FORUM on Corrections Research

Understanding offender reintegration

Reintegrating offenders into society raises concerns for everyone. Many people are confused about criminal justice issues because their perceptions come from the coverage they see, read or hear in the news media. Some people do not fully understand the concept of reintegrating offenders and, therefore, say "not in my backyard."

Over the years, the Correctional Service of Canada has been lucky enough to have many people volunteer time and energy to support offender reintegration. Citizens' Advisory Committees and non-governmental organizations such as the Elizabeth Fry Society and the John Howard Society make a significant contribution to the reintegration of offenders.

Despite the efforts of the Correctional Service of Canada and offender support groups, the public often views offender reintegration with concern. This concern may arise from misinformation.

Almost all offenders will eventually be released from custody and return to the community, and the Correctional Service of Canada is responsible for preparing offenders to make that return safely and as easily as possible. However, the Service is also required to give the utmost consideration to the safety of the communities that receive released offenders.

It may be time for the Correctional Service of Canada to review the scope of its communication strategies for the offender reintegration program. Well-informed people are less likely to perceive offender reintegration as a hazard to their community. At present, the Service has the resources to conduct a more aggressive public information campaign targeting non-governmental organizations, Citizens' Advisory Committees and volunteer groups. The Correctional Service of Canada must be seen as taking the lead in finding ways to allay public fears.

A simple definition

Simply defined, "offender reintegration" is all activity and programming conducted to prepare an offender to return safely to the community and live as a law-abiding citizen. To understand offender reintegration, one must understand the variables considered in decisions about releasing offenders to the community. For each offender, the Service does the following:

• collects all the relevant information about the offender that is available, including items such as the judge's reasons for sentencing and any victim impact statements;
• assesses the offender's risk level (likelihood that he or she will reoffend) and criminogenic needs (life functions that lead to criminal behaviour);
• reduces the offender's risk level by increasing his or her knowledge and skills, and changing the attitudes and behaviours that lead to criminal behaviour;
• develops and implements programs and individual interventions that effect change in areas that contribute to criminal behaviour;
• in cooperation with the offender, develops a plan to increase the likelihood that he or she will function in the community as a law-abiding citizen;
• motivates and helps the offender follow the correctional plan and benefit from correctional programs and interventions;
• monitors and assesses the offender's progress in learning and changing;
• makes recommendations to the National Parole Board as to the offender's readiness for release and the conditions, if any, under which he or she should be released;
• after release, helps the offender respect the conditions of the release and resolve day-to-day living problems;
• makes required programs and interventions available in the community;
• monitors the offender's behaviour to ensure that he or she is respecting the release conditions and not indulging in criminal behaviour; and
• if required, suspends the offender's release, carries out specific intervention, and reinstates or recommends revocation of the release as appropriate.

The Service can carry out this program for each offender only through effective partnerships with courts, police, other federal departments and agencies, provincial governments, municipalities and voluntary organizations.

The public should know that the Correctional Service of Canada operates under the 1992 Corrections and Conditional Release Act,⁽²⁾ which states the purpose of federal corrections as:

The purpose of the federal correctional system is to contribute to the maintenance of a just, peaceful and safe society by:

(a) carrying out sentences imposed by courts through the safe and humane custody and supervision of offenders; and

(b) assisting the rehabilitation of offenders and their reintegration into the community as law-abiding citizens through the provision of programs in penitentiaries and in the community.

Guiding principles

The Act also sets out 10 guiding principles for the Service including the following:

1. that the protection of society be the paramount consideration in the corrections process;
2. that the Service enhance its effectiveness and openness through the timely exchange of relevant information with other components of the criminal justice system, and through communication about its correctional policies and programs to offenders, victims and the public;
3. that the Service use the least restrictive measures consistent with the protection of the public, staff members and offenders;
4. that offenders retain the rights and privileges of all members of society, except those rights and privileges that are necessarily removed or restricted as a consequence of the sentence;
5. that the Service facilitate the involvement of members of the public in matters relating to the operations of the Service;
6. that correctional policies, programs and practices respect gender, ethnic, cultural and linguistic differences and be responsive to the special needs of women and Aboriginal peoples, as well as to the needs of other groups of offenders with special requirements; and
7. that offenders are expected to obey penitentiary rules and conditions governing temporary absence, work release, parole and statutory release, and to actively participate in programs designed to promote their rehabilitation and reintegration.

Through the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, Parliament has given the Service very clear legal direction. The Correctional Service of Canada has articulated its values and beliefs in its Mission Document, which has been endorsed by every Solicitor General since 1989, including the current minister, the Honourable Andy Scott, who formally signed the document in October 1997.

The Mission Document Statement sets out the following Mission:

The Correctional Service of Canada, as part of the criminal justice system and respecting the rule of law, contributes to the protection of society by actively encouraging and assisting offenders to become law-abiding citizens, while exercising reasonable, safe, secure and humane control.⁽³⁾

The Mission Document notes that the Mission Statement, though very similar to the statement of purpose in the Act, adds two distinctive ideas. The first is captured in the forceful expression "actively encouraging and assisting offenders to become law-abiding citizens." This means that the Service does not simply administer the sentence but also, at every stage, works with the offender to change his or her behaviour. All policies, programs and activities are directed to that end.

The second idea is that the relationship between assistance and control is dynamic. Through planned programming and treatment, offenders receive appropriate assistance to help them correct their criminal behaviour. This enables them to assume progressively greater degrees of freedom and responsibility. We ensure control by monitoring their behaviour and intervening when necessary. Assistance and control are inseparable, although balancing them correctly is often difficult. Our aim is to assist as much as possible and to control as much as necessary.

