superior court, to have the parole ineligibility period reduced or terminated as long as the 15-year sentence has already been served. Offenders who have committed multiple murders are not eligible to apply.
Offences
Scheduled offence is an offence contained in Schedule I or Schedule II of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. If an offence is included in a schedule and the offender meets certain criteria, CSC may refer the case to the National Parole Board for detention to warrant expiry date.
Schedule I refers to certain offences under the Criminal Code prosecuted by way of indictment.
Non-scheduled offence is an offence that is not contained in Schedule I or Schedule II of the CCRA>.
Pardon
The Criminal Records Act was passed by Parliament to help people who, although convicted of a criminal offence, have served their sentence and have proven to be responsible citizens. The Act permits the National Parole Board to issue, grant, deny or revoke a pardon for convictions under federal acts or regulations.
If a pardon is in force, any federal agency or department that has records of convictions must keep those records separate. They may not disclose the information in these records without permission from the Solicitor General of Canada.
Statutory Release
The requirement that federally sentenced offenders serve the final third of their sentence in the community, under supervision and under conditions of release similar to those imposed on offenders released on full parole. Offenders serving life or indeterminate sentences are not eligible. Offenders on statutory release are inmates who either did not apply for release on parole, or who were denied release on full parole.
Temporary Release
The term used when an inmate is released from prison for a temporary period. Temporary releases may be in one of the following forms:
Escorted temporary absence is release in which an offender, either alone or as a member of a group, leaves the institution accompanied by one or several escorting officers.
Unescorted temporary absence is a release, of a limited duration, for medical, administrative, community service, family contact, personal development for rehabilitative purposes, or compassionate reasons, including parental responsibilities.
Work release is a structured program of release established for a specified period of time involving work or community service outside the penitentiary. This type of program is supervised by a staff member or other person or organization authorized by the institutional head.