Commissioner's Speeches

"Canadian Corrections: Current Complexities"
International Corrections and Prisons Association Conference

Remarks by:

Keith Coulter
Commissioner
Correctional Service of Canada

October 23, 2006
Vancouver, British Columbia

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Thank you, Tony

I'd also like to thank the International Corrections and Prisons Association for inviting me to speak here at the beginning of this conference.

And on behalf of the Correctional Service of Canada, and the Government of Canada, I would like to extend to each and every one of you a warm welcome to Vancouver, here in my home province of British Columbia.

This conference will, in my eyes, provide an excellent opportunity for all of us to exchange ideas with colleagues from around the world, to share our experiences and best practices, to talk frankly about the challenges, we face in our individual jurisdictions, to push ourselves to think about more innovative ways of addressing these challenges and to improve our personal understanding about what works in corrections.

I must say here at the outset that, for the Correctional Service of Canada, the theme of the conference, “Correctional Complexities: Managing Diverse Offender Populations,” could not be more a timely theme because the profile of the federal offender population in Canada has changed significantly in recent years, and it continues to change at a rapid pace.

The bottom line for us is that our offender population has become far more complex and difficult to manage than it has been in the past, and we know, based on solid data and demographic trends, that current trends will continue in the coming years.

So we are now making — and will have to continue to make — some rather fundamental adjustments to our approaches in order to meet the challenges associated with our new reality of having to manage this more diverse offender population.

In this context, there is no doubt in my mind that this conference will help the Correctional Service of Canada learn from the experiences of other countries.

Beyond this, looking at the program for the next few days, it is clear to me that there will be many opportunities for all of us to learn from each other, and to take home ideas about how to achieve better results in our respective jurisdictions.

Before I start to talk in more detail about corrections in Canada, and some of the complexities Canada is dealing with right now, I would like to say that I feel honoured to have this opportunity to address you.

Following a rather eclectic professional journey, I was appointed Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada in August of last year.

Now, more than a year later, I must say I am still deeply impressed, as I was at the outset, by the passion, commitment and dedication of the professionals I have met in the corrections business — both here in Canada and abroad.

And I know there is a great deal of passion, commitment and dedication to the cause of effective corrections in this room, and a great deal of experience, expertise and wisdom as well.

Corrections is incredibly important work — the kind of work that often makes a decisive difference in the lives of individuals and can have real positive impact in terms of the public safety interests of communities in our societies.

So it is an honour for me to address such an impressive international group of professionals and experts in the business of corrections, especially since it is here in my country and in my home province that I get to do this!

Let me now set out for you very briefly how the corrections business in Canada is organized and highlight the importance to CSC of our partners — some of whom are represented here today.

Here in Canada, we have 13 provincial and territorial correctional systems, and one federal system.

Offenders who receive sentences of less than two years serve their time in a provincial or territorial system, and those who receive sentences of two years or more serve their time in the federal system called the Correctional Service of Canada — or CSC for short.

CSC's approach to corrections is governed by a very comprehensive piece of legislation — the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. This legislation makes it very clear that public safety must be the key driver — the paramount consideration — in everything we do.

In this regard, CSC contributes to the public safety of Canadians in three distinct ways:

• By maintaining custody of offenders serving sentences of two years or more
• By providing programs and other interventions to prepare offenders for safe return back into communities, and
• By supervising and supporting offenders conditionally released to the community

Each of these contributions is a core statutory responsibility of the federal government — and each is critical to the public safety of Canadians
Here in Canada, CSC cannot achieve the corrections results that Canadians expect and deserve by acting alone — so effective partnerships are critical to success.

One of CSC's most critical partnerships is with the corrections systems of the provinces and territories, and I am pleased that the Head of the Corrections for the Province of British Columbia, Mr. Bert Phipps, is here with us today at this conference.

For those of you who wish to do so, you will have an opportunity to tour several British Columbia facilities later this week, including the North Fraser Pretrial Centre, Alouette Correctional Centre for Women & Fraser Regional Correctional Centre and the Abbotsford Community Corrections Office.

You will also have an opportunity to visit federal facilities: Fraser Valley Institution, Regional Treatment Centre and Pacific Institution.

For CSC, corrections is truly a collaborative venture, so we work closely with partners from the Department of Public Safety Emergency Preparedness and other federal governmental departments, and especially closely with the National Parole Board.

In addition, we have close ties to police services across the country, and to a number of international, national and provincial organizations, as well as to non-governmental organizations, advocacy groups and many others.

Community groups also play critically important roles in supporting our work.

For example, CSC has 106 Citizens' Advisory Committees in communities across Canada, which operate as independent advisory bodies and provide liaison with the community.

In addition, some 8,000 Canadians, from virtually all walks of life, volunteer at CSC. These volunteers contribute to a variety of institution-based programs including chaplaincy, recreational activities, classroom and workshop instruction, social events and cultural activities.