Although the Mission Statement gives these two elements equal importance, it mentions assistance first, focusing on working with individual offenders to bring about their safe reintegration. This is a unique feature of our Mission. Control is not less important for being mentioned second, but the degree and nature of the control exercised should support and not hinder reintegration efforts.

It is important to recognize that the vast majority of offenders will eventually return to the community. Except for the relatively small proportion of offenders serving indeterminate sentences, imprisonment in itself is only a temporary public-safety measure. Long-term protection is best achieved through a strategy that promotes and sustains the offender's efforts to reintegrate into society as a law-abiding citizen.

Balancing encouragement with control

Throughout the offender's sentence, during both the incarceration and release phases, efforts of encouragement and assistance are balanced with measures of control, always with the understanding that public safety is paramount.

In late 1996, two significant events encouraged the Correctional Service of Canada to focus more attention on reintegration. First, the Auditor General of Canada devoted a chapter of his fall report to Parliament to this topic, noting several areas for improvement. Second, the Commissioner formed a Task Force on Reintegration of Offenders to study the situation and make recommendations to improve our performance.

Anticipating the extra effort involved in improving the quality of the Service's reintegration work, the Commissioner also restructured and strengthened the national and regional office components responsible for reintegration and other operational tasks.

The Task Force submitted its report in January 1997 and, since then, changes have been made. Here are some highlights:

• Each institution and parole district now has a reintegration manager, who is responsible for coordinating and improving the various reintegration tasks.
• The caseload of individual case management officers in institutions was fixed at 25. All regions have completed the staffing and training required to meet this standard.
• Applicants for case management officer positions now must meet a higher education standard.
• The training program for new case management officers has been lengthened and redesigned, and all case management officers must complete 10 days of professional development training per year.
• Low-risk offenders will receive more of their programming in the community.
• Program referrals are being monitored more closely to make sure that only offenders who require specific programs are referred.
• The speed at which information is obtained from courts and police is now systematically monitored. Improvement in this area is evident.
• More is being done to improve the communication and understanding between institutional staff and community staff.

These changes were implemented to improve the results of offender reintegration. It is now necessary to monitor and measure the Service's progress.

Every offender should be properly prepared to have his or her case reviewed by the National Parole Board at the time when first eligible. "Properly prepared" means having completed all programs and interventions required before release and having had the effects of those programs fully assessed. It also means having completed a detailed release management plan.

While information systems are being developed to measure this outcome, some proxy measures are being used, such as:

• number of releases;
• number of offenders granted conditional releases;
• number of offenders who remain incarcerated past their parole eligibility dates; and
• number of cases that do not proceed to review because essential information is missing.

These proxy indicators show progress. For example, during 1997 more than 2,500 offenders successfully reached their Warrant Expiry Date under community supervision. The proportion of offenders who remain incarcerated past their parole eligibility date, and have not had a previous release, is declining. Thanks to the reintegration managers, fewer cases are delayed because essential information is missing.

Close attention to these performance measures has kept the organization focused on timely case preparation and safe releases.

Other initiatives

Several other important initiatives will soon produce positive results. One of these initiatives arose from staff complaints about the complexity and onerous nature of the policies and procedures that govern how they work with offenders. Staff said that they spend so much time documenting what is happening with an offender that they do not have enough time to work with that offender.

The complexity of the process is understandable. The work is serious, the various deficiencies noted in investigations and inquests must be corrected, and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and its Regulations are very detailed. But the process is too cluttered. Therefore, in June 1997 the Commissioner launched a project to simplify the process and return to basic, good case documentation. This project has already produced some streamlining -- the demand on staff time should be reduced without impinging on the elements essential to good casework and safe releases.

The Task Force on Long-Term Offenders is another of these current corrective initiatives. Approximately 1,700 offenders are now serving life sentences, and several hundred more are serving sentences of more than 10 years. Most of our approaches are designed for the average offender, who is serving a sentence of four to six years and will probably be released after two to three years. Some of these approaches are valid for long-term offenders, but some need revision. We need to consider how to help offenders serve long sentences as usefully as possible. To study this problem, a task force has been formed, led by Warden Ken Petersen of Mission Institute and including experienced volunteers with many years of effective work with long-term offenders and a long-term offender who works with this group as a counsellor.

A third initiative has to do with the use of additional conditions. When an offender is released, certain standard conditions are imposed (e.g., report regularly to a parole officer, keep the peace and be of good behaviour). The National Parole Board may also impose conditions specific to an offender (e.g., abstain from intoxicants, participate in treatment). Should an offender breach any of these conditions, his or her conditional release will be suspended and may be revoked.

Currently, about twice as many offenders have their releases revoked for breach of a condition than for committing a new offence. In many cases, this indicates good supervision; the parole officer intervenes because the breach indicates that the offender is returning to behaviour that is likely to lead to a new offence.

Excessive or inappropriate conditions are sometimes recommended and imposed; for example, not every offender needs a condition to abstain from alcohol. Therefore, the National Parole Board and the Service are revising the policy on additional conditions to ensure only conditions essential to a safe release are imposed.

Effective reintegration requires casework and timely case preparation to achieve safe releases. Effective reintegration also requires using all the resources available, and promptly informing the private sector and volunteer organizations on policies, procedures and rationale that improve the program.

The Correctional Service of Canada is evolving to pursue all avenues toward and opportunities for better, safer offender reintegration.

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1. 340 Laurier Avenue West, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0P9.

2. Corrections and Conditional Release Act, RSC, C-20, 1992.

3. Mission of the Correctional Service of Canada, Cat. no. JS 82-46/1997 (Ottawa: Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 1997).