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Different Populations Different needs

BY Bill Rankin, Communications Officer, Communications and Citizen Engagement Sector

Photo: Bill Rankin

A youthful offender with a 2- to 3-year sentence

There are now an equal proportion of offenders in CSC institutions serving less than three years and those serving life or indeterminate sentences. In the last five to seven years, there has been a steady increase in the proportion of offenders entering the system with sentences of three years or less. Why? It’s due to a combination of factors but mainly to the declining rate of serious violent crimes such as sex offences, armed robbery and homicide in Canada.

On the other end of the continuum are the inmates who will be “inside” for a very long time. They tend to have lengthy criminal histories, including first- and second-degree murder; these are the most serious offenders, in need of careful strategies and interventions to control their behaviour. As they accumulate in the system (more coming in than going out), they take up increasing amounts of space in maximum-security prisons. What will they do with so much time on their hands? How will CSC adapt?

Dr. Michael Bettman, Acting Director General, Offender Programs and Reintegration (OPR), explains that CSC has developed a new generation of high-intensity programs over the last six years. “We are currently adapting to the changing profile by recognizing that CSC’s time to intervene with a certain group of offenders will become more limited in the next few years. We may no longer have the luxury of treating a lifelong pattern of criminal behaviour in a limited sentence.”

As a result, for those offenders who have multiple needs and short sentences, OPR is currently developing a more effective program-referral process that targets the most serious aspects of criminal behaviour first. Program resources are being reallocated so that the higher intensity interventions that focus on serious crime — violence prevention, sex offender programs, substance abuse, and family violence — are the priority.

“We have developed motivational strategies to target those offenders who refuse to participate or drop out of programs,” says Dr. Bettman. “We implemented the Community Maintenance Program to ensure that the progress offenders make is continuous and adaptive to their changing situation.”

In the future, CSC will adapt to the changing offender profile even further. Making the offender intake process shorter and more effective is a challenge that will allow increased time for interventions. Modularizing programs and offering those programs earlier in the sentence will also maximize rehabilitation in a shorter timeframe.

Sharing programs and information with provincial and territorial partners will forge another step towards a seamless correctional system. Working closely with non-governmental partners to deliver programs and provide structured supervision will also extend CSC’s ability to help offenders beyond the limits of their sentence.

Another aim of reconfiguring the programs is to bring them out of the classroom and into the hands of parole officers, social program officers, psychologists and correctional officers. There will be a renewed effort to assist clinical staff in assessing and changing offender behaviour.

“Most importantly as an organization, CSC will measure progress and offender competencies on a regular basis to distinguish those offenders who are capable of managing their risk from those who are not.”♦