In communities across Canada, volunteers support families of inmates and help released offenders re-adjust to life in the community.

They also support victims of crime in a number of important ways.

So for CSC, maintaining and fostering strong relationships with partners is absolutely critical to success.

And as we move forward from here, in light of the realities I am about to describe, it will be evermore important to strengthen our existing partnerships in many areas and to find new partner groups that can help us meet some of our new challenges, especially Aboriginal community partners and mental health partners.

My message to everyone here in Canada is that I am in a building mood — because success in meeting the challenges ahead of us will, to a very significant degree, be dependent on our ability to build new ways of doing business with our existing partners and to build additional partnerships.

I'd like to now turn to the issue for CSC — and it is a huge one — that is directly related to the theme of this conference — our increasingly complex, and more difficult to manage, offender population.

The simple reality for us is that, over the past decade, a more diverse, tougher-to-manage population of offenders has arrived through the front doors of the federal corrections system.

The resulting changes in the composition of our offender population have been quite dramatic.

Let me just hit some of the highlights when we compare our current population with data from 1997:

• Our offenders have more and more extensive histories of involvement with the court system — roughly 9 out of 10 now have previous criminal convictions
• Our offenders also have more extensive histories of violence and violent offences in their criminal history, and far more are assessed as violence-prone, hostile, impulsive and aggressive on admission
• There has been an increase of more that 100% in the proportion of offenders who are classified as maximum security on admission — another of the progressive difficulties facing us. Thirteen percent are now classified at this level on admission
• There has been an increase of 33% in the proportion of offenders with gang and/or organized crime affiliations — one in six male and one in ten female offenders now have known affiliations
• There has been a 14% increase in the proportion of offenders serving sentences for homicide — it now stands at more than one in four male offenders
• There has been a 71% increase in the percentage of male offenders and 67% increase in female offenders identified at admission as having very serious mental health problems — 12% of male and 26% of female offenders are now so identified
• There has been an increasing prevalence of learning disabilities as well as offenders with low functioning capacities
• There has been an increasing over representation of Aboriginal offenders — 19% of our institutional population is now of Aboriginal ancestry, while less than 3% of the Canadian population is Aboriginal
• There has been an increasing prevalence of substance abuse — about 4 out of 5 offenders now arrive at a federal institution with a serious substance abuse problem, with one out of two having committed their crime under the influence of drugs, alcohol or other intoxicants
• There is an increasing rate of infectious diseases — inmates now have 7 to 10 times higher rates of HIV that the general Canadian population and approximately 30 times higher rates of Hepatitis C
• And for a number of complex reasons, there has been a trend towards shorter sentences here in Canada and for CSC this has meant an increase of 62% in the proportion of male offender admissions serving a sentence of less than three years
• The result of this is an increasing polarization of our population, with roughly one in four male offenders and one in three female offenders serving sentences of three years or less, and roughly one in four male offenders and one in five female offenders serving life sentences — adding greatly to the complexity of the management challenges in our institutions

Again, these are just some of the highlights — but I think you can see from this that CSC's offender population is definitely experiencing a growing complexity, and that managing an increasingly diverse population represents a huge challenge for us right now.

And I must stress again that all of the trend lines with respect to the changes I have described are very clear.

When you put the data on a graph, the direction is up in all of these key areas: violence, mental health cases, substance abuse and so forth.

So the future cannot be like the past for CSC because our programs and interventions have to be able to adjust to these new and continuously evolving realities.

As a result, we are now focussing on making the right adjustments to our approaches, our training, our infrastructure and everything else to ensure we can meet the challenge of managing this more diverse offender population.

Simply put, we have no choice about this — the status quo here is not an option for CSC.

In this context, we have organized ourselves to respond more effectively to our changing realities by refocusing our efforts, and our business plans across the entire organization, around five key priorities.

The first of these priorities is the safe transition of offenders into the community.

In results language, our target here is a reduction in the rate of violent re-offending, both in communities for offenders under CSC supervision and following the end of sentences.

To deliver this result, we are moving on a number of fronts. For example:

• We are moving to enhance supervision and monitoring tools for higher-risk offenders in the community, including closer working relationships with police services
• We are moving to adapt the assessment process — so we can complete it earlier for shorter sentences and thus start programming sooner and get further prior to release, and
• We are moving to enhance the role of our Community Correctional Centres in managing the transition to the community

At the same time, if I could connect the dots here to my earlier comments about partnerships, we are looking for opportunities to work with existing and new partners to build our capacity in many communities — because this capacity is absolutely critical to our success over the longer term.

Our second priority is safety and security for staff and offenders in our institutions.

In results language, our objective here is to reduce assaultive behaviour in our institutions.

This second priority is inextricably linked to our other priorities because assaultive behaviour is currently on the rise in our institutions and, if we are to establish the conditions to succeed in other areas, we must succeed in keeping assaultive behaviour under control in the context of a more diverse population with a higher propensity for violence.

