Implementing The Life Line Concept: Report Of The Task Force On Long Term Offenders

PROFILE OF LONG TERM OFFENDERS

Current Offender Population
Offender Intake Assessment Information
1995 Inmate Survey
Conclusions

Current Offender Population

The Task Force created a database on all federal offenders serving sentences of ten years or greater. This enabled us to produce the information in this report, but it is also rich enough in data to allow for more sophisticated analysis in the future, and should lead to the regular downloading of data to provide comparisons over time.

There are currently 6825 men and 179 women serving sentences of ten years or more. Tables 1and 2 show the total of offenders by category and the percentage of offenders in the community.

Table 1

Male Long Term Offenders
as of December 3, 1997

Category	Institution	Community	Total	% in Community
Lifers	2338	1104	3442	32
Indeterminate	217	39	256	15
Sub-Total	2555	1143	3698	31
Determinate - 10 years +	2152	975	3127	31
TOTAL	4707	2118	6825	31

Table 2

Female Long Term Offenders
as of December 3, 1997

Category	Institution	Community	Total	% in Community
Lifers	68	54	122	44
Indeterminate	1	-	1	0
Sub-Total	69	54	123	44
Determinate - 10 years +	26	30	56	54
TOTAL	95	84	179	47

Appendix E contains detailed charts showing the distribution of the three categories of long term offenders by region, and comparing Aboriginal to non-Aboriginal populations.

Total Population of Long Term Offenders:

• The 179 women make up 23% of the population of women offenders in the federal jurisdiction. The regional proportions of the total population of women offenders are as follows: Atlantic: 12%, Quebec: 26%, Ontario: 26%, Prairies: 13%, Pacific: 38%.
• On a national level, Aboriginal women make up 12% of the group of long term offenders. The proportions of Aboriginal women within each region are as follows: Atlantic: 11%, Quebec: 2%, Ontario: 10%, Prairies: 35%, Pacific: 11%.
• The 6825 men make up 30% of the total population of male offenders in the federal jurisdiction. The regional proportions of the total population of men are as follows: Atlantic: 21%, Quebec: 35%, Ontario: 32%, Prairies: 19%, Pacific: 43%.
• Aboriginal men make up 10% of this population. The proportions of Aboriginal men within each region are as follows: Atlantic: 5%, Quebec: 3%, Ontario: 4%, Prairies: 31%, Pacific: 14%.

Offenders Serving Life Sentences:

• There is a total of 122 women and 3442 men serving life sentences.
• Nationally, 16% of the total population of women offenders is serving life. The regional proportions of life sentenced women are as follows: Atlantic: 9%, Quebec: 15%, Ontario: 18%, Prairies: 9%, Pacific: 30%.
• At the national level, 15% of all male offenders are serving life. The regional proportions of life sentenced men are as follows: Atlantic: 12%, Quebec: 15%, Ontario: 17%, Prairies: 10%, Pacific: 24%.
• Aboriginal offenders make up 13% of the women, and 11% of the men, serving life sentences.

Offenders Serving Determinate Sentences of Ten Years or Greater:

• There are 3127 men and 56 women serving determinate sentences of ten years or greater.
• The men serving determinate sentences make up 14% of the total federal male population. This proportion for each region is as follows: Atlantic: 9%, Quebec: 20%, Ontario: 13%, Prairies: 8%, Pacific: 17%.
• The women serving determinate sentences make up 7% of the total female population, and their proportion of the total population by region is as follows: Atlantic: 3%, Quebec: 12%, Ontario: 8%, Prairies: 4%, Pacific: 8%.
• Aboriginal men make up 8% of the federal population serving determinate sentences at the national level, while Aboriginal women make up 9% of the female population serving determinate sentences.

Offenders Serving Indeterminate Sentences:

• This group includes offenders classed as dangerous offenders, habitual criminals, dangerous sex offenders and those held under Lieutenant Governors' Warrants and preventive detention orders. Dangerous offenders make up the vast majority of the group.
• In total, there are 256 men and one women. The number of men by region is as follows: Atlantic: 16, Quebec: 18, Ontario: 100, Prairies: 39, Pacific: 83.
• Twelve per cent of this group is Aboriginal.

Community Supervision

• Altogether, 1158 offenders serving a life sentence, of whom 54 are women and 1104 are men, are supervised in the community. Nine per cent of the community group are Aboriginal.
• Life sentenced offenders make up 13% of the total federal population in the community.
• Only 30 women serving a determinate sentence of ten years or greater are in the community, one of these women is Aboriginal.
• Of the total women in the long term offender group supervised in the community, nearly two-thirds are serving a life sentence.
• The 975 men on supervision with a determinate sentence make up 46% of the long term offender group in the community. Nationally, 4% of the men serving determinate sentences under supervision in the community are Aboriginal.
• Only 39 men serving an indeterminate sentence are in the community. The woman serving an indeterminate sentence is still incarcerated.