Here too we are moving on a number of fronts:

• We are enhancing our strategic intelligence capacity and implementing a new gang management strategy
• We are implementing additional measures to reduce illicit drugs entering our institutions
• We are moving towards a new deployment model for security operations that will increase efficiency and effectiveness, and
• We are working to provide our staff with better protective equipment and specialized training

At the same time, we are looking for opportunities to take better advantage of emerging technology and to improve our programs targeting violent behaviour.

Our third priority is to enhance our capacities to provide effective interventions for Aboriginal offenders, which includes First Nations, Métis and Inuit offenders here in Canada.

In results language, our objective is to narrow the gap in the rate of re-offending between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders.

For example, the current rate of violent re-offending for Aboriginals is roughly double the rate for non-Aboriginals — and this gap must be very seriously addressed — and we are doing this

• Our efforts here are now focussed on implementing a new comprehensive strategy for Aboriginal corrections that focuses on culturally appropriate interventions, eliminating barriers to success, promoting cultural competencies, and strengthening our Continuum of Care model for Aboriginal women offenders; and
• We are very actively engaged in renewed efforts to work with Aboriginal communities and stakeholders to better support offenders in communities, including those returning to urban areas

Our fourth priority is to improve our capacity to address the mental health needs of offenders.

Our objective here is to improve correctional results for federal offenders with mental disorders as measured by a reduction in the number of offenders with mental health disorders who come back into our institutions following release to the community.

Here we are implementing a comprehensive mental health strategy focussed on:

• Ensuring appropriate mental health screening and assessment when an offender first enters our system
• Ensuring health care professionals are available to provide front-line responses to mental health needs, including treatment and ongoing psychological counselling
• Creating additional mental health care units to provide daily mental health support; and
• Implementing a community mental health initiative to help offenders prepare for reintegration, and ensure they receive the necessary support once they are in the community

Our fifth and final priority is to strengthen management practices because, as I am sure you will agree, good corrections and good management have to go hand in hand.

Rather than go into the details of our initiatives in this area, I would simply say here that CSC is a fairly large organization in the Government of Canada and we must do, and are doing, our part in a government-wide effort to strengthen our focus on results-based management and achieving the best possible value for money.

Last month, we made public the five priorities I have just outlined when our annual Report on Plans and Priorities, which is our corporate business plan, was tabled in the House of Commons in Ottawa.

It is now accessible through the CSC Web site (or at http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rpp/0607/CSC-SCC/CSC-SCC_e.asp) for those of you who wish to look at it in more detail.

So CSC now has a very clear set of priorities that take into account the profile of our offender population and focussed on improving results in key areas.

It is now absolutely critical that we deliver on them, because, here in Canada, improving correctional results is definitely on the agenda of citizens from coast to coast, and very much on the agenda of our new federal Government.

In this regard, it is important to understand that Canadians have recently developed stronger views about crime in Canada, especially violent crime.

They are increasingly vocal about their desire for more effective approaches, especially with repeat offenders, and more generally, about wanting safer communities.

Linked to this is the fact that there is currently a significant degree of media attention in Canada to issues about crime and the performance of the criminal justice system, and considerable criticism about how offenders are being managed within the federal correctional system.

Many of you may know that we had a federal election in Canada earlier this year, and a new government took office.

One of its top priorities is to strengthen the criminal justice system — to tackle crime more aggressively, especially violent crime in a number of specific ways.

Some initiatives in this area have already been implemented and I expect more will be launched in the coming months.

The Government has already introduced legislation to set mandatory sentences for firearms-related offences, and to deal more effectively with sex crimes and high-risk offenders.

Other legislation and other related initiatives will likely be introduced in the coming months.

Obviously, initiatives on this front will have some direct implications for CSC, including capacity implications.

In this context, we are working within the Government to ensure we are adequately resourced to deliver on our part of this agenda.

And the Government has already set aside, in the last federal budget, some funds to expand CSC's capacity to implement the first wave of legislation currently before Parliament.

So these are, indeed, interesting times for CSC as we work hard to position ourselves to manage our increasingly complex changing offender profile and to respond professionally and effectively to deliver on our new Government's agenda.

In my eyes, the task for me is very clear — we must find ways to manage towards improved results in the very real context of growing complexity.

For CSC, this conference thus represents a very timely opportunity for discussion and exchange of ideas, and I must say that I feel fortunate that it is being held here in Canada at such an important time for us.

I know that the CSC people here today, as well as our Canadian partners and stakeholders, will benefit enormously from the participation of all of you who have come to this conference from 50 other countries.

At the same time, I am confident that the dialogue which takes place here over the next few days will be an important reference point for all of us as we try to deal with the various forms of complexity and diversity we are facing in our home jurisdictions.

Thank you all for coming to Vancouver — and best wishes to all of you for interesting and productive discussions while you are here.