Institutional Population

• 68 women lifers are in federal institutions. Sixteen per cent of the incarcerated women lifers are Aboriginal.
• Of the over 2300 male lifers in institutions, 12% are Aboriginal.
• Less then 30 women serving determinate sentences of ten years or more are incarcerated. Fifteen per cent of these women are Aboriginal.
• There are over 2100 men serving determinate sentences of ten years or more in institutions. Of these, 10% are Aboriginal.
• Of the nearly 220 men serving indeterminate sentences in institutions, 14% are Aboriginal.

Charts showing the distribution of these groups by institutional security level are also included in Appendix E.

Since the Fall of 1990, when statistics were collected for the completion of the report of the 1991 Task Force on Long Term Offenders, the population of life sentenced and indeterminate male offenders in federal institutions has increased by 26%. In 1990, this group made up 16% of the incarcerated male offender population. Today, this proportion is 18%.

Offender Intake Assessment Information

Analysis of a the Offender Intake Assessment data collected on a group of over 400 life sentenced offenders admitted to Correctional Service of Canada from 1994 to 1996 provides information on criminal risk and criminogenic need areas¹. This group of offenders includes new admissions to the federal system as well as offenders who were re-admitted through revocation of parole.

	%
Previous youth or provincial court charges	77
Provincial incarceration	54
Previous federal incarceration	29
Escape during a previous incarceration	16
Disciplinary segregation during a previous sentence	25

The key problem areas for lifers were more likely to be the family/marital needs domain and the personal/emotional orientation area. Nearly 80% of lifers had completed Grade 8, but two-thirds of them had no high school diploma and three-fifths were unemployed at the time of the offence. Over two-thirds had an unstable job history.

Substance abuse interferes with most parts of the lives of these lifers, half of them reported that their drinking had resulted in law violations, and over 60% said it affected their health. Such problems were less common for lifers regarding drug use.

Although 75% of the lifers had been married or in common-law relationships in the past, 72% were single at the time of admission. Only about four in ten of the lifers had parenting responsibilities.

An analysis was also conducted to determine differences between male and female lifers. Women were much more likely than men to have had little or no previous experience with the justice system. The proportion of men with previous provincial time was 55%, for women, 22%. Previous federal time for men was 30%, and for women, 11%. On the needs indicators, women were more likely to:

• - have no employment history;
• - have had poor sibling relations as a child;
• - have experienced communication problems in relationships;
• - be a victim of spousal abuse;
• - have problematic family ties.

Men were more likely than women to:

• - have been laid off from work, or fired from a job;
• - have many criminal acquaintances;
• - exhibit cognition problems;
• - express negative attitudes to police and property.

1995 Inmate Survey

An analysis of lifers responding to this survey provides some interesting additions to the overall portrait of lifers currently in federal institutions. Approximately 850 offenders serving life or indeterminate sentences responded to the survey, accounting for 20% of the offenders in the survey.

The average age of the lifers was just under 38 years. Lifers had slightly more education than their non-lifer counterparts. Eighteen percent of lifers had less than Grade 8, compared to 21% of non-lifers.

What follows covers answers inmates gave to some questions about experience during the current sentence, comparing lifers and non-lifers. A more complete list is in Appendix E.

• 18% of lifers said they had been charged with a disciplinary offence in the last 6 months, compared to 21% of non-lifers.
• 53% of lifers said they had complained to the Correctional Investigator, while 34% of non-lifers had done so.
• 81% of lifers said they had received at least one visit while at their current institution, compared to 70% of non-lifers.
• 65% of lifers, and 63% of non-lifers, said they were currently waiting for a program identified in their correctional plan.
• Inmates were asked to indicate if their longest waiting period for a program was more than one year, 48% of lifers said yes, while only 29% of non-lifers had to wait this long.

Conclusions

There were a large number of more qualitative data which the Task Force wished to include in this profile, but this was not possible due to lack of time. This includes the offenders' social or criminal background, program needs, employment background, and institutional adjustment. Much of this will be reflected in the research project discussed later in this report, and some of it can be produced in future offender profiles.

It is recommended that detailed profiles of offenders serving ten years or more, including life and indeterminate sentences, be produced on a regular basis, at a minimum every three years.

---

1 Motiuk, L. and Nafekh, M., "Characteristics of Life Sentenced Offenders in Federal Institutions", Ottawa: Correctional Service of Canada, January, 1997